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Schooling vs education
Individuality and conformity in high school
Why students hate school
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Why I Hate School but Love Education
It’s funny really, how a system with so much potential can blind us to our own potentiality. Our perception of the schooling method of choice has us caged in a self perceived mental prison slowly poisoning us with skin deep ideas and self doubt. From a young age we are taught, (that is, schooled), to put our grades over our mental needs; we are deliberately declawed and expected to conform into a pre tamed society , and all of this for an unfair attempt at what we presume to be “education”. I know that a part of my resilient adventurous youthfulness has been dreadfully replaced by the conformity that comes along with these cinder block walls, and I will forever mourn.
The kids of our youth have been limited
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Many individuals could provide rigid arguments as to why condoning authority is a necessary foundation for life in prosperity. Without rules, how would we ever reach a point of total productivity? Without rules, what would there be to stop us from total anarchy? For Annalisa Barbieri, an editor for The Guardian Life Style, “obedience is just another word for good behavior” (4). Afterall, my own little pup Bella was sent to a training camp at the start of her arrival. Her lack of compliance made her impossible to live with. From the shoe chewing, to the stealing of clothes, up to the little presents she just adored to leave on the side of my brothers bed, eventually it seemed only logical to have her learn how to obide. The up came back as if brand new. Never again did I have to search for a stray sock. So how bad can the state of submissivity possibly …show more content…
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln; none were products of a school system yet no one could reasonably claim that they were uneducated. . We tend to confuse the word “success” as a codependent factor of schooling but history has continuously proved us wrong. “What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system.”(Lessing 42) Perhaps we only learn how to memorize equations, dates, and names, in order to pass then forget it all in time for another test. Our education system has become survival of the fittest, obstinately forcing you to excel with fear of getting left behind . Instead of coming up with consequences that will scare kids into not cheating, why don’t we begin by asking ourselves why children everywhere see it okay to cheat? Why don’t they want to learn what’s being thrown at them? Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost the moment we step into the four wall confinement that is built to train us rather than inspire
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.
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.
Because the education system does not relate classwork or homework to the lives of students, they do not see how writing essays or solving math problems can help them in everyday life. “By the time Roadville children reach high school they write off school as having nothing to do with what they want in life, and they fear that school success will threaten their social relations with people whose company they value. This is a familiar refrain for working class children” (Attitude 119). As students begin to realize how low their potential is within school, they chose to cut school out of their life and start working. These students do not understand how they can benefit from what they are learning. “One woman talks of the importance of a ‘fitting education’ for her three children so they can ‘do better’, but looks on equanimity as her sixteen-year-old son quits school, goes to work in a garage, and plans to marry his fifteen-year-old girlfriend ‘soon’” (Attitude 118). Students are settling for less than what they can actually achieve to have, just because they see no purpose of being in school, and believe they can do better without the help of the education system. Even parents are not actually supporting and encouraging their child to stay in school. “Although Roadville parents talk about the value of school, they often act as if they don’t believe it”
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
I was placed into a school up to my educational standard, surrounded by students who were not better or worse than me. Yet Gatto might disagree by referring to point four of Inglis break down of the “actual purpose” of the school system: “…children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits—and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best” (3). I need to disagree with the author’s view point on this statement because, it was the perfect environment for me to rebuild my confidents in my educational abilities. Furthermore, because of exceling in my classes, my teachers saw my capabilities and moved me up into higher level of education. If I wouldn’t have been placed in this educational environment, I’m pretty sure it would not have rekindled my desire to pursue onto a track into higher education, of being my personal best, and to allow myself to dream
The human mind is perhaps the greatest object on the earth, animate or inanimate, but without the proper training, the mind is a relatively useless tool. Through the development of formal education systems, humans as a whole have tried to ensure the training of all minds so as to continue prosperity for the world. Most of the time, though, education systems do not realize the harm they are doing to developing minds and the subsequent negative consequences. Among the largest of these inadequate education systems is the American primary schooling system. The American education system is in fact failing; it continues to deplete children of their natural creativity and thirst for knowledge while preaching conformity, which in turn creates an ill-prepared and incompetent public.
The realm of education tends to shine a negative light on younger generations labeling them as menace to society and ultimately excluding them without fair opportunity. Every child is different; some may require more attention from teachers than others. Schools tend to forget this unique characteristic of human life once standardized testing and grading comes into the equation.
Besides the classroom, nowhere in modern society emphasizes learning for the sake of knowledge. In society, the people who receive praise are the ones who did not have a solid education. America has become obsessed with success stories that forgo education because educational knowledge no longer contains any value. American leaders do not make an extra effort to try and fix the failing education system, so if the world powers of America do not care to make progressive improvements for the education system, why should citizens of America even care about the education system? The students in school have picked up on these thoughts and instead of listening to the classroom teacher the students listen to the world teachers. Barber defines these world teachers as “the nation’s true pedagogues, are television, advertising, movies, politics, and the celebrity domains they define.” (Barber, 2014, p. 2.). These leaders have different values than the values set as the standard by the education system. The education system values wisdom, knowledge, critical thinking, and the ability to articulate one’s thoughts and ideas convincingly. While the American system contrasts these ideas: “We honor ambition, we reward greed, we celebrate materialism, we worship acquisitiveness, we cherish success, and we commercialize the classroom. . . We recommend history to the kids but rarely consult it ourselves. (Barber, 2014, p. 4.). This reasoning lays the foundation for the destruction of the school system. Adults do not find value in education, but they encourage their children to try and find value in area the adults do not. Children have caught on to this and decided the absolute best option for them to success is to flee the classroom setting and surround themselves in the world where they can learn firsthand the steps to become successful. The societal influence cultivates children more effectively than the classroom
The education system has been changing in recent years and the same problems that existed continue to get worse as years pass. Problems that were seen as minor at first have now grown. How to change the public higher education system has been a major topic of discussion but there has still been no major action taken. We struggle to figure out how much funding is needed for higher education and where it should come from. Our people continue to suffer from an underfunded high cost system. The wealthy minority of people continue to be the only ones accounted for and it is time to change this. We need to adapt to the changes and the costs that continue to rise. It is time to help the struggling middle and lower classes. I believe that the best
College education goes about the way to an effective future for people who are not kidding with it. Currently, a college education has turned in the base necessity in securing a job in different companies and although some people might think college is not worth the debt, in a long run it actually is.
The United States is a never-ending battleground for issues to fester. We as a group of people seem to only be happy when we are unhappy, and everything is open for conversation of improvement. Others can classify our society’s constant need for change and enhancement, as a curse or a blessing. Nonetheless, the education system in the United States is always a hot topic for people to discuss, as it has not been a success with all of its parties. Yet we strive for perfection as a society and as we do, we look at the groups of people that control the decisions made that influence the masses of students that progress through the system. Who can we blame? Is it the teachers union? Or, are the administrators failing these children? How about the school board? Well if it’s not any of these groups it has to be the government, right?
Education has been a hot topic in every political campaign, top news headline, and teacher’s first thought when they head to their classroom to teach America’s future. The education system is the most vulnerable aspect of a nation. It is the building block for creating successful individuals who dare to dream of changing the world and have the power of doing things people only dream of. A country is only as strong as the weakest link and for America it’s the uneducated. For as long as anyone can remember there has been one thing that the majority of the news headlines, workers strikes, and state questions have revolved around, education reform. Three highly educated authors provide three common overlapping issues that harshly impact the education system in the United States. In the article “Why the United States is destroying
Aside from this many people still argue that there is not a gap in education. Education is fair, america is fair. If a boy living Chicago, well below the poverty line, wants an education he can get it!
Teens today face a lot of pressure. Many students deal with difficult life situations that hinder them from focusing on their futures. This can lead to a loss of interest in school and school events, such as a sports, clubs, or after school programs. Teens start to prioritize other things over their education. Every year, over 1.2 million students will leave school without earning a high school diploma in the United States alone (“11”). That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day (“11”). The United States, which used to have the highest graduation rates of any country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries (“11”). Students may not realize that by dropping out of high school they are more likely to commit crimes, become parents at a young age, use and abuse alcohol and drugs, and live in poverty (“Drop”). Dropouts make up the majority of those
In every school around this country hanging on the walls are posters of great inspiration. They express the significance of what hard work, courage, determination, potential, and rising above and beyond can give a person who has a good education behind them. History books tell of a not so long ago point in time when America had an economy focused on physical labor that produced goods and then turned into a knowledge-centered one geared toward offering services. Looking at American now, one would never be able to guess that for a while education was important. Times changed and it was found that advanced knowledge and creativity was a thing to aspire too. Women fought hard just to be able to have the right to an education. “American politicians and pundits have regularly stressed that education holds the key to the country's future. Everyone seems to agree that good schools are prerequisites for broad economic prosperity, individual social mobility, and a healthy civil society in which informed voters engage in the public issues of the day.” (Mehta)