Le Thi Ngoc Anh – QH2016.F1.

E29

Topic: To what extend do you agree with the statement: “School is bad for children?”

ESSAY
Most of us spend about a quarter of our life schooling. However, schooling is not a must
and whether school has good or bad impacts on our children is always an arguable
question. The majority believe that schooling is good because most of children are sent to
school when they are at a certain age. However, the majority is not always right and there
are some aspects revealed that school is not always beneficial for children such as killing
kids’ motivation or developing kids’ bad behaviors.
To begin with, schools are often accused of killing kids’ curiosity and creativity.
Curiosity and creativity in learning are boosted by freedom, interest, and comfort.
However, it seems opposite when kids learn at school since they have to learn passively,
and they are not encouraged to ask questions. It is supposed that children do not actively
learn because of the school’s requirement of following prescribed syllabi, which
obviously cannot meet the diversity of learning needs. Soon, kids would lose their
interest in learning because of the unfullfilment of curiosity and the lack of democratic
learning. John Holt, an American teacher and an education theorist who taught for many
years, also agreed that schools did not concerns about students’ wants and need, taught
what they know and they considered important to know instead of what student desire to
know. Additionally, Holt claimed that because teachers cannot always be available to
satisfy student’s curiosity, they would gradually hide their curiosity, feel ashamed of it
and learn not to ask questions. Classroom’s environment probably causes student’s fear
of appearing dump when making a wrong answer because other peers and even the
teacher would make fun of him/her incorrect answer.
Secondly, school’s environment and rules lead to myriad of children’s bad behaviors,
especially, cheating. Students cheat because their peers do it and they might be pressured
to give correct answers and have good grades. Indeed, in a research conducted in 2006,
Onyango-Oma observed the alliances of students during exam to cheat. These alliances
would promote the culture of group cheating and lying, which is very harmful to the
formation of children’s personalities. Holt also argued that schools usually demand for
right answers, which pressure students because students are expected to work hard for
those right answers, otherwise, they will be punished. Furthermore, the system of rank
people at schools also is responsible for the unappropriated behaviors. In order to
compete with friends, students might cheat on exam or assignments for better grades.
These students are often those who are obsessed with grades might not see the
relationship between learning and grades. In the long-term, they might forget the purpose
of learning and schooling, and develop the habit of cheating for grades.
Le Thi Ngoc Anh – QH2016.F1.E29

Some scholars has disputed that schooling enhances one’s future carrier by providing
them with essential knowledge and skills. However, in fact, these knowledge and skills
are not utilized in works because their academic major might not fit their jobs.
Undeniably, a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2013) showed that
many college graduates do not end up in fields related to their degrees or majors. The
statistics says 62.1% of college graduates working for jobs that match their degrees and
only 27.3 % of college graduates working for jobs that match their majors. That has
proved that schools might not be effective in preparing for one’s future career.
After some reviews of whether schools are bad for children or not, it is pointed out that
schools contain some good effects on children’s development. However, the
disadvantages that come with educating children outweigh the good that schools offer.
This regards the fact that as much as people want to send their children to schools, school
is not the best choice for kids to develop properly. Consequently, to have a better
education system, educators should build such a system that proposes flexible curriculum
and the one that does not give students reasons to cheat.
658 words
References
1. Holt, J. (1969). School is bad for children. The Underachieving School.
2. Onyanggo-Oman, W. (2006). School Knowledge and Its Relevance to Everyday Life
in Rural Western Kenya. Nordic Journal of African Studies. 15(3).
3. Deiz, J. (2013). Do Big Cities Help College Graduates Find Better Jobs?. Liberty
Street Economics. Federal Reserve Bank of New York.