(Newswire.net — January 14, 2015) — Yes, of course, in school we gain knowledge, no argument there. The question is whether or not our school systems are actually doing all that they could be doing.
According to an article on knowledgeoftoday.org, “school is about memorizing what you are told short term and then repeating it. The bulk of how you are graded is by completing daily work. Obedience is, in fact, work force’s most important quality in a worker bee.”
The article further cites some famous thinkers:
“School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is… Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus.” – Ivan Illich, Austrian philosopher.
“When Students cheat on exams it’s because our School System values grades more than Students value learning” – Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator.
“American schools do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don’t give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower.” – Frank Zappa, American musician, bandleader, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer, and film director.
“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” – H.L. Mencken, American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, critic of American life and culture, and scholar of American English.
The article claims that “When children start going to school, not only do they spend most of their day in the classroom, but they start being conditioned to the 8 to 5 schedule which will be the blueprint of their future.”
The whole concept of teaching or tutoring is the ability to remember and repeat as much accurate information as we were told. The level of precise repetition is measured by grades which lead to intellectual and social award or punishment.
The article at Knowledge of Today web page further illustrate the stand citing one of the greatest thinkers:
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and philosopher of science.
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution and technological singularity.
“What are we really trying to do when we think about raising kids?” asked Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg, an expert in adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “We’re trying to put in place the ingredients so the child is going to be a successful 35-year-old. It’s not really about getting an A in algebra.”
“It’s when you say to a child, ‘I expect you to do well in everything,’ that we’re preparing them to fail,” said Dr. Ginsburg said.