Private Education Homeschooling Narayan Analysis

When looking back at American history, it can be seen that in the 17th and 18th centuries, education consisted of mainly private tutors and religious schools. Public schooling emerged in 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts with the Boston Latin School that is considered the oldest public school and since then, public schooling has blossomed. Although our country was built on the idea of private education, public education should be mandatory because it provides students with the opportunity to be around and communicate with other students from different backgrounds and can lead to more innovation and creation due to greater access for all kinds of students. Public schools are able to help students in ways that private schools and homeschooling simply …show more content…
Although they may seem synonymous, education and school are two very different things. Education is, or at least should be, a way of life and a way of applying skills you have learned to other tasks as opposed to a series of memory games and system of conformity that schools have turned into. Greg Narayan proposes an insightful question in his article “School vs. Education: The Real Deal Behind College” when he asks, “What would you do if you followed a study at the best school or university in your area and the school was not able to give you your diploma? Would you continue to learn at that same school, or would you quit and look for a new school where you could get a diploma?” (Narayan 6). Narayan implies that quitting and moving to another school to get a diploma means that you care about simply going to school, rather than learning more about what you are passionate about. Unfortunately, this lack of passion is true for many students because to them, the goal is to get that piece of paper that proves they graduated, rather than leaving with knowledge and application of skills. Because of this, public education needs to be restructured in a way that will let kids understand what they are being taught in order to further their understanding later in life. Instead of making schools that create machine like students who are able to memorize and perform at the drop of a hat, schools should be encouraging …show more content…
However, there are problems with our public education. For instance, the majority of students, at least in high school, are not focused on learning and applying the information that is taught. Instead, they memorize answers and vocabulary to pass a trivial quiz or test to get a good grade to get into college to repeat the process. The opportunity to rewrite history and improve public schools is a great one and must be acted on. In order to create a better schooling system, students should start school at seven years old in order to prevent the “too much too soon” idea that many education experts are afraid of (Smyth 6). Laura Hamilton, senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation, says schools need to begin “breaking away from the traditional classroom model where one teacher tells 25 kids to do the same things at the same time” (Skarda 15). This way, teachers are able to help smaller groups and other students are able to work independently. Teachers need to tailor the lessons to fit the kids skills while still providing them with information. Additionally, the curriculum should consist of classes such as moral education, foreign language, social studies, mathematics, science, physical education, music, fine arts, and practical arts. This curriculum provides kids with a balance of finding what x equals and debating the meaning of life. These classes offer a wide range of learning