Schools today focus on
preparing students for their future, as well as teaching students that the
minimum is acceptable.
Neil Postman in his book, The End of Education, states different narratives schools take on
for a reason to teach students. One of the
narratives Postman stated as outdated, the Economic Utility narrative, I
believe is still in effect. The Economic
Utility purpose tells students that, “if you pay attention in school, and do
your homework, and score well on tests, and behave yourself, you will be
rewarded with a well-paying job when you are done” (Postman 27). Public education is training students to pass
high school, go onto college, and eventually get a career. This practice is definitely apparent in our
school environment, in which we have advisory every week whose sole purpose
is to prepare us for getting into college and what to do afterwards. With education shaped around this principle,
schools are creating a future-minded and career-set public. A public such as this one can be beneficial
and/or detrimental to society. On one
hand, students are closer to figuring out what they want to do in the future
and how to contribute, while on the other hand, students might not be learning or
paying any attention to other subjects which will limit their education.
Also, public schools, especially in Florida, are now lowering
their standards for standardized tests to pass grade levels and to graduate
from school. Students have recently been
performing very badly on the annual FCAT, Florida Comprehensive Assessment
Test. So, “In order to make sure that
students succeeded on the test, the passing grade was lowered”
(washingtonpost.com). When public
education is dumbed down such as this, it creates a public that believes the
minimum is okay and that you don’t need to try as hard in order to
succeed. Society will be affected very
badly if educators allow this to keep happening.
Schools in the twenty-first century create a public that
has a large focus on students passing high school where the minimum is acceptable, and go onto college in which they prepare for a job in the future.
Works Cited
Postman, Neil. The
End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf, 1995.
Print.
Strauss, Valerie. "Test Scores Plummet — so Florida
Drops Passing Grade." Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post, 21
May 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.
I agree that modern schooling has taught students that a minimum is okay. There are still a handful of students that want to exceed the minimum, but is that because they want to learn or because the want to get into a good college and eventually a job? I think because of these set standards and numerical values that are considered to define intelligence, we lose our inspiration for learning. I think something that would compliment your post is a theory in Psychology called the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. It is believed that there are actually 8 different types of intelligences, and you can be one or more. I think if all of the intelligences were embraced in schools that students wouldn't aim just for the minimum.
ReplyDelete