One of the most consequential aspects of our lives that shapes and defines us as human beings is education. Education is defined as the gradual process of acquiring knowledge. Some consider education just a mandatory task that has been coerced upon them by their parents, while others consider it the principal step in attaining information to understand their purpose in life. Because the meaning of education remains hazy and nebulous, it is imperative to address the true nature of education. The true purpose of education is to develop and transform children into intelligent human beings who will contribute to the establishment and perpetuation of tranquility in society.Education should set a foundation for correct judgment, avoidance of arguments, environmental sustainability, financial prosperity and an ability to think critically and independently to propose wise solutions to problems with self assurance and reliance. There is a vast difference between living and merely existing; hence, education sets the foundation for living an honest and fulfilling life. In order to build a powerful infrastructure engineers must first design a good foundation. Similarly, without good education, children will become vulnerable to ignorance and indifference, which will prevent the innovation of our civilization and the welfare of our posterity.
Education plays a significant role in alleviation of poverty and establishment of economic prosperity. According to Horace Mann, “nothing but Universal Education can counter-work this tendency to the domination of capital and the servility of labor. If one class possesses all the wealth and the education, while the residue of society is ignorant and poor, it matters not by what the relation between them may be called, the latter, in fact and in truth, will be the servile dependents and subjects of the former. But if education be equally diffused, it will draw property after it, by the strongest of all attractions; for such a thing never did happen, and never can happen, as that an intelligent and practical body of men should be permanently poor… if education should be universal and complete, it would do more than all things else to obliterate factitious distinctions in society.” (Mann 124) One who is educated will not confront the trouble of poverty, for he will discover ways to eliminate himself from such circumstances; the abilities he acquired during his education will ascertain his intrepid resistance against poverty. These are the true standards of education which the contemporary United States’ schools persistently failed to meet. Contemporary U.S. schools fail to comply with the true purpose of education by limiting information taught at schools based on socioeconomic status, by preventing students from thinking independently, by employing the No Child Left Behind act and by failing to involve parents and teachers in students’ academic curricula in order to produce vulnerable, ignorant and exploitable citizens to ensure an unquestioned government and to protect corporate interests of its country.
The Essay on Why Should We Care about Child Poverty in the UK?
Poverty is a disease often associated with Third World and developing countries, where the outcome is often death from starvation or disease. Although this extreme form of poverty is rarely seen in the UK, there is a more discreet form of poverty which is taking hold at home in the UK; one which can be attributed to having less money and lower living standards than others in the same society ( ...
Contemporary schools indoctrinate students with unsubstantial information and limiting information taught at school, whereby they ascertain the paucity of knowledge in a student, making him an ignorant and vulnerable citizen. For example, Ellwood P. Cubberly states in his book, “Our schools are…factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned…And it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down.” (Gatto 158) These specifications make individuals slaves of political exploitation. The purpose of the schools is to make sure students age, but not necessarily grow up mentally or spiritually; its purpose rather is to produce rigid materialistic robots. In addition, John Taylor Gatto writes “…Maturity has by now been banished from nearly every aspect of our lives. Easy divorce laws have removed the need to work at relationships; easy credit has removed the need or fiscal self-control; easy entertainment has removed the need to learn to entertain oneself; easy answers have removed the need to ask questions. We have become a nation of children, happy to surrender our judgments and our wills to political exhortations and commercial blandishments that would insult actual adults.” (Gatto 158) The less information an individual knows, the easier it to manipulate and exploit his conscience; consequently, U.S. schools diminish a person’s logic to a level of incompetency to suit their needs, to generate human being whose minds are more preoccupied with materialistic acquisitions rather living benevolent lives independent of governments’ brainwashing; the ultimate consequences of which are mere existence and meaningless life.
The Essay on To What Extent Should High School Students Be Allowed To
To What Extent Should High School Students be allowed to Exercise Freedom of Speech While on Campus I think that nowadays to deal with an issue of students free speech rights is a tough problem for High School administrators. The matter is that students free speech is protected by the First Amendment. Thus it means that students are allowed to exercise free speech while on campus. But what should ...
Furthermore, schools prepare students for a life in the social class that they come from. For instance, Jean Anyon writes, “…public schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes…knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard (medical, legal, managerial) are made available to the advantaged social groups but are withheld from the working classes to whom a more “practical” curriculum is offered (manual skills, clerical knowledge).
(Anyon 174) Schools discriminate quality of education based on socioeconomic statuses, that is, race, gender, religion and family income. The reason to do this is to contain a proletariat social class that will maximize corporate profit and rarely participate in political activities. In addition, Alexander Inglis elucidates the actual purpose of modern schools by writing, “…its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force.” (Gatto 156) A group of people who have been taught the same principles are easier to manipulate; therefore, schools provide teachings that make sure each group of students are taught not according to their knowledge and creativity, but their socioeconomic status. For example, Anyon depicts the style of education given in various schools, “…work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice. The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure or gives it coherence and perhaps meaning or significance…Work is evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” (Anyon 177) Students are taught to follow directions at working class schools to work as clerks or perform manual labor, which does not involve critical thinking or solving problems; it is simply following direction as a worker at a sweatshop does. Those who oppose this fact will be refuted by the fact that the majority of students in public schools are not able to prove the Pythagorean Theorem; they are simply satisfied by just remembering the formula: a2 + b2 = c2. The derivation of the formula does not concern anyone. Similarly, schools train students to follow formulas rather than analyze the importance of it, thus, making them more vulnerable to political and economic exploitation. One such example is the way mathematical operations are performed. In particular, if a student is at a working class school, and a chance strikes miraculously for him to acquaint with system of equations, he most likely will be only taught the step by step simple substitution method, while students at the affluent professional schools will also learn to manipulate elimination and graphing methods, despite the fact that executive elite schools incorporate advanced mathematical concepts of matrices and determinants to attain the answer. The inequality of imbalance of U.S. schools is very disturbing. The purpose of the schools is to conserve the status quo of its corporate entities, to generate consumers and producers which will make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The Essay on The Causes of Stress on High School Students
Ask any high school student what they have in common with other high school students and stress is likely to be on one of the top commonalities. Why? Stress, whether good or bad, plays a major role in life. Stress can be produced from a plethora of situations. In this assignment it will be necessary to limit the focus to three considerably relevant stressors, annoying parents who seem to fuss ...
The Term Paper on Ict in School Education
... reap the benefits of deploying ICTs in school education. Students from rural locations or impoverished communities often ... to extend education to hitherto naccessible geographic regions, and to deprived children and empower teachers and students through information, ... from Governments, the private sector, communities, donors, parents, and students. Schools should be transformed into active learning ...
Another outstanding reason that contributes to the schools system failure in the United States is the paucity of parents’ and teachers’ commitment to educate students indiscriminately. In particular, Gatto states, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teacher’s lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.”(Gatto #) Teachers are bored, for they have been exposed to the same type of education. Also, PayScale estimates that the average annual salary of teachers lies between 39,000$ – 41,000$. (PayScale) This reduces a teacher’s desire to teach. Perhaps if the government were to increase the income for teachers, their proactive approach to education would be established. Parents should inform their children about the benefits of education and must be involved in their child’s education. Kathleen Cotton, states in her book, “Parents can support their children’s schooling by attending school functions and responding to school obligations (parent-teacher conferences, for example).
They can become more involved in helping their children improve their schoolwork–providing encouragement, arranging for appropriate study time and space, modeling desired behavior (such as reading for pleasure), monitoring homework, and actively tutoring their children at home.” (nwrel.org) Parents’ involvement may be imperative in understanding the curriculum that is taught, and prevent their children from receiving fragmented education. If parents discover that their child’s education consists in following rules and procedures without the incorporation of thinking and judgment, they can take measures to alter the education method. Nevertheless, this requires the parent’s involvement in his child’s education.
No Child Left Behind has failed to solve the problems of our public schools. The chairman of Free Congress Administration, Paul M. Weyrich writes, “State test scores may be improving but what has happened is that schools are teaching to the test and have lowered the standards for “proficiency” because so much of their funding relies upon good scores. Whether that means students are learning skills they will retain and use for life is a different matter altogether.” (Newsmax) Schools are funded bases upon their annual test scores. The top priority therefore is to increase test scores instead of students’ knowledge. How is this done? The answer is quite simple; students are taught to guess and eliminate answers. This doesn’t elevate knowledge nor does it teach anything to prepare students for their future lives. Schools have also conceived a way to make sure that students take the standardized tests, by jeopardizing students’ abilities to attain a work permit or add certain classes; thus, violating our fundamental human rights of freedom of choice and speech, which most of the students are not familiarized with due to preposterous standardized teaching. One who might argue that the No Child Left Behind Act is essential in improving our schools and producing good citizens is completely nonsensical, for in order to be a good American citizen, one must first understand the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, until the No Child Left Behind is reformed, one will not see lucrative improvements of our schools.
The Coursework on Building successful parent-teacher partnerships
... usually don’t want their parents in school. In middle and high school, students have to deal with more courses and more teachers in a more ... Anita Gurian, Ph.D. Gurian, Anita. “Involved Parents: The Hidden Resource in Their Children’s Education” NYU Child Study Center. Available: 01 May 2012. Web ...
Contemporary schools have used a “hidden curriculum” to designate students for life in their socioeconomic status, limited information taught at schools, prevented students to think independently and utilized No Child Left Behind in their system to produce corporate slaves and political exploitations. The true concept of education is ridiculed by such practices which are an insult to human intellect. A plausible solution to this problem is for students to take an obligatory role towards their own education. A perfect example is Richard Rodriguez, the scholarship boy, who, despite his parents’ indifference, took control of his own education and became an academic. Although the schools teach students certain curricula, they have no right to restrict students of reading during their own time and thinking critically independently. Albert Einstein taught himself Euclidean geometry completely at his own discretion. Likewise, students have the chance to read classic literature and check out advanced mathematics books to learn at their own time. This way they will educate themselves to a greater extent and become morally positive human beings, independent of exploitation and corporate slavery. No Child Left Behind must be either eliminated or comprehensively reformed to ensure a high-quality education in U.S. schools. Ultimately, the government must take a leading role in establishing an education system which will provide equivalent education for all social classes. These transformations are prerequisites for illuminating improvements of our public schools.
The Term Paper on Foundations In Education Students School Goals
... assignment, participation in adult education programs, student drug use, sale of drugs at school, threats and injuries to public school teachers, and classroom disruptions ... to spend money on education, as long as educators show substantive results. In addition, a study of high-school students ten years after ...
