FREE ESSAY ON PROBLEMS WITH EDUCATION

PROBLEMS WITH EDUCATION

Problems with Education
Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What
we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere
we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while
solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or
not we should watch TV or got to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we
are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we
know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a
degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes
who, or how drunk someone got over the weekend, but it would be what books were read over
the weekend, and what new ideas were thought of. This crave for learning would be an
ideal but still suggests need for improvement with the current educational system. It
seems that the problem with education is that somewhere along the lines the human race
forgot (assuming they, at one point, understood how valuable information is) that
learning is not just a mandatory process, but also an opportunity to transcend and open
the gateway to a better understanding.
One of the biggest problems with education is that it is poisoned in the way people view
school. Some common phrases among students are that "school is boring; school is work."
Theses attitudes have a direct effect on the effort that students put into their studies.
One will obviously work harder when they aren't bored with the task. There is a
difference between hearing and listening and if students approach school as something
that they see as boring and stressful than that student will only be hearing what the
professor is saying. They may show up to class but this does not mean that they are
necessarily there to learn. If school were fun than students would enjoy learning and
thus, would learn more since it would be an enjoyable activity. School is just like a
sport or a book in that if the book is well written and enjoyable than there is more
incentive to read it, just as someone will put more effort into a sport that is fun than
a sport they don't enjoy. If school were fun, than students would strive to learn more. 
School is also a mandatory process. Students are somewhat forced into a relationship with
education and just go through the motions because that is what they need or have to do,
not what they choose to do. School is also coercive, disciplinary and taught by many
unmotivated teachers, so school being mandatory is just icing on the cake. Teachers and
the school system completely control the way things are run and leave little room for
students to do things their way. Teachers control what they teach, how to teach, how to
discipline, what is assigned, etc. Students need to have more of a say in the way things
are run since they are the majority. More freedom in decisions would create a more
comfortable environment and students would thus have an easier time learning. There is
also stress on a lack of communication since school is coercive. It is hard to reach a
person if one doesn't have a relationship with that person, and one way to deal with this
is through addressing the students to hear their ideas and views on what direction should
be taken. School is very similar to an oligarchy where the faculty is the monarch and
students are the populous. It should be more of a democracy where all the students have a
say in what happens, but how often is there a vote as to class and school decisions? The
current curriculum is one in which a teacher says "jump" and a student responds with "how
high." And if a student responds with anything different, than they are reprimanded or
punished. 
Three are many aspects of school that are unhealthy to a students life that many teachers
don't see and so these problems going unnoticed, not only affecting a students learning
capability but it also hurts the way they are outside school. An example of one of these
aspects is grading. Grading and the fears of failure can haunt a student and severe cases
can cause a certain depression. Even if a student is putting forth maximum effort, they
do not always get the results they want. Falling short of one's expectations may cause
them to give up and put less effort into their schoolwork because they may believe it is
a lose-lose situation. The grading system is just one of the many aspects that makes
school a hostile environment. There is also a lot of pressure to succeed and this may be
very overwhelming to students. By chance a student may, on short notice, find himself or
herself with a load of schoolwork that leaves little time for other priorities like rest
and an active social life. Students with weary eyes, and no energy show this lack of rest
day in and day out of classrooms. This lack of energy in turn, due to an overly demanding
workload, can cause a lack of motivation because they become so exhausted that they
aren't capable of doing anything and so they just don't. There are also many social
pressures among peers as well. Conformity and popularity issues often go unnoticed by
teachers. This again can be solved with better communication between faculty and
students. How is a student supposed to learn if they are over their head coping with such
a hostile environment?
Education is also expensive (unless public and state funded). This seems to be the only
incentive to really learn the material being taught. If I'm paying to learn this than I
might as well learn it. This is close but the ideal would be You mean if I go to school I
get to sit down in a group of fellow students who are there for the sole purpose of
learning. This usually is not the case though, because it is known that school is boring.
School is thought of as an institution where people go and take tests that are in turn
graded and justified with an alphabetical hierarchy that determines who is smart/who is
dumb, and who can get a good job/ who can't get a good job. 
One of the biggest problems with the educational system is that it only uses the left
side of the brain. Things like reading, writing and arithmetic are all subjects dominated
by the left side. The only subjects that can reach the right side of the brain are some
art classes and music classes. In Drawing on the Right side or the Brain, expert and
award winning author Betty Edwards writes "Even today, though educators are increasingly
concerned with the importance of intuitive and creative thought, school systems in
general are still structures in the left-hemisphere mode." Teaching is sequenced:
students progress through grades one, two, three, etc., in a linear direction. The main
subjects students study are verbal and numerical: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Time
schedules are followed. Seats are in rows. Students converge on answers. Teachers give
out grades. Not only is this all very mechanical, but it ignores the virtues of the right
hemisphere. Student may be a genius because they are dreamers, are good with complex idea
combinations, are intuitive and are capable of leaps of insight. But these qualities are
never explored in school. So this genius student may be failing in the linear left
hemisphere mode and then develop emotional harmful thoughts of failure since they don't
realize their given potential since all they see is failing grades. The left hemisphere
of the brain is just half of the brain so why is it the only half being explored in
school? This failure to confront the other hemisphere causes weakening in the right
hemisphere since the right hemisphere isn't being exercised. 
In an age of rapid change due to so many technology and innovative advances, a
revolutionary change in the educational system is as vital as what our next energy source
is. Education is the most powerful wealth in the world and it demands more attention, and
where better to start with than out youth. The school system will soon go out of date due
to the information highway and information availability if there isn't a dramatic change
in the way things are run in our domestic institutional facilities. The reason why
college was such a success in the 20th century was because books were all of a sudden
available to students on university campus. Now with internet, a student could specialize
their profession solely with the computer with the click of a button. Something needs to
be done to smoothen the rigid gaps and cracks in the school system before the
technological pace at which we are advancing decides to bring the whole thing down. 
Bibliography
Seeing and Writing