One of the institutes which has been given great attention in present times is the school which forms the core of the modern day educational system. This emphasis on schools has resulted in the formulation of laws which have made school attendance mandatory for children. Schools have been advertized as being the key to a high paying job and as such a brighter future. Such assertions have completely ignored the fact that one can have a bright future as well as a high paying occupation without the school system.
In addition to this, the emphasis on schools fails to consider the fact that schools have many detrimental effects on children. This paper shall argue that schools are unnecessary to children since they result in the acquisition of vices and also result in a waste of time which would have been used in a more constructive manner. To reinforce this assertion, this paper shall demonstrate the negative effects that schools have on children so as to demonstrate that schools are unnecessary for children.
Argument against Schools
School teaches children a lot of negative values which are detrimental to the well being of the society. Holt (1969, p.2) declares that in school, the child learns to be lazy, how to devise ploys for deceiving others into thinking that he/she is doing something useful while he is not, and how to cheat.
This vices that the child acquires are as a direct result of school since the vices are developed as a coping mechanism to the educational institute. As the child tries to come up with the best ways to deal with the school system, these ills present the best means for coping with school which is mostly boring. While it would be of little concern if the child left his ills in school, this is not the case. The child continues practicing this vices through his/her adult life therefore making him less productive to the society.
It is a fact that most children are not interested in school, as they do not see its relevance in their lives. These children only attend school since they are forced to do so by their parents or other authority figures in the society. Insisting that such children attend school through the compulsory school attendance laws leads to resentment by such students.
Rustigan (2010) asserts that when students do not see the relevance of education, they engage in truancy and other vices and eventually drop out of school altogether. This is an assertion that is corroborated by Holt (1969, p.3) who claims that students even turn to drugs as a means of shielding themselves from the cold and boring environment to which they are exposed at school. School therefore leads to the creation of children who will later on be troublesome to the society.
The productive life of an individual is greatly inhibited by schools. This is because schools lead to a situation whereby a person has to wait for many years before they can do anything productive for the society. This is because the schooling system is structured such that students have to spend a certain number of years; through kindergarten, grade school and then college.
All this years could have been spent acquiring and perfecting skills which are needed by the society. Rustigan (2010) confirms that some blue-collar workers do not need the extensive schooling which is imposed on them to be competent in their jobs. All that such people need to be relevant in their professions is to be apprentices. Then they can learn under a master craftsman and become skilled productive members of the society.
In a society that is continually striving to do away with segregation of its members, schools are guilty of furthering segregation in the society. This is especially so through the tracking system employed by schools through which students are separated according to some measure of cognitive ability. Schools which have tracking systems have been noted to exhibit an overrepresentation of minority students and low income earners in the low-achievers tracks.
Hallinan (2006, p.310) notes that in schools in the United States, black students and students with Spanish surnames were overrepresented in the lower tracks. Schools therefore results in the conferring of privileges to students who hail from middle-class and wealthy backgrounds mostly at the expense of those from low-income earning groups. Schools are therefore detrimental to the goal of creating a harmonious society which is based on equality and non-discriminatory action.
While the task that schools propose to undertake (that is teaching children) is indeed noble, schools are guilty of not teaching children things that are necessary to make them useful members of the society. Holt (1969, p.5) demonstrates that children learn very little to do with the adults that they are to be in constant contact with in the outside world in schools.
These results in children being ill prepared for the outside world even after their learning process has been concluded. Holt (1969, p.5) suggests that students are taught to work in isolation while on the outside world; they are expected to work in cooperation. These discrepancies are created by schools and as such, they would not exist if children did not have to go to schools.
Schools are greatly credited with teaching children about the acceptable behavior in society. It is in the school institute that little boys and girls are socialized into becoming proper members of the society.
Hallinan (2006, p.399) suggests that without schools, it would be hard to instill social values into people and as such, the society would be dysfunctional at best. Considering the fact that a harmonic existence with other members of the community is mandatory for the advancement of our civilization, schools play a significant role in community and cannot be forfeited.
While this argument does make a good point in that learning of social norms is important for the well being of the society, the argument negates the fact that the socialization process in children is not restricted to schools. From an early age, the parents of the child teach it of the acceptable practices such as respecting your superiors and being agreeable. Schools are therefore not the only forum through which children can be socialized and it is possible to form a harmonic society without the presence of schools.
The educational system of a society is fundamental for the development and ultimate advancement of the entire community. The school system has a significant impact on the economic and social outcome of a country.
Proponents of schools advance that without the schooling system, we would still be stuck in a primitive society since it is schools that are credited for some of the most novel inventions such as the discovery of electricity, radio communications and in the recent past, the invention of computers. However, this is a flawed argument since Great ancient civilizations such as the Mayans and the Egyptians were produced without any schooling.
The renowned scholar Kappa (1991, p.14) declared that great civilizations grow by exchanging ideas, art and technology with other civilizations. This exchange needs not occur in the confines of schools as policy makers and educators have led us to believe. As such, it is conceivable that a great civilization can be built without the need for the formal schooling system which has been assumed to be the very base of our great modern civilization.
This paper set out to argue that schools are bad for children. To reinforce this assertion, this paper has demonstrated the many issues that are as a result of schools. Social vices that children pick up at school have been highlighted. In addition to this, schools have been demonstrated to be a waste of time for children who could otherwise be engaging in useful works.
This paper has also demonstrated that schools do not effectively prepare children for the outside world. From this paper, it is clear that the overemphasis on schools by our society is unwarranted. This is because schools are not the only avenue though which children can learn and become productive members of the society. As such, schools are should be abolished since they have an adverse effect on children.
References
Hallinan, T. M. (2006). Handbook of the Sociology of Education. NY: Springer.
Holt, J. (1969). School is Bad for Children. Saturday Evening Post.
Kappa, P.B. (1991). The American scholar, Volume 60. Virginia: United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa
Rustigan, M. (2010). Is a college Degree Necessary? The LA Times. Retrieved from: https://www.latimes.com/