Refresh (Assignment#2-Argumentative Essay)

 



                  "At first, you can't stand those four walls, then you get so you can abide them, then you get so you accept them... and then, as your body and your spirits adjust to live on an HO scale, you get to love them." This line from the book “Shawshank Redemption”, depicting the process of ‘institutionalization’, couldn’t have been more accurate a depiction of status quo education system. First, one can’t stand being taught the right way to think. Then, as time passes by, one can’t stand not knowing the right way to think. The current education system is institutionalizing creative human resources into standard-ruled workers, the ‘another brick in the wall’.

             The biggest cause of the problems in the current education system, the source of this ‘institutionalization’, is the fact that the current public education system was designed in the 19^th century. This was right after the industrialization- which means that the education system we have now is more than 200 years old. For heaven’s sake, we don’t use a house for 200 years. Think about all the changes that mankind went through during all that time. It can be said with absolute certainty that the current education system is outdated. However, as Sir Ken Robinson says in his TED lecture, the education “is meant to prepare the students for 5years in the future”. Obviously, an outdated module of education cannot prepare students for 5 years in the future. An outdated module of education based on outdated concepts manufactures outdated people. This essay, therefore, would mainly point out and specify the outdated and often entirely wrong concepts that the current education system holds.

             First, and perhaps the most obvious outdated concept is the hierarchy of subjects: Math, Science and English above Arts. “No school on earth” says Robinson, “spares more time in teaching their students singing and dancing rather than math and science”. This hierarchy, the misconception that one subject is more important than another, is no longer valid. It was based on two ideas. One: that most students would become factory workers-a job that a person has no need to be creative in. Two: subjects they needed for work was the most important subject. However, as we all know, most of the students nowadays won’t work in factories. They will work in fields of innovation where they are needed to, to think creatively and well, innovate. The second idea is also wrong as well. Nowadays, math and science aren’t dominantly important in jobs anymore because jobs outside the scope of those subjects are increasing rapidly. In fact, there are more diversity in jobs than ever, especially into the field of arts as the need for recreation increases.

The second misconception- and this one isn’t outdated, it was just wrong from the beginning- is the one that being incorrect is being wrong. It’s the belief that there is only one answer to a question, and every other answer is wrong. Now, we all know that past elementary school arithmetic, there is no question that has a single answer. Dilemmas we face in life have numerous answers to it, or often none at all. There is no answer choice in solving the global warming. There is no single ‘correct’ answer to what t-shirt I should wear today. Still worse is the fact that this concept of right or wrong makes the student afraid of taking chances. Think about it: living a life in which being incorrect is deemed as the worst thing you can do. Some might say “well, good! The student would be more careful in making his choices.” While this may be true, it does not get us anywhere, because to be creative, you have to be willing to take the chance to be wrong. It is just not possible to take such a chance living in such an environment.

The third misconception is that students are products. Whereas some might be horrified and even outraged by this statement, schools have exceptional similarities to factories. First of all, it is divided into sessions of work time and break time. Products (or students, in the case of school) are trimmed to be identical. Students are forced to wear uniforms (the word ‘uniform’ pretty much does all the explaining) and have the same hair cut. The students moving from one classroom to others are like the products moving from a production line to another to be modified. The misconception is apparent in the education system. Students, however, aren’t products to be manufactured. They are not just another brick in the wall. They are the raw materials of the jewelries they will become once they are polished the right way. However, the current education system is manufacturing stone blocks out of gemstones.

             Seeing that Obama got into Whitehouse, it would be safe to guess that the people are now aware of the fact that we need to change. Change lies within education. Education is the very basis of what the future generation will think, eat, and behave like. However, the education we now have is outdated. Whereas we now need innovative workers, the current education system is printing stone blocks out of gemstones. This education system is outdated, and it is unfit for the world that is facing problems that are tougher than ever before. We need to refresh, to press the F5 key of the education system. It is only after that that “we can change”.