Schooling and the Issues related - Essay Example

< > < > < > < > Schooling and the Issues related High school is the place where a child learns, develops and gets educated. It helps an adolescent to cope up with all types of challenges which he/she will face it outside. Parents expect the schools to educate their children and help them succeed in life. Children grow and learn not only through books but also by meeting other children of their age and exchange a lot of knowledge. They develop themselves to behave in a social environment. Lucy and William, parents of John, a 16 year old high school student were the happiest people when they got him admitted in a reputed high school.

But for the past 6 months, they are puzzled with John’s behavior. He was facing indigestion problem and getting annoyed quickly. During a long weekend to a valley, he was well. His parents were shocked that the reason for John’s illness was his school. This essay brings out the pains the school kids are facing and the causes behind it. Mainly focusing on the role of the high school, this paper also focuses on the roles of the teachers and the local boards which run the schools. Despite having the necessary infrastructure for development, schools have made the life of these adolescents a machine.

Apart from the home works and tasks assigned, teachers have really not been able to develop the children. Most schools have developed an orthodox on secondary education. With graduating the students being the main agenda, teachers have not been able to go deeper in the concepts. A Californian high school general goals were “Fundamental scholastic achievement . . . to acquire knowledge and share in the traditionally academic fundamentals . . . to develop the ability to make decisions, to solve problems, to reason independently, and to accept responsibility for self-evaluation and continuing self improvement” (Theodore, 617).

Teachers and parents need to realize that the life of a student does not start and end with books. Educating a child is not only about teaching the contents from the books. The high school is to touch most aspects of an adolescent’s existence - mind, body, morals, values and career (Theodore, 618). Education should be in a way that it focuses not only on imparting basic knowledge of his subjects but also areas which make him a better person in life. Education system should also concentrate on giving knowledge on the government so that the child is in a position to make a difference to his nation.

It is also important to give him knowledge on the environment around so that a child understands the difference between right and wrong. Separate time has to be spent with children to give more and additional knowledge to them. Working parents are not able to spend time with their children and often miss out on teaching their child social ethics. Many of the children when asked what high school were, responded that it was a “boring, restless, tiresome, puts you to sleep, tedious, monotonous” (Theodore, 620).

Schools should make sure that apart from daily subjects, they should develop a child in their areas of interest like music, sports, drama and literature. Everyday a child goes to school with fear of getting punished by his teachers. A world of uncertainty revolves around a child when he goes to school. Fear, distress and punishment affect the child mentally, leading to psychological problems. For most of us, for better or for worse, a teacher was our first surrogate mother (Keizer, 627). Unsuccessful completion of the assignment in many cases leads to punishment from the teachers.

Punishments can be in form of beatings from the teacher or verbal abusing in front of the classroom. Most of the students are not taken care of, instead they are treated violently. One of the main reasons teachers are hated. Another reason teacher is hated because there are also these teachers who only want to earn money. Kids, who are from a rich family, are better served than those from a less rich family. Teachers are not supposed to be in for the money; they are supposed to be in for the children.

Politics has impacted education, its structure and the schools. A lot of financial aid goes for the school from the government to set up a lot of schools in many districts across the state. Even after all these funds, the education standards have not improved since most of the schools are served by one room classes which are run by teachers who are either less interested in taking the classes or are not qualified. This has created an imbalance in the education standards between the urban and the rural schools.

In an effort to compete on the global scale, Wisconsin set its eighth-grade reading passing level at the 14th percentile while South Carolina sets its at the 71st percentile (Miller, 638). Another issue has been the lack of importance given by the school boards towards improving education. All the boards should be killed first. Most of the urban school boards and its members more often spend their time on minor matters, from mid-level personnel decisions to bus routes. The main reason is that the urban school boards are independent and are beyond the reach of the council.

When it comes to local control of the boards, they are not qualified enough to teach the children. Scrapping the local boards and set up nationalized boards which have a direct control on the schools. High schools are the basement for a child’s development. Politics, lack of care and insensible boards have affected the children. People have to change their vision on secondary education. It is the responsibility of the boards, parents and teachers to make high schools a place to learn with fun.

Parents and teachers should forget that taking subjects is a ritual and it is the end of the world. Teachers should take of the children with love and make sure that every child gets proper attention. Violent punishments affect children mentally and every teacher should treat a child as if that child was their own. All the local school bodies should be destroyed and they should be nationalized which will give equal and uniform education to all. After all a child is the future of the nation and it is most important to make sure we take of our future with love and care.

Works Cited Sizer R,Theodore.” What High School is” .N.d. Keizer, Garret. “Why we hate teachers”. N.d. Miller, Matt. “First, Kill all the School Boards”.N.d