Is school hurting or helping kids - Essay Example

Full Topic: Is school hurting or helping kids? Schooling can be viewed as a man d function performed by the young people today. It is interesting to explore why schools have become so unpleasant to them. Young people are often believed to be cheerful and happy. They are curious, playful and easily amused by the nature and the environment around them. Access to a variety of people who are knowledgeable and caring, direct participation in communities and situations and unlimited opportunity to play and explore can increase the passion for education in young people (Gray, n.d.).

Pathological signs of depression start to increase among people as we grow up, reaching stability at late twenties for most. Next stage after the adolescence is characterized by starting to realize the responsibilities in life, and worry about the future. Frustration result from lacking control and power over the environment. The beautiful amusing world they saw as children is no more there. Being trapped in frustration is so common among the people today that some parents believe schools should be unpleasant for children to learn and tolerate the unpleasantness in life (Gray, 2013).

However, it is not mandated that individuals get trapped in this unpleasantness. There have been many successful individuals in human history who believed life is more than school where it teaches everyone to become more like others (Gray, 2013). Albert Einstein for example, believed imagination is more powerful than the knowledge that already exists. Nowadays, parents can be sued for not sending their children to school and employers can be fined for hiring child labour. So basically we, the society, have made it compulsory that children learn and do what we want them to do and learn.

But the question is why should we believe that we know everything or the history knows everything? In my opinion most of the people agree with the fact that life as we live it today has very limited options and freedom. Students struggle to absorb and relate themselves to what is being taught at schools because they do not feel it is entirely true. After schooling we would select a degree program from what is available in the list and then work for someone who would pay for us. Why can’t children select what they want to learn, at their own phase?

Who knows whether the current social system is the best there can be? Some people say institutionalization of education has killed the creativity in human beings while competition can be the greatest enemy of mental tranquility. Current schools system abundantly cultivate competitive mindset among our children, making them ready for their lifetime race while neglecting the healthy human emotions like loving kindness. In my opinion the current education system is nothing but a product of what happened in the history (Gray, n.d.).

We idolize certain individuals in different disciplines from the past and believe they are the fathers of economics, politics, sciences and even music and dance. It is true they were great in whatever they did but why do we have to get trapped in the past? Breaking such a wide spread trapped mentality among them seems almost impossible to achieve but it is also the pathway to realize the true passion and freedom for our minds. ReferencesGray, P. (2013). Reader’s Digest. School is a prison and damaging our children.

Salon Media Group Inc.(N.a), Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2013/08/26/school_is_a_prison_and_damaging_our_kids/