Ralph Emerson Views On Education

Schools cannot be prisons. Students cannot be prisoners. They must have freedom to express ideas that develop who they are as people and as growing children. Modern day schools destroy a child’s ability to learn based on the person he is while respect still exists for both the student and teacher. Ralph Emerson explains this world in his essay “Education”. Although many educators have little respect for a student, Emerson argues that a teacher must respect the student and the student respect the teacher in order for the student to truly expand his knowledge. At the start of the excerpt, Emerson explains to the reader how to instruct a pupil. Emerson makes his point clear by utilizing repetition and short, simple sentences. “Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions. Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude” (Emerson 189). Emerson
“Letter by letter; syllable by syllable, the child learns to read and in good time can convey to all the domestic circle the sense of Shakespeare” (Emerson 191). The teacher presents one way for her pupils to learn and that is the only correct way. The students have no room to be creative and to imagine new possibilities for completing a task. The teacher sees the student’s way as wrong. This forced method of teaching does not work for a student. He cannot focus and understand what the teacher explains so he gives up. He breaks down. He cries and hates school. This student has zero say in his education, so he has a false view of true learning and hates it. Providing students an opportunity to actually become involved with how they learn allows them to feel excited about learning. Sitting in a desk all day does not appeal to the learning style of most students, but they are sadly stuck with it in the modern learning environment of public