Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Public vs private schools
Effects of proper school uniform policy background study Introduction
Effects of proper school uniform policy background study Introduction
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Public vs private schools
Public education customarily has two main goals in assisting in the development of the minds of children. These goals are helping students to cultivate personal fulfillment and shaping them into model citizens. These conflicting goals are often a subject of debate as personal fulfillment requires individuality while becoming a contributing member of society demands conformity. While the design of public schooling may stifle the development of a student’s individuality, it can be essential in maintaining a student’s prosperity. Beneficial aspects of conformity in school that contribute to a student’s success include mandatory attendance and standardized testing. Despite the sacrifices in encouraging growth as an individual, public education …show more content…
Standardized testing allows schools to determine how much knowledge students have truly absorbed through the education system. Source C is a book cover illustration designed to inform teachers and parents how to prepare young children for testing in kindergarten. The picture supports the idea that preparing children for testing is an important feature of their experience at school as it readies them for future success in their career (Source C). The testing system in public education enables schools to track the progress of their students and discover whether the students are capable of comprehending the material or not. If it is apparent that the students do not have a firm understanding of the subjects taught in school, the school is prompted to improve the teaching methods or focus more on concepts that students have difficulty learning. Moreover, consistent evaluation of progress through standardized testing will help students become productive members of society because it allows them to develop the essential strategy of conducting preparation before a difficult task. In this area of education, conformity is evidently key to success since if the test is standardized for all students, every student will have an equal opportunity to have their skill and knowledge clearly reflected in their performance. Source G is a paragon of a list of student expectations of behavior. The document similarly informs students that they must “accept responsibility for their learning,” signifying that students should learn to the best of their ability which will aid their accomplishments in standardized testing (Source G). Assessments are inherently beneficial since they provide students with the results of their labor and inform them of areas in which they require improvement. Recognition of faults and self-improvement are important skills that students will utilize later in their lives as adult
The persuasive essay, “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Healthy MIddle,” discusses, how there maybe a difference but maybe it is 50/50. He discusses and argues about where is the middle. In addition, he believes that people want to fit in but be different. The author supports her argument by justifying and defining about how it is human nature to want to be liked. In addition, to that people have a feeling of liquid fire going through there veins which is the natural feeling of someone feeling there need for individuality and people want to attain the status. The authors purpose is to persuade the readers, specifically high school students in order to show the healthy middle between conformity
Labaree discusses how the United State’s education is in a school syndrome, as people in America want schools to teach society’s ideals as well as let people express their individuality. These two demands are polar opposites that cannot be achieved. As the focus goes towards balancing these in hopes of improving society as a whole, the bettering of actual student learning is put on pause. Labaree talks about the beginning of education reform, in the 19th century, being the most successful in developing society; however, as education reform continued throughout time, its effectiveness wore off. He then addresses how the desire for education reform is more about improving society than it is about learning. He finishes his argument by providing possible solutions to fixing this problem, but states that fixing this problem will never happen because no one is willing to give up both demands. Overall, Labaree goes in wonderful detail explaining the problems of education reform. What made me choose this article was that he addressed the desire that people have on school systems in promoting both society normality and individuality. This correlates well with my topic in whether public school systems promote conformist ideals or individuality.
Many Americans do not question the credibility of the education system within the country because they believe it forms good citizens and creates a stepping-stone to success. John Taylor Gatto is an American teacher who has experience in the classroom for thirty years and has now devoted his life to critiquing American schools exploiting his own experiences. In his essay “Against School”, he argues that the 12-year system of school may not be necessary, due to its curriculum, and that it may be a tactic of manipulation from the government to promote obedience. I agree with his argument because there are many paths to individual success outside of public education, such as homeschooling or vocational school.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
It was the first day of school. I was eager to see most of my friends who I went to middle school with. There was one big thing that struck me; I noticed my friends changed. They started dressed differently, acted differently, changed their hair style, and even started wearing makeup. Since the transition fresh out of middle school and into high school, my friends wanted to look older. The biggest factor that bothered me was how they would conform to look like the sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I felt that my good friends wanted to conform and be something they weren’t. In my personal view, Americans in general want to feel mature sophisticated but also want to have fun. Individuality is essential because it allows people to express who they are as an individual. When people express themselves differently and in their own way, they elucidate uniqueness and universal truth. Values in American culture can contradict with family, fashion, and the workplace.
Conformity is defined as the occurrence of people yielding to social pressures as a result of pressure from a group of their peers; when faced by the pressure to conform, people will alter their behaviour and actions to fit the norm demonstrated by their peers (Lilienfield et al., 2012). Conformity is studied so that is can be understood and used in society to facilitate positive outcomes, and help avoid situations where peoples’ predisposition to conform leads to negative consequences (Lilienfield et al., 2012). By understanding conformity and other social processes society as a whole is able to understand themselves better and motivates them to work on improving as a whole (Lilienfield et al., 2012).
As people socialize, they create interactions whose products are influential to act back upon the people to determine or constrain actions. Moreover, social interactions may be likened to a theatre whereby people are the actors as the rest of the people are the audience. These other people actively observe the role-playing and respond by reacting to the performances. However, people’s behaviors tend to change when they are alone as they get rid of the roles they play in front of others.
No one in the world is exactly alike; everyone has different interests, dresses differently, thinks differently and learns differently, not even identical twins are the same. Yet, in our schools systems today, the sense of individuality is being destroyed in the students, even with the two goals aimed at better individuals as well as the society they live in. Public schools are trying to conform everyone to learning the same way and thinking the same way, resulting in multiple adolescents falling behind. From elementary school to high school, adolescents are always being told what to do and how to behave. Whether it’s by their parents at home or the faculty at school, everywhere they turn they are being forced to conform to what others expect from them.
As an individual stuck in a foundation known for its propensity to breed social congruity, college has opened my eyes to numerous distinctive reasons why individuals decide to act in ways they wouldn't normally act. Since they are not certain of their identity, adolescents are more inclined to conformity than others. In its most basic form, college is plagued with conformity through the stereotypes that learners pursue and experiment with in an attempt to uncover their identity. There are two types of conformity: the kind that makes you do your tasks when your father authorizes you to, and the less than ideal kind in which you blindly follow the ideas and rules of a clique or group, without questioning the negative effects it has on yourself and the development of public opinion. Conformity is critical in that people strive for a sense of strength and acceptance in their lives.
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the No Child Left Behind Act, and how the accountability of testing subgroup provisions may play a major role on the responsibilities of a student’ education. The paper also focuses on what information parents are receiving to actually know how their student(s) are performing in class and whether each student’s performance is within state compliance with NCLB.
As President Obama exclaimed, “When students don’t walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma” (Source 2). If the age requirement is raised to 18, students will believe that only a couple of months is needed to succeed and receive a diploma. Effectively, it increases the adolescent's choice to graduate. Paul Leather proclaims, “What it does is it sets the moral imperative so that students, parents, educators become committed to the idea that the student will infact graduate” (Source 2). The dropout age requirement can not only motivate young adults but the teachers and parents too. The extra motivation from the groups may be enough to push children through high school. Whilst school is a proven avenue to betterment, children may have obstacles that might persuade them to
In this paper, I will discuss standardized tests after the No Child Left Behind Act and whether or not they are effective in achieving the goals for which they were implemented. Standardized tests have been around a long time, but their use greatly increased after the NCLB Act required annual testing across the country. I will research the initial goals of these tests as well as statistics that show whether or not these goals have been achieved. Many scholars believe that standardized tests do not offer a fair or accurate measure of students or teachers’ true abilities. They argue that these tests do more harm than good in relation to the extreme pressure they place on both the students and schools as a whole. Another argument against standardized
While studying or even registering for a class presents a challenge to some college students, the greatest obstacle remains, going to class. Attending college is supposed to signify a new found freedom to make many important choices regarding education without high school mandatory attendance policies. However, students everywhere are coming to the staggering realization that college is not too different from high school. Teachers still take class roll and students are still expected to be at every class on time. What next, hall monitors in the hall? The time has come for action to be taken. Colleges must abolish mandatory student attendance policies for several reasons to be further discussed.
Should schools promote conformity or individuality is the question at hand. Schools do lots of things people question ocassionally, so lets try to debunk this one.
Mandatory attendance in a university has always been a vastly argued subject among academic. Numerous students want the freedom to decide which classes to attend, while university authorities assert students must attend classes and preserve a basic discipline. Several studies were performed carefully studying each viewpoint in the hope of replying the problematic and selecting which viewpoint to execute. This literature review will answer the inquiry: should attendance policy be compulsory or not by first discussing the synthesis of those who support mandatory attendance policies and then proposing the views of those versus the subject and have a negative attitude by analyzing some articles about the topic.