Holt and Pink

What They Think

According to the authors of the essay 's "School is Bad for Children" and "School 's Out" John Holt and Daniel Pink think there are many flaws in the United States ' educational system. They also feel that there is a need for a change. They recommend and think that the teachers should have different types of teaching techniques, the curriculum should not just be taught in the class room, but taught with example, and that standardized test should be abolished.
Holt believes that the curriculum doesn 't allow children to become and individual. Every since they started school they were told to sit down and pay attention to a teacher talk. That 's it. The student cannot talk to his friends or walk outside and that can only be done on school trips. Holt believes that a student will learn by leaving the school building. He believes that the student should be supplied with the hands on approach to learning. If the class is learning about an event in history they should be brought to a historical place and learn by actually seeing what they are being told. This will give the child an opinion. When the child has an opinion this makes a class discussion more interesting because now the discussion is not only between the teachers to the students. Now the student actually has something to say back. Now let 's look at it from Pink 's point of view. He thinks that the teacher is not keeping the students attention. He thinks that the teacher is forcing them to learn instead of wanting them to learn. If the student were given more choices for what they would want to learn instead of being forced to learn. Due to the lack of classes that caught the attention of the students, the students fall of task. The army is the only thing trying to give the students something to look forward to because they are offering free schooling and a job. The parents that are not pleased with how the school is teaching there child are just removing their child from the school and home schooling them.
Another issue that these authors had was with standardized testing. Holt believes a test can 't tell how smart a student is. All test tell you is what a student does wrong. If a test has ten questions on it and a student gets five wrong and five right. A student will most likely get in trouble for the five wrong be for the student receives praise for the five he got right. This both Pink and Holt believe that students have different learning styles. Some students may not be good test takers. Others may, but know one is focusing on those students who are not good test takers. The school system only looks at one learning style and everyone can 't adjust to this learning style.
Both authors have different opinions on standardized testing. Pink believes that the test is a way of having control of, or controlling the students, and Holt just does not like them and believes that tests do not help students. A common phrase you will here a teacher say is if you do not get good grades on your test you will not get in to a good school. When the teacher says this he or she is trying to make the students feel better than on another. So if the student does not pass the test he or she is not as good as the people who did, and as a result will not be successful. Both Pink and Holt believe that this is wrong to do and fell that the test should be abolished. I the teacher really wanted a student to be successful than the teacher would try to cater to each students learning style.
The way a child learns is a critical aspect in teaching a child. Some children learn by reparation and some learn by a teacher talking to them for eighty-two minutes. There are many different ways but teachers only know one way. A student does not always understand how to do things a certain way. So if a teacher can teach it more than one way the student will learn it. Pink says, "One size fits all." This may be the case when it comes to costumes, and spandex pants, but not when it comes to children and their learning ability to learn. And again if the student didn 't learn what the teacher taught that day in class and has to take a test the following day. The student will do bad because he did not understand. This can also make the student feel lower than others because the people than did understand got better grades than he or she did.
Even though Daniel Pink and John Holt 's opinions are far from alike they both see eye to eye and think the educational system and the way teachers teach has many flaws that need to be work out immediately. In the present day you may see some of the flaws they stated changed. Today there are more field trips and some teachers are learning to teach in many different ways, but something 's just wont change.

Work Cited
Pink, Daniel. "School 's Out" Kirzner and Mandell 112-123
Holt, John. "School is Bad for Children" Kirzneer and Mandell 106-111

Cited: Pink, Daniel. "School 's Out" Kirzner and Mandell 112-123 Holt, John. "School is Bad for Children" Kirzneer and Mandell 106-111