Schools Do Not Deserve the Criticism

In modern society, majority of children approximately receive twelve-years of education at school. Children start to learn fundamental knowledge and sociality at elementary school and all the knowledge would nourish them to be a better person in future. If so, do schools support appropriate educational environment for children? Or what kind of knowledge and attitude do children receive from school? According to article “School Is Bad for Children” published in the magazine The Saturday Evening Post in 1969 by John Holt, the author argues various criticisms and solutions of formal education system. There are some negative facts that he [John Holt] claims that children feel learning is not active procedure and often lose their curiosity in school. Children lose critical thinking and just answer what schools want. In addition, they learn bad behaviors from schools’ life such as laziness, cheating, bullying, and so on. Moreover, they cannot only interact with others but also they are taught to be indifferent by schools. In hence, he [John Holt] recommends some solutions for improving the quality of schools. First suggestion is abolishing mandatory school attendance. He [John Holt] said school is useless for students who are not planning academic education. Also, students need to get out of schools to experience the world at first hand. If then, they could step closer to their future. Another suggestion is to let children learn from others. Children discipline from each other through paired learning, and they also demand to evaluate their own work because problem solving by themselves is the most effective study rather than getting a correct answers from teachers. The author also points out abolishing the fixed, required curriculum. The reason for this is that children learn many things from school, but they cannot find the answer for their lives through the curriculum. Although children may learn bad behaviors in schools, schools do not deserve the criticism that Holt presented.
The crucial reason for this is children can self-explore themselves in school. Children experience various subjects during school period such as math, language, science, and music and so on. If children do not attend school, how are they to acquire these numerous knowledge? If we consider, they also learn something from peers, we can’t figure out how much they learn in school. Through required curriculums, students are able to experience different subjects in a controlled safe environment thus giving them a chance to experience what interest them the most. We can see many positive cases of self-explore in school from the articles. According to Nicholas Gage (“The Teacher Who Changed My Life” Parade magazine in 1989), his teacher, Marjorie Hurd, was the catalyst that sent him into journalism and indirectly caused all the good things that came after (Gage, p.91). If he [Gage] did not attend school in America, how can he meet his mentor, Marjorie Hurd and how can he find his talent? There is another similar story in the article “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose. He [Rose] was on vocational track because lack of his competence for education. However, Rose made significant change after he met his role model, Jack MacFarland, in high school. He [Rose] also became immersed in language and finally was able to attend college that he never imagined before. Indeed, schools are effective place where children can self-explore through getting a chance to encounter insightful teachers and education.
In fact, school shouldn’t be blamed for hazardous place for children due to the fact that there are a great chance to meet mentors, instructors, and role models. Moreover, schools are wonderful place to meet friends, where children learn sociality in groups. The author of article “School Is Bad for Children,” John Holt recommends a solution that we should let children work together to help each other, learn from each other, and learn from each other’s mistakes (Holt, p.62). Current formal education system is definitely doing this solution already. For example, I have met many friends who influenced me in school. I have learned many things with friends through trials and errors. What the cooperation is through sports, what the leadership is through group works, and what the friendship is through maintaining relationship with friends. The most important things I have learned from other students is that all people have different talents and personality, and that sharing ability with each other can achieve a better result. Being aware of these facts were the start of social life. Mike Rose in the article “I Just Wanna Be Average” met all different features of schoolmates, and some of them found similar zest for language that led them to join a literacy club together which MacFarland established. They would influence their speculation, behaviors, and discuss path with each other and grow up together. Therefore, school is not only a great place where children can meet friends, but school is also place where children start their sociality.
Another reason school does not deserve the criticism that Holt presented is that school has enhanced many practical curriculums for children. Even though Holt claims that we should abolish the fixed, required curriculum, and children also necessitate experiencing more of world out of school, schools are already trying to practice alternative plans (Holt, p.61). Korean schools admit that students’ travel abroad or visit museums are also school attendance. Therefore, children are not restricted to study in schools only. In addition, Korean educational system is trying to balance developing children’s EQ and IQ. In the article “Multiple Intelligences and Emotional Intelligence” written by David Miller Sadker and Myra Pollack Sadker, the authors shows that broadening the concept of intelligence by Howard Gardner, who was Harvard professor. He [Gardner] pointed out IQ test only focus on language and mathematical-logical skills (Gardner, p.78). Also, Daniel Goldman argues that EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is a better predictor of success than IQ (Goldman, p.80). For decades, balancing of IQ and EQ became an issue between educators and parents, so Korean formal school system is trying to educate children in creative ways. In the past, Korean children were just assessed by multiple-choice style of tests in schools. However, current Korean children are learning from going to museums, traveling, visiting businesses, and doing community services. Education system in Korea is processing more creative alternative plans for children’ education, so they would mature intelligently and emotionally.
Education in schools is not always effective for people. Some special cases like Steve Jobs, who was a CEO of Apple; school may not be the best place for him. Although he [Jobs] dropped out of college, he [Jobs] had self-explored himself endlessly. Maybe he was not able meet any mentor during his educational period. However, most students do not know what they want in life, or how to achieve their goal. They need someone who can lead them to accomplish their goals, and they need time to find themselves. Schools can be great place to meet their best friends and they will discipline each other. As a result, Holt is unfair in criticizing schools.