Mandatory Education Essay

In 1918, nationwide mandatory education was put in place with the claim that educated children would become more productive and obedient workers. Industrialists were against the idea of taking children away from their factories as children worked for low-wages. The creators sold public education to industrialists because, allegedly, educated children will work additional years compared to children who are not educated. The current education methods are based on the same terms as the ones used in the beginning of public education. Putting children in straight rows, having those children memorize facts, and living by instructions given from teachers were all used at the origin of public education. The public education methods in the United States …show more content…
There is not a need to have obedient students today, unlike when “our grandfathers and great-grandfathers built school” (9) as Seth Godin, an innovative writer and speaker, claims. Public schools were made to create "workers who are trained to do 1925-style labor” (Godin 7). It is not the industrial revolution anymore; companies and businesses are not looking for compliant workers. The factory jobs that were a necessity in the industrial revolution do not exist anymore because the same work can be done in other countries or by machines, each being less expensive compared to laborers. It is useless for the current education system and methods to be put to work when we no longer live in a time where the way information is taught is needed for certain careers. While doctors and engineers need to be able to follow instructions and know memorized facts quickly, certain jobs, like writers, artists, and fashion designers do not necessarily need this trait. If all the writers, artists, and fashion designers followed every direction given to them there would not be anything interesting made. Also, the current style of education is incompatible with what the work force is asking for since most employers are looking for applicants who are unique compared to the others — not applicants who will act as robots without any ideas. We no longer need a school to include “ringing bells, separate …show more content…
There are required tests in public education, standardized tests. These tests for the most part, are multiple choice and include a time limit. Frank Breslin, a retired high school teacher, claims that teachers are able to “kill all incentive for learning” from their approach of preparing their students for these tests with “endless drills and exercises on mind-numbing facts”. A student sits in school for seven hours a day while being forced to do endless worksheets and memorize facts that will not need to be known after standardized tests. Teachers focus on their students passing tests, not helping these students actually learn by going in depth, which is an entirely inaccurate way of teaching. Students do not actually learn from constant facts being thrown at them. The facts students must learn for what they will be tested on paired up with the way these facts are taught, leave the students in a result which industrialists hoped for. As the current education methods continue, “students are becoming conditioned to believe that every question must have a right answer…rather than thinking outside the box, where they’re more apt to learn how to question” (Breslin). Standardization, a common find in public education, does not allow a student’s full potential to be shown. Not every student is going to be amazing at a timed multiple choice test; some students thrive in extended response tests, while others are better at