The Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of Our Education

Introduction

Today, most of our schooling emphasizes theoretical subjects, which are of little use to learners. Additionally, the institution of the firm’s requirements for many programs do little to inspire the expected capacity to flourish. Every industry is updating its methods and making its products according to modern transformations; however, educational methods are the same. John Taylor describes our current education system as crippling our children, and the purpose of this is to nurture the students without appreciable leadership skills in order to manage the population better. Another deep effect of education is self-confidence and self-assurance, according to David Sedaris appreciation and encouragement of students is essential to boost the faith of learning and achieving new goals. Education is not just a degree to secure a job but a light in the darkness to show the right path as Frederick Douglass described it a source of salvation. To improve our educational system, reforms in teaching methods, textbooks, and educational systems are necessary.

Discussion

Applied and dynamic education is always more active than passive education, for students have practice in what they study. It is annoying when a professor cannot respond to the query since “it’s not on the spec.” However, in humanities, students are asked to read about the topic, widening their vision in areas that interest them. As a matter of elementary standards, everybody wishes to ensure good performance. But unless the inspiration can be found, there is less chance of this. Teaching should be thought-provoking and stimulating for a learner in order to absorb knowledge and have fruitful results. Schools often reject the idea of fun education and make everything so boring that students find it hard to focus on learning and consider it stupid to learn about things they are not going to use in life (Engagement et al.).

John Taylor Gatto, having thirty years of experience in teaching, states the learning process in school is boring. Not only students but also teachers have become experts in boredom. Teachers are not willing to learn more about their subjects or modernize the method of teaching. Students have low energy and consider compulsory school programs a burden. When stating the responsible entity for this border, John said, “My grandfather taught me that. One afternoon, when I was seven, I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again and that if I was bored, it was my fault and no one else’s.

The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainly not to be trusted. That episode cured me of boredom forever, and here and there, over the years, I was able to pass on the lesson to some remarkable students. For the most part, however, I found it futile to challenge the official notion that boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs in the classroom. Often, I had to defy customs and even bend the law to help kids break out of this trap.”

John argues about the need for school and forced schooling with a tight schedule for ten years. It’s almost like training a special unit of people with less thinking and more obedience towards the system. We could inspire the finest talents of youth – inquisitiveness, exploration, elasticity, the capability for astonishing awareness – just by being more flexible about tests, texts, and time, by presenting children to actually skilled grownups, and by providing each schoolchild what independence he or she wants with the intention of taking a risk from time to time. He said our school systems are designed to make sure we never grow up (“Against School – John Taylor Gatto”). I agree with this claim because I think every individual has a role in society, and it’s different from the other. When we derive a formula and apply it to a whole bunch of different students, we suppress the individual identities of students. It is like a factory where raw materials of different natures are molded to form identical products. In a paper on how public education cripples our kids, John explained the conspiracy in our educational system to build a society that is manageable by the authorities because they still don’t know how to handle educated men and women.

The purpose of school is to make good humans and citizens and discover the unique genius of each one of them. To fulfill this purpose, our educational system needs reforms in terms of teaching methods and updating the knowledge in technology. When we talk about reforming teaching methods, the first significant change we need is passionate teachers who are willing to bring out the best in the students and encourage them to learn new things. For a child, encouragement is like medicine to keep him or her going on difficult paths to achieve something. Genius is not something very rare, but teaching methods often suppress the inner genius of students by doubting them constantly (Reynolds, David et al., 1996). David Sedaris wrote about the struggles he experienced during his French class in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day. He stated the French language lessons felt like a revenge session from the teacher. Constant discouragement from the teacher encourages him to work harder, but it seems impossible to please the teacher. In my opinion, it is positive to pressure students to make them bold and confident, to the degree that this pressure should not exceed the limit of student patience and make them exhausted to the level of disinterest in learning (Silverman, 2017).

Education is now insurance for a good job, and our systems are producing employees instead of scholars and philosophers. When we put a full stop to the creativity of the student by saying it is not part of our course and firmly follow the examination routine, then we are producing students who only care about grades and probably have cell phones smarter than their brains. The main reason I believe students are disinterested in their studies is because they think less and follow a specific course throughout the year. When we don’t tell them the importance of what they are learning, they are not going to take an interest. When I read Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass, it reminded me of the importance of awareness, knowing why it is important to learn something, and what the purpose of all this is. When Frederick realizes he is going to be a slave for life and there is no salvation from it without the knowledge because slavery and knowledge are incompatible, he tries everything to learn how to read and write, from seeking help in the streets to practicing writing notebooks he got from his master’s room.

Confined walls, old textbooks, and low-energy teachers need to change if we want to enjoy the true essence of education. Designing a smart syllabus that regulates the student’s speed and produces a custom study path for each student. Take a keen interest in finding new and fun ways to deliver a concept. Bring light on the importance of the topic by relating it to examples from daily life. Encourage students to perform better and keep parents in the loop.

Works Cited

“Against School – John Taylor Gatto.” Wesjones.com. N.p., 2018. Web. 19 Mar. 2018.

Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape From Bondage and His Complete Life Story. e-artnow, 2018.

Engagement, MeTEOR et al. “What Factors Make A School Effective? – The Edvocate.” The Edvocate. N.p., 2018. Web. 19 Mar. 2018.

Reynolds, David, et al. “School effectiveness and school improvement in the United Kingdom.” School Effectiveness and School Improvement 7.2 (1996): 133-158.

Silverman, Marc. “Introduction.” A Pedagogy of Humanist Moral Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2017. 1-18.