Madison Piccirillo
Student ID 3351836
In his essay, “Why School?” Mike Rose argues against the current education system. According to Rose, politicians and lawmakers force teachers and schools to treat education as a “procedure…measuring outputs,” rather than a means for “growth and development.” These statistical approaches, he admits, do hold some benefits, as they allow authorities to examine such data as how many students fall behind in school, which can lead to more assistance to prevent these pupils from failing. However, this “economic focus” should not be the main goal of education, as true education is not derived from the mere passage of a course. Education is not the memorization of facts and figures, but the “intellectual, civic and moral development” of the person. It should “inspire” change by igniting new ways of thinking, rather than …show more content…
For example, I was performing an experiment in my chemistry class and I was curious whether adding more water would prevent the reaction from occurring. While my teacher assured me that it would have no bearing on the reaction time, I was not allowed to test my idea. While I understand that she was correct and the water would not affect the reaction, the fact remains that students are expected to accept answers without being able to actually see why those answers are correct. Students are not able to conduct reasonable examinations of their ideas when those ideas are not already widely viewed as correct. Testing ideas is only hailed as a positive when it leads to accurate findings, not when those ideas fail or break down. This is discouraging. Education needs not only to establish correct views, but also to encourage the development of new
Student ID 3351836
In his essay, “Why School?” Mike Rose argues against the current education system. According to Rose, politicians and lawmakers force teachers and schools to treat education as a “procedure…measuring outputs,” rather than a means for “growth and development.” These statistical approaches, he admits, do hold some benefits, as they allow authorities to examine such data as how many students fall behind in school, which can lead to more assistance to prevent these pupils from failing. However, this “economic focus” should not be the main goal of education, as true education is not derived from the mere passage of a course. Education is not the memorization of facts and figures, but the “intellectual, civic and moral development” of the person. It should “inspire” change by igniting new ways of thinking, rather than …show more content…
For example, I was performing an experiment in my chemistry class and I was curious whether adding more water would prevent the reaction from occurring. While my teacher assured me that it would have no bearing on the reaction time, I was not allowed to test my idea. While I understand that she was correct and the water would not affect the reaction, the fact remains that students are expected to accept answers without being able to actually see why those answers are correct. Students are not able to conduct reasonable examinations of their ideas when those ideas are not already widely viewed as correct. Testing ideas is only hailed as a positive when it leads to accurate findings, not when those ideas fail or break down. This is discouraging. Education needs not only to establish correct views, but also to encourage the development of new