English Essay 1

Cynthia Deo

2/14/15

English 1A

            Has the current education system been failing us? As a student, one always questions on the topic of education and why is it important to each individual. Being an individual in today’s society we spend most of our time going to school and then later on going to work. This cycle continues from generation to generation. Most of a person’s life is spent following routines day after day. The expectation of the current society has changed from creating educated individuals to running the school as a business. The different problems which arises from this situation is the lack of creativity in schools, life is spent as a routine and the lack of communication between teachers and students.

            Each individual is unique in his/her way. Their way of learning may different from other students. The school system pushes these creative minds aside and puts packets and books in front of them and expects them to learn. Alexis Neikirk mentions in the movie Recycling the gift: The Passion Project II that school system are telling us to “jump through all these hoops that would make you a professional person in today’s society? Because once you do this, you get this piece of paper that says you are ready to enter the world”. Is having this paper that important, to be accepted in today’s society? As a student, we are limited to be able to show our creative talents but rather follow the ways of society.

            Going to school should be more than being taught something but it should be a place where learning takes place. If we look at the schools in our society, we have books, lecture notes and then exams. From the tender age of six years old to the age of being an adult, the education system seems to be same. We are noticed in a class if we follow this system, which will guarantee our success in future. Why can’t we bring creative means of learning new things and a steady pace without using a lot of books or packets but having hands on study guidelines? The education of an individual is important to the future of the world. Being educated is like being trapped a cave whereby one only learns what the system seems appropriate. The movie The Cave: The Adaptation of Plato Allegory shows us that the things which we are taught in schools are just shadows and egos which as a student we are not able to comprehend. A world without memorizing and exams becomes unreal. It’s more like “survival of the fittest” in the school environment. Those who follow all these rules and regulation seems to be successful but those who try to experience the education system with their own perspective seem to be less successful.

            Educations seems to be oppressed into students rather than students actually being interested and learning things being taught to them. The author Paulo Freire mention in his article that “the banking concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing information”. The “banking concept” is the system used in the current society where as students we receive information through books and teachers and we have to store this education till the exams. Most of this information is erased after the exams. Why are we learning this concepts if we would not be able to store all this information? The author mentions that we as students are like containers and teachers just fill us up. A student just takes the information, stores it and repeats it back to the teacher. Students are more like machines rather than human beings. Society accepts those who are willing and dedicated to these routines and have perfected them.

            The life of an individual is mostly a routine. Since the day a person is born he/ she follows a routine day in and day out. Sometimes we are not aware of what happens in our surrounding, as the only thought we carry is based around our lives. A child starts going to school at the tender age of six and from then on continues his/her education. Each morning we wake up to go to school and come back home and the same routine becomes repetitive. The education system also has a routine how we all follow. Bobby John mentions in the movie Recycling the Gift: The Passion Project II that “students are just interested about the test. They’ll ask on the first day how many test do we have? It is all questions about the test”. As a student we all know that if we go to school we are going have notes in class than exams to test what we have learnt. It is a routine for all students to have exams and to have a good grade to progress to the level of education.

            Does this routines we follow necessary in our lives? Education can have a different method of teaching procedures practiced in schools for each individuals to be able to learn efficiently. The same routines for schools have not changed even though the technology have advanced. Jeff Andrade Duncan mentions in his interview that “when you walk into schools they look exactly the same in the way they operate and the way they teach and the way they deliver information like they did forty years ago.” Each student nowadays carry a smartphone which has internet and they have abundance of information present whenever they need it. The teaching method of the school system is still following the method of teaching whereby students memorize and thus do exams. Learning can be a revolution. As years have gone by, new ideas of learning has been introduced to the education system. Are this ideas healthy for our society or are these changes hurting us? The speaker Ken Robinson mentions that people in everyday basis do not enjoy what they do but they try to endure it. Most of these people look forward to the weekend as they don't have to go work or school. Only a minority of these people actually enjoy each day of their lives. They might choose a certain profession only because it pays good money or go to school to obtain certain degrees because they parents wanted them to do it. There seems to be limited freedom of choice in today's society. Kids as young as 3 years old are being looked as if they should have accomplished lot in life. Each individual should be given their space to grow and flourish according to their age. Education should be fulfilling people’s spirits not only their minds. Education can also be flexible so that we are able to personalize it to make it interesting and thus bringing joy to our lives. We as individuals should not be kept in the dark but be able to explore our surroundings and expand.

            The ways of life sometimes does not make us realize what we are missing out of life. There seems to so much change and development for the better. Individuals are being educated to be the future of tomorrow but do we have any idea what future holds for us? As an individual what are the chances we will get the career we always dreamt for. David Foster Wallace in his commencement speech said that “The real value of a real education which has (almost) nothing to do with knowledge and almost everything to do with simple awareness”.  There are times where learning is not always the process of being taught by books or lecture notes but by experiences. The experiences of life teaches us how to survive it as it progresses, on the other hand, the education system turns out to be the exact opposite. It is all about memorizing notes but how do much retain for use in our everyday lives.

            Communication is the essence of a better relationship. With the help of communication different types of problems are solved. In the education system there seems to be less communication between the teachers and students thus causing a malfunctioned relationship. There seems to be a one way communication which is mostly the teacher relaying information to her students but there is little to no feedback. Paulo Freire mentions in his article Pedagogy of the Oppressed that “The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them”. The aspect that comes into effect is the right of choice. Students have the right to education and how they can learn more effectively. Teachers should have flexible teaching methods for students. One of the aspects of a good teacher is that he/she should be approachable whereby the students feel comfortable asking those questions for better learning purpose.

            A students spends about six to seven hours in a school. Teachers should be a forum of encouragement to students. In times of doubt or failure a teacher should comfort his/her students and encourage those to learn from their mistakes rather give. This types of behavior is rarely shown in a school system. The main concern for some teachers is their pay checks or lack of resources by the system for those teachers who try to help their students to be successful. The video of Jeff Bliss is an example of how teachers react when confronted about their teaching methods. The teacher just asked him to leave the classroom. Is this how the current education system treat their future? The students of the current generation find it hard to learn if they are just given instructions but told to do things themselves. They need teachers to communicate with them and to be given the opportunity to ask creative questions about what they might be learning. The students of High tech High students follow these creative ways of learning. One of the examples that was given in the video was how they do math by painting. It is creative and the students get to learn by the way they feel comfortable and understandable. Learning subjects like math or physics can be frustrating with the equations and numbers but just being to formulate different ways to learn makes it easier.

            Is education like a business trying to manipulate the minds of students? In some point of our lives we think various reasons of why we are going to school. To be educated for our career and what comes after that. We spend our life going to school, getting a job, getting married, taking care pf kids and then we get old and die. If we think about it, everyone seems to have the same goals in life.  We are always told to do things a certain way and you will be successful. If we do not follow the rules and regulations of society we are considered criminals. Our opinions about life and how we can live it are always taken for granted. In the video we watched in class " Recycling the Gift: The Passion Project II", we get to see different thoughts expressed by people about the education system. Emily Heltzel states that “school’s kind of like in support of a capitalist society". I believe that this is true we are trained to be used by businesses, and thus we pay taxes to the government. We are like machines, manufactured in schools and sold to companies for their productive purposes.

            To conclude, it can be said that generations have gone by but the methods used by schools to teach their students have remained the same. There have been advancements in technology and the way of thinking by the students thus we as students find it hard to be able to learn anything without memorizing. The communication levels between the students and teachers are at a minimum. Thus students find it difficult to be able to learn effectively. The education system is like a business manufacturing students in such a way to be able to be used in the workforce for the future companies. Each year thousands of students graduate but do they all get the job dream of. This is a question that staggers in each individuals minds.