Forget About It
Forget about it. Forget about the mandatory attendance. Forget about the curriculum. Forget about exams (Holt 86, 88). Kids shouldn't be going to school just to get their degrees (Henry III. 136). They should be going to become more educated, so that they can make educated decisions in their lives. Schools need to change. Learning in a prison cell was probably easier for Malcolm X than learning in some of the schools of New York City. I believe if we let kids learn what they want, when they want, and how they want, they'll learn more. We have some schools in America that are great. They have good teachers, plenty of supplies, small class sizes, and nice buildings with big windows. Unfortunately, a school district is only as good as its weakest link. In "Savage Inequalities" Kozol tells how he takes a trip to District 10 in New York City to compare three grade schools. He finds two out of three schools to be below satisfactory. A principal at one of the schools Kozol visited has to thank God that his teachers are still breathing (114). Obviously, this principle does not feel he has the best teaching staff. At this school there is not enough textbooks for everyone, so some kids have to share (115). Both of these p
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it If schools were closed so that only half as many kids could attend, then kids wouldn't be attending school when they want. This is not good. Kids should be able to learn when they want. Society is only as good as its weakest link. If only the elite few go to school, the majority of the people are not being able to get an advanced education. Those who wouldn't get their education would drag the entire population down, not on purpose, but because they wouldn't know any better. What we remember is actually what we can access from our memory. The ideas that we access the most become the easiest to get to, and thus we remember them better. Therefore, when we learn things that we can relate to our lives and actually use, we retain that information longer. When kids learn things that they can use, they get excited about learning, just as Malcolm X was. a status symbol upon its students. (180) Holt also feels that grading papers should be a thing of the past. Children could correct their own papers (88). Holt states, "[A teacher's] job should be to help the kid when he tells [them] that he can't find a way to get the right answers. [...] Throw it all out [grades, tests etc.], and let the child learn what every educated person must someday learn, how to measure his own understanding, how to know what he knows or does not know" (88). Clearly he thinks kids should have the chance to educate themselves with help from teachers when they ask for it. He also shows concern for kids who give up because of too much criticism. "A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time- if corrected too much, he will stop talking" (Holt 87). Correcting someone all the time is like nagging, and this is considered a punishment. Giving students bad grades for trying to learn is teaching them that learning will result in punishments. This will decrease the likeliness that they'll want to learn again.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1517
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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