Philosophy

Education’s Impact on Individualism

Julie Melnyk - Student

Jun 5, 2017 · 4 min read

Educational purpose of each individual student is to grow and develop into the most successful they can be. The American education system challenges individuality yet is needed to expand knowledge in our students.

Education, on a specific scale, is given to students who stare blankly back at teachers who drone on about semi-useless topics, they most likely have no interest in. The blank faced students all are the same. The education system has rigged them all to act, think, and talk the same.

The social normality of a student is to wake up bright an early, before our biological clock even has a chance to cope, maybe down a few cups of coffee if time allows. Then drag themselves into whatever transportation is available to conduct them to school. After about seven hours of brain draining work, they maybe have the chance to participate in sports, clubs and activities after classes. The daily grind leaves little time to hang out with friends like an average kid could do, impacting social connections. When the days over, students are exhausted. Education can be good if enforced upon children effectively however if not, can result in negative consequences for both the student and teacher.

Talk to almost any American student and they’ll say “School is prison”. But maybe not like that exactly because they’re too polite. Or they’ve already been brainwashed by the system to think that school is their second home. Students are made to tiptoe around the idea that school is prison, to be careful what they say. Ironically in both school and prison, the inmate must comply to all rules or face consequences if broken.

In America, children are given the opportunity to attend school for a public education. Being educated, even on simple theorem is a gift not everyone has access to. Yet our students still cannot fathom a likeable idea of school.

The task is to find out why students whom given the opportunities they have, the ability to be so lucky to hold an education, start to loose the drive to further their education. Why don’t kids like school? It’s not because they’re taking the education system for granted but that the system is taking our students for granted.

The system does this by never getting a full understanding of their student’s cognitive principles. They don’t learn what they like or what interest them. The education systems assumes they can find one way to morph their students early on in education so that they remain easily teachable for generations.

Education, defined by Google, is an enlightening experience. The broad term leaves room to discover and explore all ideas and expressions, without limitations. However on a smaller, more local scale, education to students is just simply learning to learn. Learning the same concepts and ideas as the generations before. Learning skills, that each student poses, forming that perfect, cookie cutter student.

The skills we gain as students do not vary. The skills taught in English class are the same taught in History, even Algebra. It is all based around the idea of problem solving. Find the problem, identify it, think about it for a few, then solve it. But when every student is taught the same skills, there is no room for variation or creative work to strive. Not to bash the skills taught in school, because they are important to be taught no matter the level of intelligence a person has. However students are never encouraged to go at the problem their own way, discover a way that works for them as an individual.

The example of the five paragraph essay model demonstrates this. From a young age, students are forced to write with only five paragraphs, if they go beyond, they do not meet the standards and could flunk just for a creative risk. The essay model makes all students write the same. Sure this is great when it comes to time constraints, like getting 100 papers graded by a deadline, but it limits creativity. Teaching methods do not stimulate innovation