Education remains a cornerstone for society as it has for decades. Technology advances, the economy fluctuates, and politics change, but education remains, not only important but imperative for personal and social growth. Yet, as important as it is touted to be, the quality and purpose of learning is often lost in the assembly-line, manufactured process of education that exists today.
In a highly structured and economics-driven world, the educational system may be viewed as a machine designed to churn out future workers and employees. Like the fast-food industry, education has been standardized in an attempt to provide the comforts of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. In our aptly named McDonaldized society, aspects as important as quality are sacrificed in lieu of speed and profit. As far as education is concerned, however, this attempt to systemize and order something as complex as learning proves futile and detrimental to the basic tenet of enlightenment.
The standardization of the learning process proposes a simplified, singular approach to providing education to those who can afford it. Limiting material provided and lessons taught, tests, grading, function to create an easily controlled system. “Education” has been transformed and has come to connote “the transmission from a central source of knowledge to passive recipients” (McClellan. Online). However, the question remains whether this definition can actually suffice. The futility of a packaged education is put into context when it is realized that “meaningful learning, deep knowledge, collective wisdom and innovative action do not come from slick, pre-packaged course materials and efficient one-way transmission of information” but rather through the more complex idea called learning (McClellan. Online).
Unfortunately, the purpose of the education system, as seen in most institutions of higher education, is in fact to instill in people the notion that they are incapable of learning. The standardization of education highlights the underlying assumption that people “cannot learn without a pre-determined set of institutionalized options forced upon them” (Kyhall. Online).
The view of education as a commodity, rather than a means for intellectual, spiritual, or interpersonal growth, results in most educators and teachers offering st...
... middle of paper ...
...onal and social growth.
The cost of McDonaldization is clear. In terms of standardizing education, the model is “anti-diversity, anti-creativity, and anti-democratic” (Kyhall. Online). As a whole, the consumption of the simple solution called education will not solve the problems. The modern world is much too complex to be solved in a single approach. Furthermore, education creates danger in the world by devaluing learning and dehumanizing people. Learning cannot be confined to formal allotments such as school or colleges, and in our changing times, it becomes even more imperative that education be not a product to sell but a tool to enlighten, a means to promote growth rather than division. This is the true purpose of education. And it does not come pre-packaged.
Works Cited
Gidley, J. and S. Inayatullah. Youth Futures: Comparative Research and Transformative Visions. (2002): 34.
Kyhall. "The McDonaldization of Education" 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
http://fundamentalsofsoc.edublogs.org/2012/11/15/the-mcdonaldization-of-education/
McClellan, Jock. “Metaphors, Words, and Models of a Wiser World.” The Swaraj Foundation. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
The U.S educational system’s purpose is to control the minds of its students that will be the future leaders of the country. Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded clothes and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majorities of people have a great role in the capitalistic society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38).
Juveniles are being taught that in order to have a nice car, branded cloths and the house of their dreams, by getting into an expensive mortgage, they have to be an employee of a huge corporation. In addition, they have to undergo to a prestigious school, study hard, have excellent grades in order to become popular and respectable in the world. However, many people would not become those super leaders, but these majority of people have a great role in the capitalism society of the US. As Gatto says, “We buy televisions, and then we buy the things we see on the television. We buy computers, and then we buy the things we see on the computer. We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” (38). Such results are in part of a wrong education that teenagers have received trough many decades. In addition, Gatto highlights that modern educational system has been working in a six basic functions methods that makes the system strong and unbreakable: The adjustable function, indulge students to respect authorities. The integrating function, which builds the personality of the students as similar to each other as possible. The diagnostic and directive function, which allows a school to set permanent scholar grades in order to determinate his or her future role in society. The differentiating function, which gives to the student a good education and after his or her role is diagnosed, they prevent any educational progress. The selective function, function that the system has used to prevent academic growth for the non-selected students. The propaedeutic function, which works in the selection of specific groups of intellectual adults to keep perpetuating the system all over again making it a continuous sequence. (Gatto 34). Gatto’s facts revealed the survival of the educational system for decades,
It’s no surprise that there are faults within our schools in today’s society. As both authors’ point out if our educational system is
Louis Menand, a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University presented three different theories for higher education in an article for The New Yorker named, Live and Learn: Why We Have College. Menand (2011) claims that the reasons for college are meritocratic, democratic, and vocational. These theories are great models for the purpose of higher education in our culture, at different points in our history. As a nation, there are definite intentions behind the way that instruction is conducted in our colleges and universities. The techniques adopted by institutions of higher education are no mistake and they are designed to serve a purpose. These methods evolve with time and shape the way that generations think and reason. In our generation, the purpose of higher education in our culture is to sustain the nation atop of the worldwide economy.
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.
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.
Kessler’s points are accurate. I choose this topic because I can remember countless times that my mates would question the relevancy of the information being taught to them. This is an opportunity to illustrate that this irrelevancy is the reason for high college graduate unemplo...
Studying a university degree is one of the biggest achievements of many individuals around the world. But, according to Mark Edmunson, a diploma in America does not mean necessarily studying and working hard. Getting a diploma in the United States implies managing with external factors that go in the opposite direction with the real purpose of education. The welcome speech that most of us listen to when we started college, is the initial prank used by the author to state the American education system is not converging in a well-shaped society. Relating events in a sarcastic way is the tone that the author uses to explain many of his arguments. Mark Edmunson uses emotional appeals to deliver an essay to the people that have attended College any time in their life or those who have been involved with the American education system.
Its principal means of attempting to objectify its morals are realistic planning — including deadlines, schedules, and objectives— documentation, laws, and regulations, irrespective of its ethical content. Our education system is flawed and outdated, failing to meet the international criterion of our world every day. A traditionally-educated student is not given enough time to learn the limited amount of subjects taught and do not develop a desire to learn. In light of the current situation regarding the education system, there is still hope for students today. An alternative to traditional education, unschooling allows students to use their natural learning abilities, discover and explore more subjects not typically taught in schools, and ignite a genuine, authentic interest to learn. The advantages of unschooling far outweigh its disadvantages, making it the better option for education. Education leaders continue to discuss reforming the present public education system. Instead, they must deliberate about how to replace it. I urge you to take a stand. Start off by writing a letter to your local lawmakers expressing your wish to help students’ education. Share your ideas with a friend. It is not important where you begin, so long as you
In Louis Menand’s “Live and Learn: Why We Have College” he discusses his three theories about the purpose of higher education. The first theory says “college is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test”(57). This meritocratic theory is saying that “society wants to identify intelligent people early on … to get the most of its human resources” and college is the machine that does the sorting (57). The second theory, the democratic one, claims the point of college is not to pick out the elite. Rather, the point is to “expose future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them” (58). The third theory explains how “advanced economies demand specialized knowledge and skills, and, since high school is aimed at the general learner, college is where people can be taught what they need in order to enter a vocation” (62). All three theories have their
In conclusion, education is broader than just falling into what the contemporary school system has to offer. Both Gatto and Graff proved this by explain how conforming students to certain perspectives of education limits their potential in other educational branches that interest the students. Also, curricula should bring a balance between making a school a place for obtaining information, and accommodating the educational demands for each individual student. It is imperative to understand that reforming the academic system, by fine-tuning schools to have its students learn what exactly they are interested in, will lead to having students accessing their full intellectual potential.
This education revolves around key subjects such as “calculation, geometry, and all the preliminary education required for dialectic” (Plato, Republic 208). Although the American education system has re-organized these broader subjects into more specialized ones (math, reading, writing, history, art, music, etc.), the premise remains the same. These courses are to teach us the materials necessary to become educated citizens. It is interesting to note that under the main principles of a liberal democracy, universal education also plays a key role in self-agency. However, within both Plato and Aristotle’s definition and that of a modern-day democracy, there are certain nuances in “universal” education. In the U.S, stories of individuals who dropped out of college and are still successes in society while other individuals who worked hard to get through school to graduate and become leading surgeons are often recounted many times as the quintessential “American” stories. Similarly, according to Aristotle, “education too must be one and the same for all… but it is evident that they should not be taught all [of the same tasks]” (Aristotle, Politics 228). This is because some individuals who do not require certain skills outside of their natural occupation would only be burdened and enslaved if they had to learn these tasks. Therefore, based on their
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.
What the system fails to realize is that all minds are created differently. Davidson blames our failure rate in contemporary education on the ‘one-size fits all’ mentality. When she proclaims, “ — as we narrow the spectrum of skills that we test in schools, more and more kids who have skilled outside that spectrum will be labeled as failures.”, she is speaking out for the children who may not excel in a specific course but still have great potential in something else (Davidson 61). In today’s society it is crucial that high school students further their education into universities. Otherwise, not getting a degree will lead to not getting a job or stable career. However, institutionalized education does not have to be completely terminated. It is completely necessary for all children to receive an education for a basic understanding for necessities in life. Yet, there should be a certain age limit as to how far the education system can go. Instead of having standardized test approaches, like the SATs, that expel students who do not qualify to a certain ranking, it should be allowed to take a test to identify who you are as a person. In today’s society, we allow numbers to define who people are. Numbers are the first thing colleges see when potential students submit their applications. They review aspects such as GPAs, SAT scores, and class ranking to
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.