Nelson 1 Leah Nelson Parrish English 1010 October 7, 2013 Education and Learning: Whats the Difference?

Albert Einstein once said, The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. Imagine a cave in which there are people chained to chairs being forced to watch shadows that are cast on the wall they are facing. Behind them is a walkway. On the walkway, there are other people walking by and casting shadows of various objects such as figures of men and animals. Since the prisoners have been chained to the chair since birth, they dont know that the shadows being cast on the wall are shadows. They believe the shadows are reality. Suppose someone was to come unchain them and show them a way out of the cave. Would they realize what reality is? Would they go running back to the chair, or would they embrace the light of the outside world? This also brings about another question. Whose responsibility is it to the show the prisoners the light? Should they have to find it for themselves or should the people casting the shadows come show them the light? This parable is called The Allegory of the Cave. The philosopher, Plato, taught it to his students. Since Ive been a part of the public school system for almost thirteen years, I can relate to this parable. Ive seen students struggle in classes and Ive also seen them succeed. I know what public education is like. What exactly is education? Websters Dictionary defines education as the process of training and developing the knowledge, skill, mind, character, etc., especially by formal

Nelson 2 schooling; teaching; training. There are many conflicting ideas of what students should be taught and how they should be taught. So what is the ideal educational paradigm? Over the years of being a public school student, Ive taken countless standardized tests. Many of my teachers have focused their teaching on how to do well on the tests we are given because they are judged according to how well their students do on the standardized tests. Ive also noticed that many students have no motivation to take challenging classes because it is harder to get a good grade in those classes. Things like grades and testing get in the way of actual learning. Students need to be motivated to learn for themselves and not just for the good grade. Parents play a big role in the education of a student. They need to be supportive and encourage their kids to take challenging classes and try hard. My parents have always expected a lot from me, and that has helped me try harder and do well in my classes. Parents should also reward their students for doing well and working hard. Even if its just a pat on the back, it means a lot to us. Kids always want their parents approval. Teachers are the soul of education. Without teachers education would not exist. Teachers are an absolutely essential part of a students life. They can impact a student in either a good or bad way. In an excerpt from an autobiography by Dick Gregory, he states, I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that. On a Thursday, the day before payday, his teacher was asking everyone how much their fathers would give to the Community Chest. After everyone had been called and the teacher closed her book, Gregory stood up and told her shed forgotten to call his name. She seemed to be annoyed with him and told him she didnt have time to deal with him. He told her that his father said he would donate fifteen dollars. The teacher

Nelson 3 angrily said, We are collecting this money for you and your kind, Richard Gregory. If your daddy can give fifteen dollars you have no business being on relief. Gregory responded by saying that he had the money right then and there. And furthermore, she said, looking right at me, her nostrils getting big and her lips getting thin and her eyes opening wide, We know you dont have a daddy. Gregory started crying, walked straight out of that school and rarely ever went back. This story illustrates how big of an impact teachers have on students even if they dont know it. In this case, the result was not a good one, but in the article I Became Her Target by Roger Wilkins, the outcome was different. When Wilkins started the eighth grade, the first few weeks were nasty. Kids threw stones at him, chased him home and spat on his bike seat while he was in class. For a while, he was lonely and friendless. He felt ashamed for being different. On the first day of school his teacher targeted him, but in a good way. She would ask him questions about the reading assignments and he would answer. Although the answers were not brilliant, they established the facts that he knew how to read, speak English, and he was smart. Thus the teacher gave me human dimensions, though not perfect ones for an eighth-grader. It was somewhat better to be an incipient teachers pet than merely a dark presence in the back of the room onto whose silent form my classmates could fit all the stereotypes they carried in their heads. Day after day, his teacher would ask him questions and encourage him to dig deeper into the ideas for his answers. She taught him how to think for himself and also helped the other students realize that even though his skin color was different, he was just another kid like the rest of them.

Nelson 4 Teaching students how to think for themselves is crucial. We can be told what to say and think, but when it comes down to it, in the real world we will need to be able to form and defend our own opinions. In public schools, a lot of our time is taken up by learning things that will be on the standardized tests we take. This takes away from the teachers to ability teach us and let us learn how to use our brains and think for ourselves instead of just writing what the teacher wants or what the standardized test thinks we should know. Obviously, the material we are being tested on is important for us to know, and I do agree that we should be learning it; however, its also essential for teachers to help us come up with our own ideas and learn how to present them in a way that will be respected and accepted. With that in mind, should teachers really be judged by students test scores? Just because a student scores low on a test does not mean the teacher is not successful. I have seen many students not even try to get a good score on the standardized tests because they are being tested so much that they no longer care about them. Teachers have a big responsibility to make education worthwhile but students also play a big part in their own education. Motivation is the key to learning. If students have no motivation to learn and challenge themselves then theyre not going to learn very many things that are beneficial to them. The desire to learn is vital to students. If there is no desire, there is no learning. In the story Learning to Read and Write, Frederick Douglass describes what it was like to grow up without an education. The lady he grew up with taught him the alphabet and gave him the desire to learn. He spent the rest of his life trying to learn how to read and write. His desire to learn is perfectly illustrated by this quote,

Nelson 5 When I met with any boy who I knew could write, I would tell him I could write as well as he. The next word would be, I dont believe you. Let me see you try it. I would then make the letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn, and ask him to beat that. In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other way. Every student should have the same desire Frederick Douglass had. As I mentioned before, standardized tests are detrimental to students instead of beneficial. Is it really fair for students to be judged on their test scores? Not all students are good test takers. I have heard several students say that they do know and learn the material but never do well on tests. These tests are also very unfair to non English speakers and special needs students. Not all students have the same abilities so why are all students judged in the same way? Standardized tests cause teachers to only teach to the test so they can get good feedback instead of teaching students how to think and form opinions of their own. Too much testing teaches kids to learn how to take tests instead of actually learning and applying the material. Lots of changes should be made in the way public schools are run but it all comes down to the use of standardized tests and grades getting in the way of a students learning. So much time is spent focusing on getting good grades and studying for tests that students forget they need to be learning. It is essential for parents to be supportive of their students, encourage them to take challenging classes and work hard to learn the things they are being taught. Students need to make sure they are motivated. Without student motivation it is impossible to make a person learn.

Nelson 6 Teachers should be given more freedom on how they can teach so they can help students discover themselves and their own opinions and ideas. Teachers need to focus on teaching instead of just preparing for the tests students are forced to take. There needs to be a change in the way teachers are judged. They should not be judged by the students test scores. It is unreasonable to expect the students to take the tests seriously when they are constantly being tested. Grades and testing get in the way of a students learning and this needs to be changed.