Ender's Game Essay On Education

Education in the 21st century is arguably extensively different than that of the previous centuries. Children are resigning their mental health for an education that only a proportion of them will put to use in the future. At the same time, the public school system helps encourage a healthy development by forcing children to become independent. Both the positive and negative results that public school have upon children in today’s society are a parallel to the way that battle school alters Ender as an individual. In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card demonstrates the manipulations Ender is put through in battle school as a comparison to real life education; in both, children are forced into experiences that help them grow as individuals but also …show more content…
In Ender’s Game, we often times forget how young Ender truly is. When reading the book it is easy to become sidetracked and not pay much attention to his actual age. Card writes about Ender in ways that make us feel as if he is a teenager at times. In doing this, we are shown how much Ender is forced to grow up quickly regardless of his numerical value representing his age. In the book, Ender is restricted from crying because it is viewed as an action that represents immaturity. “The touch of kindness in this frightening place was enough to push some over the edge into tears. Not Ender though. When Dap came, his crying was over, and his face was dry. (Card 44)” At age six, Ender was shown that crying was a sign of weakness. Although this may seem strange, it actually represents a sign of maturity. It is very normal for children to cry. However, simply the fact that Ender is able to take this and process it in his mind shows just how cognitively developed he is. This process of showing Ender the ways of life and separating him from his parents made it a quick process of growing up. There was no time to mess around. Mental toughness was built from situations like this and will eventually help him in other aspects of his