How School Can Negatively Affect A Child

Volume
1
Trae Wilkins
How School Can Negatively Affect A Child…
The Student VS The School

ARDMORE HIGH SCHOOL
Administrative Guide
(c) 2005 Trae Wilkins
Senior
Ardmore High School
Ardmore, OK
(Written on behalf of Mrs. Mundle’s English Composition
prompt of How Grades can Negatively Affect a Student)

It seems to me that schools in NO way contribute to the individual, let alone to society.


When the student wants to learn, he is cast down by iron fists. He is threatened to perform the task at hand and Forced to interrupt and discontinue his burst of creativity.
When the student does not want to learn, he is Forced to interrupt and discontinue his “free-time” to Work on the things which he so readily attempted to engage in earlier.


The minds of our children are being locked-up. We are born thinking outside of the box. However, when we enter the prison of the first grade, we are conditioned to submit to authority, to lock away our minds upon the will of the teacher, and boil down our creativity to its bare process of problem solving.

Pre-elementary children have minds of pure imaginative genius. However, when they enter the classroom, the teacher separates these “students” from their own “self-education”. By doing so, the school system not only self-suffices, but it becomes reliant on the students who rely on the school to attain success.

We, as a society, believe that the individual student/child cannot learn on his own. Lest he be forced to learn, his efforts will always be fruitless.

Therefore, we assign him homework (and much of it). Professionals say that MORE homework will help students to [get] higher/better grades. But we fail to understand that the ONLY thing that teacher-assigned homework succeeds in is Time Consumption. Though, it is a very different matter when the student assigns the work for himself.

How does a young child learn how to speak? He mimics others and tests himself through a trial-and-error process. Language is one of the most (if not THE Most) complex aspects of society, and the Child will learn this on this own! Why, then, do we force him to work? By forcing him, he learn that everything that he does he must be told to do. He becomes reliant on the Superior Figure instead of being reliant on himself.

Teachers just make the problem worse. They tell the student not to turn in his homework too early and not to work ahead. When, in the child’s world, he can finish the entire course’s assignments in a matter of weeks/months – far shorter than that of a scheduled teacher. For, the teacher tries to keep the Advanced, Average, and Below Average Students on the same level. Over time, only the Below Average Students will benefit as the Advanced Students suffer from Boredom (and therefore Laziness) and the Average Students remain unaffected.

What is the teacher’s job? Obviously, it is to teach, and to teach the student in that case. But how does/can the teacher teach the student what he can (and in MOST cases wants) to teach himself.

Webster says that to “teach” is to cause to know a subject; to guide the studies of (something), which is the act, practice, or profession of a teacher.

Therefore, how can the teacher teach the knowledgeable student? The same is as if an Elementary “Math” Teacher were to attempt to educate a College “Physics” Professor in the art of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The [effort] is as pointless as the new-born babe trying to drive the large cube into the small circle’s slot; it will never work. Just as such, the “student” will NOT Learn. Or rather, he learns the art of taking what the teacher has supposedly “taught” him, storing the knowledge away somewhere, pulling it out when it is needed, and disposing of it. If the student is successful, he will come to master this process as he slowly forgets to learn. Soon, the student becomes as a machine—taking the input, finding a method on how to convert it to the desired output, and once the answer to the question is found, the method will be permanently disposed of.

There are only two types of teachers: (1)those who try to teach, and (2)those who try to make money—both are corrupt. For, the teacher who tries to teach, oftentimes limits the smarter students to working with the “slower” students until the both become AVERAGE. And the teacher who tries to make money, limits ALL students. For these students, there is No Teaching Involved. The teacher has become so self-centered, that the students are handed an assignment by which they must teach themselves without the help or assistance from a teacher. In the Educational System, the only GOOD teacher is not a teacher at all but rather a friend. They work together by not cheating but helping and benefiting from one-another’s intellect. From this, the student actually learns (because he wants to), and he is not pressured or threatened to complete assignments. He walks into the classroom with pep in his step and a smile on his face, because HERE he can learn; HERE he can Succeed. This revised “Educational System” is not only his so-called prison” but also his “playground” for Intellectual Recreation.

People, or more specifically—students like to feel special/important. If, in some way, the teacher can make each and every student feel this way in showing “individual” attention in a way that every ONE student feels Individualized/Unique, yet, an Important and Essential component of the Group, the student will Willingly want to work, and the role of the teacher will slowly fade to observation as the students “work-together” to teach themselves.

If the teacher does not somehow positively affect a student, she MUST negatively affect him or not affect him at all. In either case, her actions must be noted and reformed. Better yet, if One teacher can act in such a manner, many more situations can (and very well may) be similar. However, the students seem to be the only ones who can point out the flaws. And when they try to speak out, they are ignored—at least until they have endured their 12 year sentence, and, unfortunately, forgotten the pure essence of “school”. By then, their feelings and emotions are not as strong s when they were “Forcefully Imprisoned”, because now they are free and many do not care, as THEY have become as the teacher; lazy and/or selfish. Consequently, life goes on in the Educational System as the process continues on its infinite loop.

In High Schools, there seems to be a [big] [problem] among the students. Students are Overloading; they enroll in too many difficult or Honors courses at one time. The result of this is that their grades fall and the “once-considered-smart” students have grades on or below average. And what makes the [problem] worse is that parents and teachers fail to acknowledge this. Of course, there are some students who can carry such an extraordinary load. Yet, other students may have three or four honors or upper-level classes at one time. So, the student goes home and sits at the dining room table doing his Spanish homework; struggling to complete three (or four) major projects that will all be due in about four days. Now, this is uncharacteristic! The “advanced” student has Falling Grades while the “average” student stays with his Average Grades because he only has one project due in seven days (and easy classes). Thusly, the Advanced Student looks like a fool. Is there no just compensation? Maybe we should let these students learn on their own (if they choose). If a student would rather work (at a job) and be useful in society, let him. However, he should still have somewhat of a prison sentence inside of the System. Although, it should be limited! Find out what is NEEDED and CRUCIAL to survive in society, make him learn that, and then set him loose…if he WANTS or NEEDS to learn, he will do it on his own or at least find someone who will help him. Enough of “scholastic hazing”, homework is useless, learning is what really matters. We will learn when we want to and not before.

School is a prison of the mind. How can someone think outside of the box if he/she is FORCED to stay inside of it? The student can NOT learn under such conditions. Moreover, the teacher [elevates] the situation by means of hazing: providing unnecessary “busy work” that in no way contributes to the learning of the student. By treating the student as such, the “bond” (if there was any bond at all) between them is broken. The student looses trust with the teacher and, therefore, he/she becomes unteachable. What, then, is the purpose of teaching this student? Through his turmoil, he has spotted the leopard and is chasing it to the world outside of the box. Under this teacher, the student will NOT (and possibly NEVER) learn a thing. There is no use in teaching this individual. For that matter, there is no use in teaching any of these “students”. The teacher has failed and she very well may fail again. We cannot afford to [sacrifice] such a vast amount of students at his/her disposal.

It is not enough if only the parents seek for a change. The Educational System itself must take action as soon as humanly possible. For, if children are blind to the injustices being done to them(selves), they will forever be blind to those done to their own children and thusly, will NOT seek for a change.

It is not enough for us to act as individuals. For, individualized, we will make foolish decision based solely upon ourselves. But united, we will make wise decisions to benefit every member of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, we will do all that is necessary to benefit our “Children”, so that they may benefit “Society”, in order to benefit “Ourselves”.