Title : The Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
link : The Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
The Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education
by Peter Gray, Ph.D.Waking Times
forced education interferes with the ability of children to educate themselves.
In my last post I took a step that, I must admit, made me feel uncomfortable. I said, several times: "The school is prison." I felt uncomfortable saying that because school is such an important part of my life and the lives of almost everyone I know. I, like most people I know, I went through 12 years of public education. My mother taught in a public school for several years. My beloved sister is average public school teacher. I have many dear friends and cousins who are public school teachers. How I can say that these good people who love boys and poured with passion to the task of trying to help children-are involved in a system of imprisoning children? Comments on my last post showed that my references to school as prison did some other people feel uncomfortable as well.
Sometimes I find, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me feel and others have to say the truth. We can use all the euphemisms we want, but the literal truth is that schools, as they generally exist in the United States and other modern countries, are prisons. Humans within a certain age range (usually 6-16) are required by law to spend much of his time there, and while they are not told what to do, and orders generally Are applied. They have little or no voice in shaping the rules to be followed. A prison according to the common general definition is anywhere involuntary seclusion and restraint of liberty.
Now one could argue that the schools as we know them are good, or necessary; but you can not argue that they are not prisons. To argue the latter would argue that they do not, in fact, have a compulsory education system . Either that, or would a semantic argument in which you say that prison actually means something different from their common definition, in general. I think it is important, in any serious discussion, to use the words honestly. Sometimes people use the word prison in a metaphorical sense to refer to any situation where they have to follow the rules or do things that are unpleasant. In that spirit, some adults may refer to their workplace like a prison, or even your marriage like a prison. But that is not a literal use of the word, because these examples imply involuntary involuntary restriction. It is against the law in this and other democratic countries to compel someone to work in a job where the person does not want to work, or marry someone he or she does not want to marry. It is not against the law, however, to force a child to go to school; in fact, it is contrary to the law does not force the child to go to school if you are the parent and the child does not want to go. (Yes, I know, some parents have the means to find alternative studies or provide home education that is acceptable for both the child and the state, but that is not the norm in today's society, and the laws of many states and countries are working strongly against such alternatives.) therefore, while jobs and marriages in some cases sad feel like prisons, schools are generally prisons.
Now, here's another term I think it deserves to be said aloud: forced education. As the term prison, this term sounds hard. But again, if we have compulsory education, then we have forced education. The mandatory term, if it has any meaning, it means the person has no choice in the matter
The question worth debating is:. Is education and the consequent imprisonment of children in one thing good or bad forced thing? Most people seem to believe that it is ultimately a good thing; but I think it is ultimately a bad thing. Outline here some of the reasons why I believe this, in a list of what I refer to as "seven sins" of our education system forced
1. The denial of freedom on the basis of age.
in my value system, and in that time countersigned by democratic thinkers, it is a mistake to deny freedom to anyone without cause. Stop an adult must prove in a court of law, that the person has committed an crime t is a serious threat to herself or others. However, we incarcerate children and adolescents at school just because of their age. This is the most flagrant sins of forced education.
2. Promotion of shame on the one hand, and pride, on the other.
it is not easy to force people to do what they do not want to do. We no longer use the cane, as teachers did once, but we rely on a system of constant testing, sorting and ranking of children compared to their peers. We connect with it and distort human emotional systems of shame and pride to motivate children to do the job. Children are made to feel ashamed if they perform worse than their peers and pride if better results are obtained. Shame leads some to leave, psychologically, from the educational effort and become class clowns (not bad), or the aggressors (bad), or drug addicts and dealers (very bad). Those who do feel excessive pride of accomplishment low rise to earning honors and can become arrogant, dismissive of the common lot who do not so well in the tests; contemptuous, therefore, values and democratic processes (and this may be the worst effect of all).
3. Interference with the development of cooperation and parenting .
we are an intensely social species, designed for cooperation. Children naturally want to help their friends, and even in school they find ways to do it. But our competition based classification system and classification of students goes against the cooperative unit. Too much help given by a student to another is cheating. Helping others may even damage the helper, raising the grading curve and reducing the position of assistant in him. Some of the students who buy most strongly in school to understand this well; Relentless become achievers. Moreover, as I have indicated in previous articles (see especially Sept. 24 of 2008 ), segregation forced ages that occurs in itself school promotes competition and intimidation and inhibits the development of parenting. Throughout human history, children and adolescents have learned to be attentive and helpful through their interactions with younger children. The graduate school system age deprives them of such opportunities.
4. The interference with the development of personal responsibility and self-direction.
A theme of the entire series testing of this blog is that children are biologically predisposed to take responsibility for their own education (for an introduction, see July 16, 2008, publication ). They play and explore in a way that allows them to learn about the social and physical world around them. They think about their own future and take steps to prepare for it. By confining children to school and other environments run by adults, and filling their time with tasks, we deprive them of the opportunities and the time they need to assume such responsibility. Moreover, the implicit and sometimes explicit message of our system of compulsory schooling is: "If you do what you're told to do in school, everything will be fine for you." Children who buy they can stop taking responsibility for their own education. They may falsely assume that someone else has discovered what they need to know to become successful adults, so you do not have to think about it. If your life does not work so well, they take the victim attitude ". My school (or parents or society) failed me, and that's why my life is upside down"
5. linking learning fear , disgust, and monotony.
For many students, the school generates intense anxiety associated with learning. Students who are learning to read and are a bit slower than the rest feel anxious about reading in front of others. Tests generate anxiety in almost everyone who takes them seriously. Threats of failure and shame associated with failure generate a huge anxiety in some. I have found in my university education statistics that a high percentage of students, even in my college instead elite suffer from math anxiety, apparently because of humiliation who have experienced belonging to mathematics at school. A fundamental psychological principle is that anxiety inhibits learning. Learning is best produced in a playful state, and anxiety inhibits playful. The forced nature tour of schooling learning at work. Teachers even call it work ". You must do your work before you can play." So learn, children biologically crave, it becomes work-something to be avoided whenever possible
6. inhibition of critical thought.
Presumably, one of the great generals objectives education is the promotion of critical thinking. But despite all the talk that educators that goal, most students, including more -Learn "honor students" to avoid thinking critically about their school work is dedicated. They learn that their school work is to obtain a high test score and critical thinking only a waste of time and interferes. To get a good grade, you have to figure out what the teacher wants to say and then say it. I've heard that sentiment expressed on numerous occasions by college students as well as students from high school, in the discussions outside the classroom. I have devoted much effort to promote critical thinking at the college level; I have developed a teaching system designed for promotional articles written about it, and given many talks about it at conferences on teaching. I will dedicate a post or two future on this blog with the topic. But, truth be told, the classification system, which is the main motivator in our education system, is a powerful force against honest debate and critical thinking in the classroom. In a system in which teachers make the classification, some students will criticize or even question the ideas we offer; and if we try to induce classification criticism for it, generate false criticism.
7. Reduction of diversity of skills, knowledge and ways of thinking.
by requiring all school through the same standard curriculum, we reduce their opportunities to follow alternative routes. The curriculum represents a small subset of the skills and knowledge that are important to our society. In this day and age, no one can learn more than a sliver of everything there is to know. Why force everyone to learn the same chip? When children are free as I have observed in Sudbury Valley School and others have observed with unschoolers-taking new, diverse and unforeseen ways. Develop passionate interests, work diligently to become experts in the areas that fascinate them, and then find ways to make a living by applying their interests. Students forced through the standard curriculum have much less time to devote to their own interests, and many learn well the lesson that their own interests do not really count; what counts is what is measured in testing schools. Some get over it, but many do not.
offspring;
This list of "sins" is not new. Many teachers who have spoken are quite aware of these harmful effects of forced education, and many work hard to try to counter them. Some try to instill both a sense of freedom and play like system permissions; many do what they can to silence the embarrassment of failure and reduce anxiety; most try to enable and promote cooperation and compassion among students, despite the barriers against it; many do what they can to enable and promote critical thinking. But the system works against them. It may even be fair to say that teachers in our school system are no longer free to teach whatever they want they are free to learn what students want. (However, teachers, unlike students are free to quit, so they are not in jail).
I must also add that human beings, human beings, especially young, they are very adaptable and resourceful. Many students find ways to overcome the negative feelings engendered forced schooling and focus on the positive. Fight sins. They find ways to cooperate, to play, to help each other overcome feelings of shame, to put undue pride in place to fight the aggressors, to think critically, and spend some time in their true interests despite forces working against them in school. But to do all this while meeting the demands of forced education makes a great effort, and many do not succeed. At least the time students must spend on busywork waste and just following orders in school takes a lot of time they can use to educate themselves.
He listed "seven sins" of forced education here, but I I have resisted the temptation to call the seven deadly sins. There may be more than seven. I invite you to add more in the comments section.
Finally, I add that I do not think we should end schools and replace them with nothing. Children are educated, but we adults have the responsibility to provide the values that allow them to do that in an optimal way. That's the subject of my next post.
About the author
Peter Gray, Ph.D., research professor at Boston University, is the author of free to learn (Basic Books, 2013) and Psychology (Worth Publishers a college textbook now in its 7th edition). He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental and educational psychology. He did his undergraduate studies at Columbia University and earned a doctorate in Biological Sciences from Rockefeller University. Her current research and writing focus mainly on natural forms of children on learning and the value of life of the game. His own work includes research and writing, but also the long-distance cycling, kayaking, back ski woods, and growing vegetables.
** This article was presented in psychology Today . **
"The Seven Sins of Our System of Forced Education", article source: riseearth.com
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