“education is
suffering from narration sickness”
In his book Pedagogy
of the oppressed, Paolo Freire writes “education is suffering from
narration sickness” (Chapter two)
“those students who do not dread thinking often come to
classes assuming that thinking will not be necessary, that all they will need
to do is consume information and regurgitate is at the appropriate moments.”
The moment you walk into any schooling system you can tell
what its focuses are. Math, English, science, and the occasional history. It’s apparent
that our schools are lacking something vital and that is communication. Schools
are so focused on cramming an extensive amount of information in kids’ minds to
set them up to pass state issued tests and so on. What the school system needs
is a communication class to teach the kids to be open and interactive.
Everything in school is teaching pure information, what kids are lacking are
communication skills that teach them how to talk to people and be confident in
themselves.
What our
children need is to have the chance to set themselves apart from others and
give themselves the best chance of succeeding possible. The most qualified
person in the world is not going to get a job if they can’t walk into an
interview and represent themselves appropriately. There are very few jobs that
are strictly independent, kids need to learn how to communicate with others in
order to be able to work in a group setting. Schools are focusing on meeting
only academic standards and its crippling student’s ability to have an opportunity
to express their thoughts and opinions. Worst of all, schools are teaching kids
that this is something that does not need to be addressed. Allowing them to
think that getting good grades will ensure success. In his book Pedagogy of
the oppressed, Paolo Freire writes “education is suffering from narration
sickness” (Chapter two), and that’s just it. With all of the schools budget
cuts students aren’t even being offered extra-curricular activities such as
debate, drama, and other various sports. Schools need to recognize the value of
making a class like this mandatory to ensure a well-rounded array of
opportunities for their students.
Unfortunately
school systems are being set up to suggest to students that conformity is
important, and are making sure they are dependent on their teachers to feed
them knowledge to recite at a later date. In bell hooks book Critical Thinking, she notes “those
students who do not dread thinking often come to class assuming that thinking
will not be necessary, that all they will need to do is consume information and
regurgitate it at the appropriate moments” When really they should be benefiting
from the opportunity of learning how to think critically on their own. Which
would require them to form their own thoughts and opinions. Opinions meant to
be expressed and build a sense of confidence students lack, allowing them to be
successful in communicating.
Schools
are getting so bad that students have behavioral issues due to the fact that
they are forced to conform to what is being taught with no freedom to
Kids are being robbed
of their chance to become outspoken independent people.
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