Education Essay

Kylie Lombardo
Professor Walsh
Rhetoric & Writing I
February 18, 2014

Many famous, intelligent and influential people speak publicly about the subject of education. Jean Anyon said, “Schoolwork helps one to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life”(175). Education is a very controversial subject during these times. Although it has improved tremendously over the years, there are still countless flaws in the system. Since having a good education leads to better opportunities, every parent wants their child to receive the best education that they possibly could. The problem is that education is actually different throughout the world. It is taught and carried out differently based on the amount of money the child’s family has and where the child lives in perspective of the school. Wealthy children do not have a problem being able to attend a high-class school while children that are not wealthy struggle to be able to learn the same way. Even though education is taught differently to certain children, there are ways for everyone to learn the same key characteristics that lead to success. In order for children to get good jobs and earn a substantial amount of money, they need to learn to have the ability to think independently, be able to apply ideas and concepts, and have a creative mind; but since not all schools teach this, parents and teachers play the biggest role in teaching them. There are numerous different skills that lead to success, having the ability to think independently being one of the most important. Children need to be able to think independently in order to think about the question asked, form an opinion, and come to an answer. Without an independent mind, a child will rely on others to come up with opinions and answers for them. In the long run, they will not be able to speak their own opinions or do their own work because they never had to do it before. An independent mind should be taught at an early age in order for children to always be used to coming up with answers and ways to come up with the answers without someone doing it for them. Once children grow up, they will need to have an independent mind, not only in order to apply to college and jobs, but also in every other aspect of their lives. According to Jean Anyon’s experiences at four different kinds of schools, this skill is only taught in half of them, the affluent professional and executive elite schools. ”The products of work in this class are often written stories, editorials and essays, or representation of ideas in mural, graph, or craft form. The products of work should not be like everybody else’s and show individuality”(Anyon 172). Teachers in the high-class schools teach their students to think independently by assigning different projects in order to challenge their minds and by making sure that every student’s project is different. The students benefit from having to do a different kind of project for each assignment because it teaches them how to use every part of their brain, not just one side of it. Using all parts of the brain will become an important aspect when it comes to getting a job later in a child’s life. Unfortunately, every student does not learn this way. In the working-class and middle-class schools, teaching students how to develop an independent mind is not a part of their curriculum. Although the school as a whole does not teach this skill, students still have the ability to learn it from their family and teachers. A child is highly influenced by their family member’s actions. Since they are around them the most, children tend to develop the actions of their family. This means that if a child’s family sets up good examples and causes their child to think independently, the child most likely will end up thinking independently. The more involved the parents are with their child’s life, the more the child will benefit in the long run. According to Alice Drinkworth, “Children with involved parents have better self-esteem and perform better in school”. Parents as well as teachers can use similar tactics as the teachers in high-class schools in order to teach their child/student to have an independent mind. The teachers in the lower-class schools can incorporate different ways of learning the same thing in order for the students to build up their minds. Also, the teachers need to stay positive with the students because children learn more from teachers that respect them. There are various ways for every child to think independently, someone just needs to put the time in to teach them. Children during these times need to be able to apply ideas and concepts not only to their school-work but for the rest of their lives. It is important to be able to apply ideas and concepts because it’s the basis of everything students, teachers, and everyone else on the planet does in order to get things done. For example, students apply ideas and concepts to their homework, schoolwork, tests, quizzes, and projects. They apply everything they learn in the classroom to whatever other assignments the teachers give to them pertaining to what they learned in class. Students start learning to apply ideas and concepts early in their childhood at any school they attend, no matter what kind of school it is. Teachers show students the concepts and how to apply them to their work everyday. There are differences between the high and low-class schools and the way the teachers show the students how to apply concepts but every student does learn this skill. If a student does not know how to apply a concept to work, there is not much hope for them to get a good job. “Children are continually asked to reason through a problem, to produce intellectual products that are both logically sound and on top of academic quality. A primary goal of thought is to conceptualize rules by which elements may fit together in systems and then to apply these rules in solving a problem”(Anyon 175). This quote explains the fact that children need to be able to apply concepts and ideas to their work by saying they are continually asked to do so. Students attend school to be able to apply ideas and concepts so the importance of the skill in everyday life is very high. It is especially high because not only students do it everyday but working people do it at their jobs everyday. Children need to be able to perform this skill in order to get a good job later on in their lives. A student with a creative mind will go farther in life than a student without one. A creative mind sets students up to succeed. The more creative a person is, the more likely they become successful, rich, or even famous. One of my high school teachers told my class, “When it comes down to it, colleges will pick the smart student with the more creative mind over the average smart student that is not creative.” Creativity is a special characteristic to have, it gives people a certain advantage over others. Students usually do not realize how important it is to have a creative mind until they start growing up. I was one of those students; I did well in school, got good grades, played sports and did community service but when it came down to it, I was not very creative. I was just an average student that did well in school. By the time I came to that realization, I was already applying to schools. Students should be taught to have a creative mind at an early age just like they are taught to apply ideas and concepts. Teaching a student to have a creative mind is much more difficult though. In order for a student to develop a creative mind, the teacher has to teach them as well as the student really wanting to learn. “There is no language arts text book because, the teacher said, “The principal wants us to be creative”(Anyon 174). The importance of having a creative mind is high if there is not a language arts book because principal wants the students to be creative. This shows that is important enough for the whole school and other schools of the same kind to follow. Although some schools want their students to have a creative mind, other schools do not particularly find that necessary to teach their students. Mostly the affluent professional schools make teaching their students to have a creative mind their top priority. Executive Elite schools also teach their students to be creative but it’s not as much of a priority. The middle-class and working-class schools do not teach creativity as a whole. Therefore, the teachers take it upon themselves to teach the children in a way that they will develop a creative mind. As long as the teacher cares about their students, they should not have a problem learning to have a creative mind. On the other hand, if the teacher does not care about teaching their students creativity, their parents are the next in line. Children follow their parent’s examples as stated previously. If the student’s parents have them do creative things at home, they will bring that into school and everywhere else for the rest of their lives. Education as a whole leads to opportunity. It sets students up to get good jobs and good money. Although there are many skills that can lead to wealth, the three skills discussed earlier are three of the most important ones. Students should have the ability to think independently, be able to apply concepts and ideas, and have a creative mind. Without these three qualities, it is very possible that the student will not go as far in life as they could have if they had them. If the schools do not teach the students, the teachers and the parents need to take the time out to teach their children the important skills they need in order to succeed in life. Every school should make it a priority to teach their students the skills they will need for the rest of their lives, not just for the school year. All schools should want their students to learn important life skills because they will be the people in the work force one day. If the students are not taught well, the job performance level will start to decrease which could cause many problems. Therefore, all students, no matter how much money they have or where they come from, should all learn the same important skills that lead to success.