Essay Number 1

Are there other ways to learn that might be more effective than compulsory education?

            Children afraid to raise there hand in class and the chirping of crickets as a teacher stares at the students, which are supposed to be learning from them. This is an all to common sight in today’s day and age. Students afraid to learn from the wrong because they are taught at such a young age to be correct, and being correct is the only way to succeed. In John Gatto’s “Against School” he argues that, “Children learn things not because they are doing something wrong but because they are doing something correct.” Does our current compulsory school system teach students that you cannot learn if you are wrong? Are we doing things correct by teaching out children that being wrong is bad? From a young age every child has heard that you learn from your mistakes, is it true? In school it seems as though we are punished for our mistakes with bad grades and there is no opportunity to redeem yourself even if you are learning from your mistakes.  Gatto also argues that there are many people who have been successful that have not participated in what we would consider a “traditional” schooling. In fact some of the greatest minds in history have been people who don’t seem to fit into the traditional system of school. This raises the question, are there other ways to learn that would be more effective than the compulsory education we have in place today? There has to be other ways for people to learn, homeschooling, private school, alternative and vocational schools, consider even a self-paced learning environment where the tools and materials are provided and you teach yourself.  A stretch maybe but we will see that people have been successful with independent study many times before.  Whatever it is there should be alternatives in place for people who wish to learn different ways.

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            Many people have seen there way through America’s education system and pushed on to receive their degrees from universities across the country but are they educated? Gatto gives an example of people who have been wildly successful without a compulsory education, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. These men by all standards have been successful but they did not receive the education that we are forced to put ourselves through. Had any of us opted out of school at a young age, we would be faced with constant opposition, family and friends would only be disappointed and employers would say that we are undereducated and unable to perform daily tasks. Where did this shift occur? There was no strict education system in America until the early 1900’s, how were people successful before then? It would be ignorant to say that the people of America’s history, who did not have a chance to receive the education of today, are uneducated. It is possible that they learned in just different ways and we have moved away from that style of learning but clearly something besides our 12 years of primary and secondary school works. Is there any reason we should not consider a different style of learning like the greats of the past had? Benjamin Franklin, was not only a founding father of our country but he was also a skilled printer, author, political theorist, postmaster, scientist and inventor. However he would be what considers today a dropout.  The self-paced study that Benjamin Franklin put himself through would challenge most students with a heavier than average load at Yale. But self-paced instruction is not an option. Is it wrong to learn things on your own, clearly the only way to learn cannot be the rote style of learning we receive in our classrooms today.

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Is the Traditional system of learning working? In the sense that it is turning out individuals to the next level of education, yes it is working. But are the individuals that make it through the schooling system educated? This isn’t the first time that we have seen a compulsory system of education, Prussia had one and this raises concern for the future of our “educated” people.  The goal of the Old Prussian system was to, “deny students appreciable leadership skills and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens- all in order to render the population manageable.” If this really is the aim of our public schools, it would be no question as to why we have not realized it, simply because we are being taught not to recognize the pending social problems associated with the constant turn out of individuals form a school system like this. If the population is being rendered manageable, what are we be made manageable for? Are the people of our nation being made manageable, Gatto makes mention of schools raising a horde of consumers and isn’t that we are taught to do? We consume from the same industry we are trained to work in. The reason we are made manageable is so that our work force is constant and that there is no change, because as manageable people we have no drive to become better. While our schooling system may not be exactly the same as the Prussian system of the past our school system definitely has similar flaws, an added flaw may be that the students are divided at young ages and separated into certain groups. What groups are we divided into? I’m sure that we have all seem it through gifted class in elementary school and honors classes in the upper divisions of our schooling.  This brings to mind the phrase, “The world needs ditch diggers too.” This is no way for us to teach our children, instead we should be teaching our children to achieve,  it is the job of the older generation to give the children and students the tools and motivation to be great. The world doesn’t need ditch diggers, the world needs free thinking individuals who can create and dream individually to advance and enhance the lives of all people

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            If you want authenticity you have to initiate it. Its our job to lead and adventure, according to Gatto we should also think critically and independently, we should also push ourselves toward the “grown up” material to really learn. This is the true way to learn and we can see that from the successful people in our past. There are many styles of learning and there should be more than one option.  Ken of “Ted Talks” says we are killing the creativity of students in schools and he could not be more correct. We need to inspire the youth to make the changes to their own education, no longer should we as students be able to say this is boring, if its boring then you aren’t pushing yourself because no one can cure boredom but you and our current schooling system is not pushing us to be involved because there is one right answer. We know that we can learn from wrong and that independent self paced study has been successful in the past but are there more options? Could we let students pursue their own course of study and direct themselves into a profession with which they feel naturally inclined to. Would it be a viable option to let students run free in a building full of the educational material and their peers and learn from each other, with just support from “teachers” rather than direction. Would students still be motivated to learn on their own? There are other options to consider as well, such as keeping the current system and changing our children are evaluated and divided.

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            Going about changing the current schooling system would not be easy and of course face opposition. No one other than the students themselves should dictate how people educate themselves. The compulsory education system in place now has no doubt turned out many individuals who have gone on to great things but is that a result of the education they received or a result of their personal conviction and work ethic? And If that is the case then what is to say that the individuals would not have been as successful in another learning atmosphere. As students, what we can do is strive to be better, this means go beyond the minimum, don’t be afraid to challenge ideas or question. It is our job to have ideas and our job to continue learning at all times and most of all; we all have to start being wrong. That is when the learning will really occur.