Negative Attitudes and Poor Learning Habits of Students

Both Holt (1997, cited in Gardner 2005:59-63) and Rothenberg (1969, cited in Gardner 2005:68-72) suggest that teachers have contributed to the negative attitudes and poor learning habits of students. Both writers suggest that student¡¦s poor direction of viewing and bad habits of learning is due to the way of treating others, learning and thinking they are taught by teachers. Both of them think that As Holt (1997, cited in Gardner 2005:59-63) has described, students are taught to feel indifferently towards other students. Even when their classmates are just beside them, they have to act as their neighbours do not exist. In some cases, students are not allowed to talk to one anther during lunchtime. Besides not permitting to talk while they are having their lunch, Holt (1997, cited in Gardner 2005:59-63) suggests that children are taught to learn in a passive way instead of actively participating in the process of gaining knowledge. Students are told that they are considered not able to do the task properly if they do not complete it in the exact way as teachers tell them to. For instance, answers are only considered right when they are exactly the same as the answers in teacher¡¦s heads. In addition, Rothenberg claimed that teachers do not teach students how to judge critically and logically (1969, cited in Gardner 2005:70). As mentioned by Rothenberg (1969, cited in Gardner 2005:68-72), students are not taught how to ¡§work through arguments, to synthesize disparate sources to come up with original thought.¡¨ In the end, students simply copy directly from books in the library or from the internet without processing the materials. To sum up, from the three reasons given by Holt (1997, cited in Gardner 2005:59-63) and Rothenberg (1969, cited in Gardner 2005:68-72), it is obvious that to an important extent teachers are responsible for their student¡¦s negative attitudes and poor learning habits.

Bibliography:

Holt, J. ¡¥School is bad for children.¡¦ In P.

Bibliography: Holt, J. ¡¥School is bad for children.¡¦ In P. Gardner. 2005. New Directions: Reading Writing and Critical Thinking. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press Rothenberg, D. 1997 ¡¥How The Web Destroys The Quality of Students¡¦ Research Papers.¡¦ In P. Gardner. 2005. New Directions: Reading Writing and Critical Thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press