Education - It's Time to Break the Rules
When he follows the guidelines of the assignment his writing is wonderful. Unfortunately, he rarely follows those guidelines which I concisely explain to the class. His writing is complete nonsense with no factual support, no structure and no resemblance to any of his classmateís work!
I know, I know. I tell him time and time again that there are certain rules that everyone must follow. Its just a part of life. I donít know how he expects to get by in society that way. No one is above the rules. Its just the way the world works. We must break him of this habit before its too late!î
Yes! you are absolutely correct! There is no place in our educational system for free thinkers like him! What kind of world would it be if everyone let their imagination run wild! Dear god, it would be total chaos! We can not let one student like that one get by or its the beginning of the end of our way of life.î
He must be severely flogged and then subjected to a series of shock treatments to break him of his spirit and then make it clear to him that if any further outbreaks of spontaneous expression occur, he shall be punished accordingly.î
This was a conversation between two of my high school teachers that I overheard. Actually , I imagined it, and, although it may sound somewhat extreme, I think it expresses some of goals of our present educational system. We are all force fed knowledge like it was brussel sprouts and some of us swallow it, although it tastes bad, while others spit it out. It seems like we spend a quarter of our lives in school in preparation to become law-abiding members of a society that is far from perfect. Why is it that so many kids hate to go to school? Has every generation since the beginning of time hated to learn? Is it human nature or could there be something wrong with the present state of education?
Now I do not speak for everyone in my generation, but kids, in general, would rather be out having fun than in a classroom listening to a teacher. Even a good class with an exciting teacher does not beat swimming or a sunset or frolicking in the meadow or eating a banana split.
Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave me the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were
School is a frightening place. It is broken down into multiple social ranks, and many children find themselves at the bottom. With children trying to work their way to the top of the food chain, the actual learning portion is either set aside or forgotten altogether. In Grant Penrod’s essay, Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids, he explains how modern children are growing to dislike intellectual children. The varying social ranks teach children to ignore low grades and try to be popular in school. Anti-Intellectualism is a trend which is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. People who only strive to be popular tend to tease intellectuals, but this is not half of the story. If the only goal children have in school
In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto urges Americans to see the school system as it really is: testing facilities for young minds, with teachers who are pounding into student 's brains what society wants. Gatto first explains that he taught for 30 years at the best and worst schools in Manhattan. He claims to have firsthand experience of the boredom that students and teachers struggle with. Gatto believes that schooling is not necessary, and there are many successful people that were self-educated. He then explains the history and importance of mandatory schooling.
Education is horrible, because people can't have interests. They just listen, not learn. 1.b. To be able to use the. I do not think I'd like to live in this society because it does not allow free thinking, or anything else that makes humans the way they are. There was nothing to differentiate people, nothing to like or dislike about each other.
Once this becomes the norm for teachers they tend to become uninteresting, and students are the ones reaping the consequences. Rose acknowledged this cycle of learning apathy, writing, “But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond”(1989, p.2).
Teachers need to be allowed to teach the students how they want so the lesson plan is more fun and exciting. Boredom is just an emotion and teachers shouldn’t have to feel that because of them, they are affecting the state of mind of students.. Teachers should able to engage the students with their own thought process. Teachers need freedom and should not have to worry about how fast they teach a subject because the government wants it done in a specific way at a specific time. Teachers understand that students all learn differently and many teachers want to help all of their students, but they are stuck in a school system that tells them how they must teach.
In my experience, the majority of my teachers were dedicated and caring people to their work. I previously thought that maybe I had gotten lucky with my instructors in which classes I participated in, or maybe I am a more open minded person than those who criticized our educators. Now I see that teachers are scapegoats for other complications outside of their control. Even if some are no longer of a higher caliber, a reason for the decline could be disheartening caused by their limited resources and general disrespect year after year. The government may not be willing to reverse past changes, but now the system whose purpose is to prepare the children of today to become the adults of tomorrow is being annexed by business behemoths striving for ever greater profits to fill their
As much as adolescents complain about education, we would be crippled without it. The immense freedom we have in America to learn whatever we want is something we should not take for granted. People in other countries fight to learn and to educate themselves as best as they can. People in America just 50 years ago had to fight to learn. Could you imagine living in a world where you couldn’t learn? People all over the world fight for that, because it’s scary to live in a world where you can’t do the simple task of reading or writing. What if you couldn’t read the label on a bottle of bleach? Could you imagine the damage that could cause you, simply because you couldn’t read? We have so much knowledge at our fingertips; museums, libraries, public
To begin, my observation was at Webster Elementary School, a school placed in the city surrounded by houses and other schools. The specific classroom I am observing is full of Kindergarten students who seem to very advanced than I had imagined. The classroom walls are brick and white, but the classroom teacher Mrs. O'Brien does an amazing job keeping the space use for both an upbeat and educational vibe, especially for environmental print. Everywhere you look there are educational posters, numbers, and mental state vocabulary words, as well as, students completed work. To add, students sit in medium sized tables with 4-6 other students when they aren’t having whole group instruction on either
Getting people, especially kids interested in school is the one and only thing that no one has quite figured out yet. If you teach on a project based learning curriculum you take the risk of having kids fall into a lazy slump. If you teach primarily with textbooks and lectures, you run the risk of kids skipping and falling asleep. Is there truly a way of keeping kids entertained while teaching them the necessities? A study done in Lincoln, Nebraska by Laura Parn states “As teachers, we are getting so busy and burdened with the federal, state, and district requirements that we forget to think about the emotional needs of our students. It is not common that we have time to stop and think about what our students want or desire, but according to Damico and Roth (1994), it is necessary for the success and engagement of our pupils”. This proves that the challenges in the educational system need to be seen and acted upon by higher ups before public schools can even think about making a difference. That really does make things exceedingly difficult because we all know how long it takes federal higher ups to make decisions. Laura also says that teachers tend to forget about the emotional needs of students. Which is very unfortunate because when a teacher helps you with a math problem, or eve...
Finally, Holt believes the best thing for children is to eliminate school curriculum altogether. In my opinion, many schools have incorporated many of Holt’s solutions into their curriculum. However, Holt’s illustration of what he believes is a real student is in fact is biased, and often factually incorrect. He fails to see the importance of formal education and instead shames the system that helped lead him to get a degree at one of America’s finest universities. A formal education is a vital part of an independent society. When the people of a nation are well educated, they shape the ways to being
Unlike many students who are excited about the weekend on Friday, and burnt out by Wednesday, these students appear to be the opposite. Most likely these students have home lives, which are filled with neglect, violence, and fear, and school provides a sense of sanctuary for them. I think that these students appreciate the structure and teacher involvement in school, since it is most likely the place where they receive the most guidance and are treated like the children they are. Overall, I think that being at school allows for the students to be children where their lives outside of school require them to be mature beyond their years. The structure of school provides security for these students, a security which they do not most likely get outside of
Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or not we should watch TV or go to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes who, or how drunk someone got over the weekend, but it would be what books were read over the weekend, and what new ideas were thought of. This crave for learning would be an ideal but still suggests need for improvement with the current educational system. It seems that the problem with education is that somewhere along the lines the human race forgot (assuming they, at one point, understood how valuable information is) that learning is not just a mandatory process, but also an opportunity to transcend and open the gateway to a better understanding.
Not every class can be exciting, and we should know that. Now imagine every class is of this level, with no “break”, or elective, classes incorporated into your day. Although this may not apply to all private schools, there are many that focus on specific topics. So even though they are taught more on that subject, there is not much variety in their day.... ... middle of paper ...
Growing up they said that education is the key to life. Without an education you won’t make it very far in life, at least that is what adults preaches. According to Capra "America must acknowledge that education is a public necessity and not a luxury for