No matter where you come from schooling will always be a part of people’s lives. As a 14-year-old, my life is pretty much school and always has been since I was about five years old. School has always consisted of a class of 18-20 students and a rotation of classes every hour. Since so much of a person’s life is occupied by school, shouldn’t it be worthwhile? I was determined to uncover the secrets of schools and how they essentially might be brainwashing us in these controlled environments. After looking at many resources, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong but technically right if you looked at it from a certain angle.
To comprehend the grave crime the education system has committed against every one of its students, we have to go back to the very beginning of when it was created.
The American school system as we know it today with its tests and grades originated in Persia and slowly more countries began to adopt that form of education as the industrial revolution happened.
Factory work required mindless complacent workers who would have good attendance and undertake their manager’s orders, and an article published by Quartz states “Sitting in a classroom all day with a teacher was good training for that.” From the start, the education system was meant to breed docile workers, but has that motive changed over the last century?
I think that the education system is botched because it shows only one path and that is to get good grades, go to college and then end up a corporate robot that is unhappy and overworked. School should be an opportunity, but it is set up to be a limitation that imprisons students in this one mindset, which is essentially turning us into robots.
Standardized testing has been around since schools were invented and that is one of the many things that haven’t changed in schools. Some might argue that standardized tests are a good metric to help students improve, but they only determine students that are good at taking tests and memorization. Even the creator of these demanding tests, Frederick J. Kelly has stated, “These tests are too crude to be used and should be abandoned.”(All4ed). However, the damage was done and the U.S. wholeheartedly adopted the tests.
The real problem with standardized tests is that they are made by four corporations, which are Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw -Hill, Riverside Publishing, and NCS Pearson. A tremendous amount of money is made out of standardized tests and Penn State University specifically states that “Today it is estimated that the industry is worth between $400 and $700 million,” (the four corporations). This makes people question the authenticity of standardized tests because they are made for just four giant companies to make a profit.
Another way companies are getting into schools is through Career and Technical Education (CTE). Previously, CTEs, the practice of teaching workplace and career skills in schools, were harmless and helped students. Nowadays, there is a growing corporate influence like Amazon, Ford, and Cisco that are deciding what students should learn in school. Salon sums up the whole problem by saying, “decisions about what’s best for students to learn should not be based on the self-interests of those who have something to gain by controlling the system.”
Amazon and other big companies are getting more and more involved in schools because they are cultivating future employees for their benefit.
Even I have to say that is a brilliant tactic and it embraces the idea of “getting them while they’re young” so you have them making your money forever.
What happens if the companies don’t need the young people anymore? Do young people even have a choice of what they want in their future? Are we really embracing the human right of free will when companies are the ones that decide what you do for the rest of your life?
Even today in this era when we are sending humans to space and have even faster cars, healthcare is the best we have seen, and making big advancements in tech. Yet the term “factory school” is still true to this day even after over a century. Instead of long hours in a factory, it is long hours in an office that is parallel to a typical school day, so school is brainwashing us to be money-making robots. The school system is supposed to be made for the students, but it is made for the profit of big companies from exploiting students.
For whatever reason, people might say the school system is really good because it gives you an opportunity to learn and it’s safe since you know it sets up a path for your career. While those ideas are valid, at the core of it, school is meant to make docile complacent employees. However, I could argue that school has helped me because I wouldn’t be able to write this well, do the math, and have basic social skills without it. Nevertheless, the school’s agenda isn’t to help me find my place in the world but to make some extra cash.
This deep dive into the true motive of the school system has made me question the morals of a lot of government services like food stamps, housing help, the roads being paved, and so many other things. The objective of the education system needs to change to better equip students with real-life skills instead of large corporate companies making a profit. You should take your life into your own hands by always staying inquisitive. It doesn’t mean you are going to have everything figured out by the age of 16, but it’s better than a greedy corporation deciding for you.
Just take it easy and take a break once in a while because you are not gonna die if you get one bad grade or one assignment late. Enjoy your school years and don’t stress much.
As a 14-year-old, my life is pretty much school and always has been since two or three years old. School has always consisted of a class of 18-20 students and a rotation of classes every hour. Since so much of a person’s life is occupied by school, shouldn’t it be worthwhile? I was determined to uncover the secrets of schools and how they essentially might be brainwashing us in these controlled environments. After looking at many resources, I concluded that I was slightly wrong but technically right if you looked at it from a different angle. To comprehend the grave crime the education system has committed against every one of its students, we have to go back to the very beginning of when it was created. The American school system as we know it today with its tests and grades originated in Persia and slowly more countries began to adopt that form of education as the industrial revolution happened. Factory work required mindless complacent workers who would have good attendance and undertake their manager’s orders, and Quartz writes, “Sitting in a classroom all day with a teacher was good training for that.” From the start, the education system was meant to breed docile workers, but has that motive changed over the last century?
I think that the education system is botched because it shows only one path and that is to get good grades, go to college and then end up a corporate robot that is unhappy and overworked. School should be an opportunity, but it is set up to be a limitation that imprisons students in this one mindset, which is essentially turning us into robots.
