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To assume that all children dislike school is a generalized fallacy. Personally, I enjoyed school, mostly when I felt it was substantially challenging. I admit that I disliked it whilst it failed to challenge me; however, I found ways to amuse my curiosities by frequenting the libraries and such. Now, I'll proudly admit I was and am a nerd, so my experience may differ... I find that it is easy to lose interest in a subject, though, when it suddenly dawns on a student that a teacher lacks proper instruction, and it may require scant to surpass the professor's intelligence per the subject matter. Also, I never quite followed that "school is a prison", for I was there to soak up knowledge, the teacher was there to disseminate it, and obstacles to this process such as unruly imbeciles should rightly be subdued. To the insentient, yes, school was a prison because it did not permit them to be distractions to my education, school is a prison to the willfully dumb, school holds cell-block status to the unevolved, to the future burger-flippers, to the eventual gutter-dwellers and trailer trash, to the couch potato, channel surfer, aspartame-licking, high fructose-glazed consumers wallowing mindlessly in the pit of their own fetid stink, and in a way it's merely practice for their eventual later incarceration. Too little is done to propel the clever, the witted, the wise. Challenges need more prevalence in school, expect more from the children, and you'd be surprised to learn of how much some are truly capable. If the children want to declare that school is a prison, then free them of the burden of wisdom, free them of the burden of sentience, and permit the intelligent kids to flourish without the unruly distractions of the idiot subhuman wretches.
Someone recently referred me to a book that they thought I'd like. It's a 2009 book, aimed toward teachers of grades K through 12, titled Why Don't Students Like School? It's by a cognitive scientist named Daniel T. Willingham, and it has received rave reviews by countless people involved in the school system. Google the title and author and you'll find pages and pages of doting reviews and nobody pointing out that the book totally and utterly fails to answer the question posed by its title.
Willingham's thesis is that students don't like school because their teachers don't have a full understanding of certain cognitive principles and therefore don't teach as well as they could. They don't present material in ways that appeal best to students' minds. Presumably, if teachers followed Willingham's advice and used the latest information cognitive science has to offer about how the mind works, students would love school.
Talk about avoiding the elephant in the room!
Ask any schoolchild why they don't like school and they'll tell you. "School is prison." They may not use those words, because they're too polite, or maybe they've already been brainwashed to believe that school is for their own good and therefore it can't be prison. But decipher their words and the translation generally is, "School is prison."
Willingham surely knows that school is prison. He can't help but know it; everyone knows it. But here he writes a whole book entitled Why Don't Students Like School? and not once does he suggest that just possibly they don't like school because they like freedom, and in school they are not free.
I shouldn't be too harsh on Willingham. He's not the only one avoiding this particular elephant in the room. Everyone who has ever been to school knows that school is prison, but almost nobody says it. It's not polite to say it. We all tiptoe around this truth, that school is prison, because telling the truth makes us all seem so mean. How could all these nice people be sending their children to prison for a good share of the first 18 years of their lives? How could our democratic government, which is founded on principles of freedom and self-determination, make laws requiring children and adolescents to spend a good portion of their days in prison? It's unthinkable, and so we try hard to avoid thinking it. Or, if we think it, we at least don't say it. When we talk about what's wrong with schools we pretend not to see the elephant, and we talk instead about some of the dander that's gathered around the elephant's periphery.
But I think it is time that we say it out loud. School is prison.
If you think school is not prison, please explain the difference.
The only difference I can think of is that to get into prison you have to commit a crime, but they put you in school just because of your age. In other respects school and prison are the same. In both places you are stripped of your freedom and dignity. You are told exactly what you must do, and you are punished for failing to comply. Actually, in school you must spend more time doing exactly what you are told to do than is true in adult prisons, so in that sense school is worse than prison.
At some level of their consciousness, everyone who has ever been to school knows that it is prison. How could they not know? But people rationalize it by saying (not usually in these words) that children need this particular kind of prison and may even like it if the prison is run well. If children don't like school, according to this rationalization, it's not because school is prison, but is because the wardens are not kind enough, or amusing enough, or smart enough to keep the children's minds occupied appropriately.
But anyone who knows anything about children and who allows himself or herself to think honestly should be able to see through this rationalization. Children, like all human beings, crave freedom. They hate to have their freedom restricted. To a large extent they use their freedom precisely to educate themselves. They are biologically prepared to do that. That's what many of my previous posts have been about (for an overview, see my July 16, 2008, post). Children explore and play, freely, in ways designed to learn about the physical and social world in which they are developing. In school they are told they must stop following their interests and, instead, do just what the teacher is telling them they must do. That is why they don't like school.
As a society we could, perhaps, rationalize forcing children to go to school if we could prove that they need this particular kind of prison in order to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to become good citizens, to be happy in adulthood, and to get good jobs. Many people, perhaps most people, think this has been proven, because the educational establishment talks about it as if it has. But, in truth, it has not been proven at all.
In fact, for decades, families who have chosen to "unschool" their children, or to send them to the Sudbury Valley School (which is, essentially, an "unschool" school) have been proving the opposite (see, for example, my August 13, 2008, post). Children who are provided the tools for learning, including access to a wide range of other people from whom to learn, learn what they need to know—and much more—through their own self-directed play and exploration. There is no evidence at all that children who are sent to prison come out better than those who are provided the tools and allowed to use them freely. How, then, can we continue to rationalize sending children to prison?
I think the educational establishment deliberately avoids looking honestly at the experiences of unschoolers and Sudbury Valley because they are afraid of what they will find. If school as prison isn't necessary, then what becomes of this whole huge enterprise, which employs so many and is so fully embedded in the culture (see my posts on Why Schools Are What they Are)?
Willingham's book is in a long tradition of attempts to bring the "latest findings" of psychology to bear on issues of education. All of those efforts have avoided the elephant and focused instead on trying to clean up the dander. But as long as the elephant is there, the dander just keeps piling up.
In a future post I'll talk about some of the history of psychology's failed attempts to improve education. Every new generation of parents, and every new batch of fresh and eager teachers, hears or reads about some "new theory" or "new findings" from psychology that, at long last, will make schools more fun and improve learning. But none of it has worked. And none of it will until people face the truth: Children hate school because in school they are not free. Joyful learning requires freedom.
You are "free" from the
You are "free" from the burden of empathy and social skills. No need to explain why.
Cheers!
Awesome to see you addressing
Awesome to see you addressing the elephant in the room! From my own experience with school in the US and other countries, I have come to the conclusion that public schools are inherently worse than prisons, and pretty much the root of all evil in modern society.
A teacher with a vested interest in maintaining the system will never agree, of course.
In that case, just repeal all mandatory attendance laws, which would force schools and teachers to compete for students. Maybe then it wouldn't be prison. I'm sure people like Steve would also have to go and find real or online freelance jobs from AceWriters essay writer services instead of bleeding other people with real jobs of their hard-earned dollars.
"A teacher with a vested
"A teacher with a vested interest in maintaining the system will never agree, of course."
Ironically, some of the people I've met who were most loudly overjoyed we homeschooled have been teachers. Two I met while waiting to pick up a race packet pickup a few days before I ran a 5 mile race.
They were talking to a third person who I believe was a principal. They were only in their 40s and they were discussing retiring early, because the system has become so bad. They taught at one of the best schools in our state. When I joined the conversation, and they found out I homeschooled my kids (for secular choices), they were very happy for us.
Of course, I've met some teachers who are very anti-homeschool, too, but they have been fewer. These are usually new folks with little experience and big ideals who just started teaching, and they often teach at schools for kids who need extra help in some way (poverty, disability, and/or children from immigrants).
While I feel they don't yet see the forest for the trees, I can totally understand their viewpoint. Their kids *need* outside help and the more who homeschool the less funding the school systems get. Part of why our school systems are failing is so many options are open as well.
Look at the countries who have the best education? They rarely allow homeschooling—or they make it *very* difficult. The thing is their schools are pretty lovely. The kids actually have time to play and be kids at these places, and learning can be a lot more natural and child-friendly (Scandinavia rings a bell).
On top of that, homeschooling is pretty awful for a lot of kids. The families who do it to keep their kids away from the secular world and in a little cult often educationally neglect their children. It also makes abuse very easy to go unchecked and children who are abused at home can easily slip through cracks and never get help they need.
I hated the institutional parts of my school, but if I had been homeschooled I'd probably have been a mess myself. My parents were super abusive, and while I could not be removed from home, I was blessed to have teachers and counselors look out for me. It gave me the tools and knowledge to seek help to heal after I became an adult. I would not have had that if I had been homeschooled.
On "children need this type of prison"
I may not have the authority to speak of this, since I am not a seasoned professional, but I think that civil psychology, without discussion of economics and an economic background, is useless. And this goes both ways, as Keynesian economics is economics done without an understanding of civil psychology, and fails to accurately reflect actual trends over a long period of time. I think that the economic aspect of education was mentioned and glossed over by the writer. In the modern economic condition, one of 'stagflation', caused by the addiction of aggregate demand to the process of expanding the aggregate quantity of currency and resulting, inflation-adjusted price hikes (caused by the ability of businesses to 'blame it on the wolf') have dominated the modern economic landscape for as long as 11 years. To put it simply, for the common man, the Great Recession never ended, though for business oligarchs (defined as anyone with over 300 billion dollars and significant political capital), the economy has soared. To prevent loss of aggregate demand by public price hikes, business oligarchs have relied on outsourcing and other cost-cutting moves such as sufficiently increasing productivity of workers without pay increase, to keep up with expected increase rates of market capitalization by holders and business oligarchs themselves. This has created a landscape that is, put simply, devoid of well paying blue collar positions that can provide the pursuit of security, and major mismatch between pay and price. This economic landscape, created by the failures of Keynesian economics, creates a situation where, under average circumstances, one who does not complete education, and does not have credible claim to his intelligence, is doomed to live in growing clusters of concentrated poverty, empowered by the ruthless, unthinking blue collar jobs that, to prevent public aggregate demand, lowered inflation adjusted wages instead of outsourcing or cutting short the capitalization expectations of those in power.
Children don't belong in school
I don't really understand your comment. I have to agree with the article completely. The only exception to the rule is the fact that you have to consider the type of child and a host of other factors involved. Some children will do alright in any particular environment. Some will not. So, there you see the problem with school. It's a "one size fits all" scheme that DOES NOT FIT ALL. It's like asking all children to wear the same size shirt.
I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s. It was determined early on that I had a high IQ. And I found out later in life that I likely had certain autistic traits. Unbeknownst to anyone else. I didn't do well with school, socially. When it came to doing the work, I excelled so well. That I surpassed the teachers abilities many times. Sometimes with resentment coming my way. I was rarely appreciated for being "out of line". I was a shy, quiet, good kid. But that got me nowhere.
Back in those days, you could get away with skipping school for weeks at a time. Once I figured that out, I exploited it to the max. There was even a time when I stayed out for a whole month. I made sure I kept my textbooks at home. From 11 to 15 years old I spent most of my time home alone. Freedom. I had it all. I studied my textbooks and then some. Watched a lot of television. Mostly educational programs. I was filling my mind with my passions. I learned to play two instruments. Kept the house clean inside and out. Tore apart electronics and studied how they worked. The list goes on. By the time I was high school age, I had skills and knowledge that no public school kid would have. While they were wasting their time being restricted to the pre-determined route, I was reaching the sky. Sure. I lacked social skills. But I caught up later in life. When it became "necessary". It is not necessary to be tossed into a building full of foolish children at a young age. Because of the high potential for corruption and distraction.
And the way I was raised, it would be impractical for a public institution to attempt to "raise" hundreds of kids the way I was. I was in the comfort of my own home. I felt safe. No burdens. That is. Until at some point the school system decided they were losing too much money not having me there. So they used the intervention of the courts to get me there. And I was strung along until I was 18. The teachers told them I should be advanced two grades because of my high intelligence. But the principle held me back two grades out of resentment. And not one single time did anyone mention that I had the option of being homeschooled. NOT ONCE. We could have avoided all the stress and headaches had someone told us. But they were more worried about monetary gain and indoctrination.
I have learned a hard lesson throughout my childhood. But given a large gift. Since then I have had three kids of my own. I have personally chosen to homeschool them and give them the gift I had. They will never fully understand why they cannot go to school with "the other kids" until they are old enough to appreciate the benefit of freedom and lack of corruption. I will mentor them every step of the way. It is what children need. A far cry from the status quo we call "Higher Education". Children have a very high potential. And not through the eyes of Uncle Sam. I look back 30 years later and still see idiots running the system of government and education. And only a few good teachers who have allowed themselves to be imprisoned by a system that tells them what and how to teach. Children need a small percentage of what the schools shove into their minds. They are treated like cattle with number signs. It is high time we all wake up and face the truth. If children are not raised as non-conforming leaders, they will most certainly be conforming followers. Which one is the fool?
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On "children need this type of prison"
I may not have the authority to speak of this, since I am not a seasoned professional, but I think that civil psychology, without discussion of economics and an economic background, is useless. And this goes both ways, as Keynesian economics is economics done without an understanding of civil psychology, and fails to accurately reflect actual trends over a long period of time. I think that the economic aspect of education was mentioned and glossed over by the writer. In the modern economic condition, one of 'stagflation', caused by the addiction of aggregate demand to the process of expanding the aggregate quantity of currency and resulting, inflation-adjusted price hikes (caused by the ability of businesses to 'blame it on the wolf') have dominated the modern economic landscape for as long as 11 years. To put it simply, for the common man, the Great Recession never ended, though for business oligarchs (defined as anyone with over 300 billion dollars and significant political capital), the economy has soared. To prevent loss of aggregate demand by public price hikes, business oligarchs have relied on outsourcing and other cost-cutting moves such as sufficiently increasing productivity of workers without pay increase, to keep up with expected increase rates of market capitalization by holders and business oligarchs themselves. This has created a landscape that is, put simply, devoid of well paying blue collar positions that can provide the pursuit of security, and major mismatch between pay and price. This economic landscape, created by the failures of Keynesian economics, creates a situation where, under average circumstances, one who does not complete education, and does not have credible claim to his intelligence, is doomed to live in growing clusters of concentrated poverty, empowered by the ruthless, unthinking blue collar jobs that, to prevent public aggregate demand, lowered inflation adjusted wages instead of outsourcing or cutting short the capitalization expectations of those in power.
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Narrow-minded
My experience in school stifled my desire to learn, my desire to discover, only recently have a rediscovered it and I'm 25 year old junior in college. I've had my personal challenges to overcome, just like everyone else. I fully agree that had I the freedom during my grade school years, as the kids at a democratic school have, that I would've been a well developed, well adjusted, ready for the "world at large" adult by the time I graduated. I'm passionate about education, in fact, I will get my PhD and then dedicate my career to the field of correct education and help implement it worldwide! The more I learn about the democratic "K-12" learning environment the more I support it. In other words, my view is biased.
My Reply:
Do all children dislike school? of course not and I don't think that is what Dr. Grey was trying to say.
What I'm saying is that children who enter the "Regular" school tract at an early age become "brainwashed" into liking school. Considering the capacities of a 4 year old, their options are bleak, unless their parents do something about it.
Liking our current school system as a student depends on so many different factors, but one of them is recognizing the system and then excelling at it, which is what you did. Its natural for us to want success and to be competitive, even healthy!
How can you not believe that school is a prison?
Did you have the right in school to pick your own challenges? NO
Could you leave class or school whenever you wanted? NO
Could you pick your own subjects to study? NO
"Unruly imbeciles?"
Yes, people who act above the established rules need to be reprimanded for the good of the whole. You said, "unruly imbeciles should rightly be subdued," but then say "Too little is done to propel the clever, the witted, the wise." Are we not all witty? Are we not all capable of learning, growing, and becoming contributing citizens of the world!! YES EVERYONE IS, it cannot be any other way, that is the rule (of course the exceptions are those with emotional, physical, and such limitations, some of which can and cannot be overcome)
"free them of the burden of sentience"
Are you serious....please say that your not.
Obviously your thoughts are elitist and I have a problem with that.
However, I do agree that more could be done to challenge those "witty" children in the established school system. But, that is why letting children learn what they want, when they want, and how they want is the best policy, with the smallest amount of structure possible. They will naturally want to excel.
True education is the result of personal effort, not homework assignments.
I quite understand your
I quite understand your argument about children learning the way they want to...however have you ever taught in a classroom?? Do you teach or interact with children at all? I am just wondering where you get such vigour behind these statements. There is always two sides to every coin, and it is most definitely and ideal which you are proposing, which is what is so wrong with the school systems that are put in place today. They are based on ideals without factoring in reality or logical thinking.
'True education is the result of personal effort'-very true. However, not many children are intrinsically motivated, nor do they get the proper support from outside the school (ie. family support) to feel the need to do so. And, what about the question that is so endlessly debated, 'what are the basic foundations of knowledge that people should know to have a full/successful life?' I'm afraid if you let kids learn how and when they wanted to, and what they want we would have an even more elitist society because those with the most access to the information, the most support and the the most success (positive feedback loops) would be enabled to succeed. Whereas kids with little to no support, who are not self motivated, who don't have access to materials, and who don't care to seek them out because its too hard or requires too much effort are ultimately put at a great disadvantage.
A lot of the time the 'prison like structure' of the school is for the benefit of the teachers who have 40+ kids in their classrooms they are responsible for teaching. (I don't know about you, but its almost near impossible for me ONE PERSON to give all the attention and personalized adjustments to each kids in a class with 30-40 kids that they need in order to 'learn how they need and want')
The true answer to the problem of the school system is not to 'let the kids do what they want' but rather to have enough funding and resources to give kids attention to get them the help that they need so they can have the time succeed and further their learning. If you've ever taught before, anything that a student starts to understand becomes interesting to them, but many of them cannot start understanding just on their own. If a teacher can help them just to start understanding, then the growth process becomes more intrinsic. Hence the problem of students not getting enough attention individually to start that process.
Teachers should not have to be importers of knowledge, or enforcers of it for that matter. Rather they should be enabled to facilitate and inspire students to seek their own knowledge- which would then allow for more freedom in learning. But it all starts with funding, and getting more teachers for smaller class sizes.
As for being forced to go to school until they are 18, there are kids who would KILL to be in school! Most often, and quite sadly the other alternative is that they work, or have to look after their family in some way. I've taught in some very poor socio-economic areas where kids in Gr. 6, (12 years old!!!) quit school because their parents need them to work. And as much as you think its enforced that they go to school, sadly most of the time its not. You take your higher education for granted, most of these kids in Gr. 6 I've taught cannot even read at a grade 3 reading level! Do you really think they will even get to that level if they weren't going to school? I had one kid in my class that didn't even know where he was sleeping half the time. School is where kids from any back ground any place can come and have an equal opportunity to learn.
Of course there are problems with the system, but that comes from the schools being formulated more on the ideals of capitalism and factories- turning out good citizens one at a time sort of deal. Being led by the bell and by rules. Being free from that doesn't come from a student directive, but from an enabling cooperative directive where students can have access to teachers time and to resources so they can be enabled and motivated to learn in the best way for them.
Nuclear Fallout?
Not many children aren't intrinsically motivated to learn? Do you realize that every one of their ancestors lived long enough to successfully reproduce? How did that happen? How doyou account for the sudden change?
On "children need this type of prison"
I may not have the authority to speak of this, since I am not a seasoned professional, but I think that civil psychology, without discussion of economics and an economic background, is useless. And this goes both ways, as Keynesian economics is economics done without an understanding of civil psychology, and fails to accurately reflect actual trends over a long period of time. I think that the economic aspect of education was mentioned and glossed over by the writer. In the modern economic condition, one of 'stagflation', caused by the addiction of aggregate demand to the process of expanding the aggregate quantity of currency and resulting, inflation-adjusted price hikes (caused by the ability of businesses to 'blame it on the wolf') have dominated the modern economic landscape for as long as 11 years. To put it simply, for the common man, the Great Recession never ended, though for business oligarchs (defined as anyone with over 300 billion dollars and significant political capital), the economy has soared. To prevent loss of aggregate demand by public price hikes, business oligarchs have relied on outsourcing and other cost-cutting moves such as sufficiently increasing productivity of workers without pay increase, to keep up with expected increase rates of market capitalization by holders and business oligarchs themselves. This has created a landscape that is, put simply, devoid of well paying blue collar positions that can provide the pursuit of security, and major mismatch between pay and price. This economic landscape, created by the failures of Keynesian economics, creates a situation where, under average circumstances, one who does not complete education, and does not have credible claim to his intelligence, is doomed to live in growing clusters of concentrated poverty, empowered by the ruthless, unthinking blue collar jobs that, to prevent public aggregate demand, lowered inflation adjusted wages instead of outsourcing or cutting short the capitalization expectations of those in power.
You sound like a very
You sound like a very controlling person who has had their feelings hurt, so it makes sense that you would like a rigid establishment with lots of rules to follow - like school - where someone in charge would control the people who hurt you. I don't think school was a good place for you.
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Um...actually....
Smarter students tend to dislike school the most powerfully, as it is stifling to them.
You were not among them. Even now, your linguistic reach exceeds your grasp, as your abuse of any number of words in your reply shows. You had knowledge there to soak up because you were not more than "bright"--and that is being charitable.
The author is overgeneralizing, but he is overgeneralizing the experiences of an intelligent person--experiences you would not understand.
You are no "nerd," though you would like to be one.
Warden
So you want to be the warden? Being well indoctinated/book smart is not to be mistaken for intelligence and wisdom. How many insults can you come up with for those who don't share the same academic interest as you? I bet you didn't have many friends a still don't. Your comment is rude and judgemental of all who did not or do not learn by your standards and also suggests that you would have done as well or even better educating yourself if you had access to the materials needed. It takes a more self motivated person to learn without wardens than one who has to be controled every step of the way. You obviously learned nothing about people skills,which is ironic because that is what society tries to relate to home schooled kids. I would be curious to know what you do for a living. You seem like a very ill adjusted miserable person. Are you trying to blame the other inmates for your lack of success? My daughter (who was home schooled) is a teacher and plans to home school her children. Not being in "prison" allowed her to excell and she started college at 14. You gave this article alot af validity with your comment. It seems prison left you in need of rehabilitation.
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School is Prison
You need to re-read Crime and Punishment and.....you seriously missed the point of this article. That's too bad.
School is prison
I didn't like school and I didn't like the teachers who were always moody for a reason or another; however, I never considered school as a prison and I didn't have a great time there especially in elementary. When in high school, I didn't seem to understand what the teachers wanted from me. Math was a nightmare and so was chemistry. I have more a linguistic and artistic intelligence. Although I struggled to understand some mandatory subject, I never considered school as a prison. The result? My point? I became a teacher, not because I wanted to be a teacher, I actually wanted to be a flight attendant at that time (1985). I fell into the profession and I realized that it was what I wanted to be. It's a vocation not a job and I show it during my classes during which I never lecture. I made of this vocation a mission to change the way teachers are, BORING!!! We are made to go to school, but it doesn't mean that teachers can't make school more enjoyable. Teachers are boring, and I am a teacher and I enjoy being in class. I am never bored. If I am bored, then my kids will be bored. Boring subject? Nope, there are only boring teachers. All subject can be fun. It just take a lot of work in making them fun.
"We were MADE to go to
"We were MADE to go to school" ???? seriously? At what point does this make sense. Do I believe The 3 R's are important? ABSOLUTELY!!! But that doesn't mean that being in school full time, spending MOST of the time waiting for other kids until your turn, or sitting quietly (so as not to disturb all the other kids around you) doing a worksheet that every ____ grader in the state is doing because they are all the same age, is what we were MADE for.
There is absolutely NO proof that we were CREATED to sit in chairs and direct our attention to a single authority figure (at a time) in order to hear and hope to regurgitate what HE/SHE says is important to learn at the given age. We hope that students will drink in what is taught, but most do not. And the fact is that, AS WAS STATED IN THIS ARTICLE, we are actually STUNTING the growth and enjoyment of learning new things by removing any semblance of a child's drives and interest leading their learning.
In Defense of the Book
I think Peter Gray is right, that many students feel like school is prison. But I think he missed the entire point of Willingham's book, which is to answer the question "Why kids don't like school"--which he claims is left unanswered in this text. Actually, Willingham answers this question throughout his entire book, but perhaps it wasn't spelled out explicitly enough for Mr. Gray.
Students do feel like school is prison...but the real question you should be asking yourself is WHY students feel this way. Again, the answer was provided in every chapter: because the learning environment is inappropriate. Students aren't provided with appropriate challenges for their cognitive abilities, their learning isn't appropriately assessed, and the way material is presented is still mostly lecture-and-notes style.
Willingham uses his knowledge of how the mind works, how people learn to provide suggestions for educators to implement into their classrooms so learning becomes an enjoyable experience...and thus, Mr. Gray, resulting in school not feeling like a prison anymore.
Ignoring the elephant
Thanks for your defense of the book. I in fact agree with many of Willingham's ideas about how to present material in standard classrooms. I've published articles and given talks about very similar ideas, as applied to college teaching. However, the point of my essay here is that Willingham is wrong if he thinks that children hate school primarily because of the way teachers present material. They hate school primarily because they are not free in school. The lack of freedom also restricts their learning, no matter how good the teacher. That is the point of my whole series of essays. I invite you to look back at some of the earlier ones. I have grown tired of books by educators and cognitive scientists who believe that if only teachers would do this or that, then the problems of schools would be solved. The real problem is the forced nature of schooling. In a book entitled "Why students hate school," Willingham should at least have mentioned the possibility that they hate it because they love freedom, and in school they are not free. -Peter
Hacking at the Roots of the Problem
Peter,
As an educational psychologist, early childhood teacher educator, and unschooling parent, I believe you're truly hacking at the roots of our problems. To not satisfy children's autonomy needs essentially ensures motivation, learning, emotional, and behavioral problems, but it's so awkward for people to question the compulsory nature of schooling. I put in my university syllabi that students are free to attend whenever they choose to and I encourage them to walk out if I am wasting their time. Oddly, they consider this truly remarkable, although they all switch channels when bored, stop reading books when they become uninteresting, etc. We have come to believe that education is something that others largely do to you, whch is a big part of the problem. Of course, we've had these unhealthy ideas for more than a century, so we've built up pretty strong rationalizations in their defense.
Most educational research is also deeply flawed for this reason--instead of asking what's the best way to learn to read given the goals we value most for children, it really asks, what's the best way to MAKE children learn to read, assuming children will be controlled in an authoritarian way and assuming teacher will decide what children will have to read, when they will read it, etc. In reality, learning to read is relatively easy for most children (and much less expensive, and no homework and no tears) if we immerse them in a literate culture and remove these controls. The coercion at the center of our schooling is at the root of many of our most intractable education problems.
Educational Research Deeply Flawed
Karl, thank you for these comments. I especially appreciate your second paragraph. I have had some lively discussions with researches studying reading. They argue, with evidence, that the "whole word" method is vastly inferior to the phonics-first method of teaching reading. I have no doubt that they are right, within the context of traditional schooling. But I have been interested in how children learn to read without schooling, and, you are right, they learn it very easily (at whatever age they become interested in it). And they learn it, right from the beginning, much as they learn oral language--as a mode of communication. -- If you know some independent work related to this, I would love to hear about it.
-Peter
How to make kids want to read by themselves
There is a easy way to accomplish teaching reading,is a technique used by Jaques Fresco,basically he would read every night part of his son favorite book,then he would stop and say it was enough for the night,and, each day would read less , the kid wanted to hear more and got annoyed , so one day he said "well if you want to hear the rest , why not learn to read? you can read when you want and what you want,isnt it amazing?" some time after the kid tried learning for himself with the tools jaque gave and a little assistence,so in my opinion part of the solution is give kids motivation to learn for themselves for pratical things,wich they understand can enhance theyre couriosity and be a tool of independence.
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Not this but that
Willingham's title reveals the limits of negation. If he had been in the habit of stating things in the positive, he might have focused instead on "What students prefer to being in School."
Great answer
Wish you weren't anonymous, because that was a great answer.
challenge
School is prison when it is FORCED. That means that you don't have a choice...it doesn't matter whether or not you like it! Not all school is prison, because not all school is forced. Like college, or ballet classes. Even though homeschooling is popular and accepted now, a lot of people had to break the law before it was allowed, and parents had child protection and child welfare coming after them and pretty much scaring them and forcing them to send their kids to school. FYI.
Reply to Marik Bromine
Oh, I wholeheartedly disagree with you. Saying that all children dislike school is not an assumption, it is a fact, and a reality. In reality, I do not understand how you were raised to look at school so I cannot comment on how legitimate your claim is about "loving" school. Your whole respond shows your eagerness to elevate yourself, making yourself seem higher then other. Good attempt but no fly I'm afraid. Reality is simple. People do what they LIKE not what they are told to do, hence the prison argument. No one is born to be "stupid". Our evolutionary line has made our brain a one of a kind of compared to the the rest of the specie. Everyone is smart, in the subject that they are naturally in tuned to. Your attempt to say that some people are superior to other, flipper of burgers and etc is a result of "stupid" people is wrong. People flip burger for many different reasons. One reason is because their parent and society pressure them to do well in "school", or prison, and when they couldn't do well in the prison they are made believe that they are "stupid" and so they look down on themselves. In reality they could've been geniuses at whatever they were naturally made to be genius but it's tragic that they never found out because instead of allowing them to do well in what they are naturally meant they are told to do what they are not.
it depends
I hate school and am a very intelligent person but really it depends on the child many children need to cultivate and nurture there own ideas and learn in there own way but are told what ideas to have and what to do think and imagine instead of nurturing what is already there. But others like routine think inside the box do not mind being told what to do because they may not have the imagination to learn naturally and need someone to tell them how to learn Thomas Edison was a brilliant man but was at the bottom of the class for having his own ideas and seeking to help them develop but because of his prison fared quite badly in school and you are making vast generalizations many kids' minds cannot be squeezed into a cookie cutter they need to learn in their own way you obviously did not need all that but being condescending towards those who view school as a prison you your self sound like quite the incompetent one.
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"To the insentient, yes,
"To the insentient, yes, school was a prison because it did not permit them to be distractions to my education, school is a prison to the willfully dumb, school holds cell-block status to the unevolved, to the future burger-flippers, to the eventual gutter-dwellers and trailer trash, to the couch potato, channel surfer, aspartame-licking, high fructose-glazed consumers wallowing mindlessly in the pit of their own fetid stink, and in a way it's merely practice for their eventual later incarceration."
I bet you think you're so smart; that you are not "one of them". But let's go with this assumption that people who did not enjoy school are barely human. Is it your right to force them into an institution they have no desire to associate with? I can't see the pragmatic argument for it either, after all, those "unruly idiots" were obstacles to your process of learning. It appears you would voluntarily attend regardless if you were threatened or not.
You're rationalizing the problem of school acting as a prison with "Well, those kids were insentient morons anyway". However, that is a hasty (and disgusting) generalization itself. Unless you are willing to claim everyone who did not enjoy school is automatically an idiot, that is.
School is prison for everyone
I am a junior in high school. I have straight A's in honors and AP classes, along with a clear discipline record. I have some of the highest standardized testing scores in Massachusetts. And yet, I hate school with a burning passion. The kids there are so painfully stupid. School is prison when you are trapped with complete imbeciles and are forced into a sleep schedule that is scientifically wrong. You can only go to the bathroom when you are permitted, only eat when you are permitted, are fed Grade D meat (read Fast Food Nation). Tell me again how school is only prison for stupid kids.
People like you make me sick to the core
Anonymous wrote:I am a junior in high school. I have straight A's in honors and AP classes, along with a clear discipline record. I have some of the highest standardized testing scores in Massachusetts. And yet, I hate school with a burning passion. The kids there are so painfully stupid. School is prison when you are trapped with complete imbeciles and are forced into a sleep schedule that is scientifically wrong. You can only go to the bathroom when you are permitted, only eat when you are permitted, are fed Grade D meat (read Fast Food Nation). Tell me again how school is only prison for stupid kids.
here is a reason why I get horrible grades I am constantly sleeping in class and ignoring the teachers and school is prison cause your basically wasting 18 years of your live for jack shit and most of this stuff you don't even need only if necessary for what your gonna do
To me school is a prison because since Im about to wasted 18 years of my life I can't do shit in this world cause I got school in my way and all I have ever wanted to do is watch anime own a small room in a apartment while 24/7 watching anime and reading manga while I'm living in Japan I could buy tons of merchandise but know I can't cause school is blocking off my dreams and I have already realized how disgusting reality is hell IM already a NEET as it is
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You don't seem very nice
I am a 5th grade student. I think what you are saying is incorrect. Firstly, you don't seem very nice. You should listen to the teachers and pay attention; that way, you can learn interesting things. If you sleep in class and pay little attention to your teachers, you are being disrespectful to them. Second, you won't use everything you learn in school, but you should think of school as a way to teach you how to learn. It may sound funny, but this is a useful skill. Finally, you do not seem too intelligent. Your grammar is awful, you swear, you get horrible grades, and you just want to watch anime and read manga, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, 10 years a decade, 100 years a century, 1,000 years a millennium (although I don't believe you'll live a century or millenium). That's not a good future goal. In conclusion, if you hate school and act like this, I don't believe you're a good role model for other young people.
You haven't seen the worst of it
I don't have much time here, as I have around 2 hours' worth of geometry homework to do (one of the many problems with the American school system), so I'll make this quick.
"I am a 5th grade student... what you are saying is incorrect"
This is one of the reasons you're posting this comment; you haven't even seen how bad school can truly be. Take the above point: I have 2 hours' worth of geometry homework. For the field I would like to go into as an adult (computer science), this is entirely unnecessary. The 2 hours I spend doing geometry work could just as well be spent learning JS, Python, or any other programming language. By continuing to make school as regimented as it is, America is forcing children to cram unnecessary information into their brains and not leave time for information relevant to their field.
"You should listen to the teachers and pay attention... you are being disrespectful to them"
Ah, I see. We're going to ignore what teachers do to us, examples of which being:
-enforcing unhealthy lifestyles by piling on work and tests
-treating students with little to no respect
"...think of school as a way to teach you how to learn."
Please tell me you're kidding. The method which school uses to make us "learn" desecrates the very meaning of education and learning. Highly regimented schedules, unhealthy cramming (this becomes mandatory in Honors classes or later), and staying put at a desk for ~7 hours is a horrible method of learning.
"Finally, you do not seem too intelligent."
This entire section is a train wreck. For starters, swearing should NEVER be used to determine a person's intelligence. Take myself, for example. By yours and the school system's definition of smart, I am taking the highest leveled classes in my grade (Geometry and Biology as an 8th grader); however, I have the tendency to curse like a sailor, somehow invalidating me from being smart. This is a clear contradiction. Furthermore, you bring up horrible grades. The school system's definition of smart is incredibly unreliable, as people who got C's and D's have ended up being incredibly successful in the real world, while those with A's and B's end up unsuccessful because school does not prepare them for the real world. Partly in addition to my first point, you bring up a passion for anime and manga as a bad thing. While I do agree that wanting to live in Japan based off of the anime/manga stereotype is a horrible idea (Japan overlooks mental disorders and views foreigners as lesser beings), a passion for anime/manga can lead to a successful career as a freelance animator or comic book artist.
"In conclusion, if you hate school... I don't believe you're a good role model for other young people."
Mhm, he could be a horrible role model for children. Or he could be one of the people on School Survival's successful dropouts page. Oops, did I let that slip?
Yes, school can be improved! I understand.
Yes. I understand that it can be improved. You have done a very good job of harnessing the system, and for that you must be commended. While the basic ideas of any education system are generally OK, (educate children on what is needed to make informed votes and be prosperous) the execution is quite lack-luster. Much of this varies by state, so you should take anything I say with a grain of salt. I may have insulted you for cursing. I apologize, sometimes stuff gets bad. I will mention Louis Rossmann several times at the end: You should check him out. He will teach you a lot, and might even change your life.
I.
"The 2 hours I spend doing
geometry work could just as well be spent learning JS, Python, or any other
programming language."
On your specific type of education, I believe that there should only be the vocation (with any other subjects required to do that vocation absorbed into shop week), and civics (we need good citizenship). While you can do some to alleviate the amount of homework, (namely using some time after schoolwork is complete) when you have two hours of homework, it is impossible to finish it all on, for instance, the bus. Not to sound patronizing, but your day might be somewhat alleviated by using time on the bus for some homework. I understand that this is hard to do.
II. "enforcing unhealthy lifestyles by piling on work and tests"
and "treating students with little to no respect".
Yes. Much of what you say is based around the conditions of school while you are there. I can understand these problems. It is always easier to go through it when you have a direct plan of how to get there. The school system is not ideal, much less the world. But this is about whether children should hate it or not. If a bridge was very uncomfortably thin, but it got you from Tijuana to some middle class place in the US (this is just an analogy), you would still cross it. To complete the analogy, the bridge is somewhat old and creaky. We, as children/teens should encourage each other to use this system, as bitter as it tastes, to build a better tomorrow for ourselves and maybe our family.
"Or he could be one of
the people on School Survival's successful dropouts page"
I don't even need to go to that page to find a heartwarming example of a miracle. Louis Rossmann was a school dropout. He went down and down and down, until he left a call center for an insurance company when he started to be asked to do the kinds of immoral things that helped wreck this country. He took his last $200 and founded Rossmann Repair Shop, with an extension cord, soldering iron, and Central Park. His company survived, and now is working with several hundred thousand dollars and has successfully opened a new branch. I will not dump on this man. He did the righteous choice to leave that company. But I would not want to use his story as a path to follow, romantic as it is, and here's why: 1/3 of businesses do not survive beyond 2 years. And most of these businesses start on the kinds of money only accessible to people that either already own a business or got a job through *breathes heavily* the (imperfect) educational system. They do not just start out on a few hundred bucks. The Successful Dropouts page is filled with people that were similarly saved from destruction by miracles.
The last thing I have to say on the topic is that yes. Education is not perfect. But until someone actually comes into office and finds a happy medium between low and high standards and respects the home conditions of all students, rich and poor, we do ourselves a major disservice to not use the flawed education system to the best effect to maybe, just maybe, have a brighter future.
PS: I was quite a bit more judgemental at the time I wrote this than now. I apologize for any offense taken during the reading of the first comment. You can get some REAL education on how to run a life, or even a business (if/when you ever choose to) by typing in Louis Rossman to the Youtube search bar, specifically the Core Philosophies and Business Rants. I wish you a good day, whenever you read this.
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Challenge
The fallacy of your argument rests on the notion that a prison is defined by a person's emotional reaction. You argue that because you liked school it is not a prison, but people can and do like being in prison. You happen to be one of those people. You were forcibly confined and deprived autonomy. So what if you enjoyed that?
Death to School
To me I have always hated school even as a middle schooler
I have never once enjoyed being in school not even for a second. And here's how school is prison relate school to this school has stripped 18 years away from my life well it's about to be 18 years luckily I'm gonna ditch college soon when I finally escape I'm gonna make enough money and because I value anime more than I value my own life I'm moving to Japan I'm gonna rent a small room in a apartment and just gonna by and sell for higher prices off the internet soon I shall be free I could already see the light it's so beautiful well I shall see you on the other side piece :)
On your comment.
You seem as if you will not get a well paying white collar job. Woe to you, for if you go to Japan you will have such high cost of living that you will have no choice but to commit suicide. The constraint of 20 years is worth the enjoyment of the 80 years after.
Ok Sheldon . . .
School can be a place of learning for all if it is treated like an opportunity or a job. But, the coercive and repressive techniques used by many public school administrators today to 'keep students in line' is why I believe that many high school teens, in particular, find school to be a prison. The bars and detectors in and out of these 'hallowed halls' also lend credence to this idea. Somehow all students have to suffer for the failure of School Administrations nationally to do their jobs. Typical of Government bureaucratic autocracy.
I remember the many unfair accusations levied against me in High School by various teachers and staff that were always unfounded. I had no defense against these things and felt then and still feel today that I was singled out because 'I didn't fit'.
This engendered in me a long standing distrust of Government in all of its forms. I question every law and the drivers for them now. School taught me that those in power over me could do what they wished with impunity. They weren't there to help me, but to exploit me and if that harmed me in the process than so be it. I was a number in the rolls that could be added up to afford better funding due to 'excellent attendance' metrics. That funding could then go to lining the pockets of superintendants and principals leaving teachers and students in the cold.
Oddly enough, I see this same situation in my local, state, and federally 'elected' representatives and especially in the scum they hire to run their bureaucracies. Go to any DMV in California and feel how disempowered you are as a citizen. You are treated like a criminal the minute you walk in. You are depersonalized and you are repeatedly reminded that 'if you don't get in this line at the right time you won't get the only legal means by which you can transport yourself to work'.
Go to a Social Security office and you'll be made to feel like a beggar.
School is no different, particularly if you are in a public school. You are an unwashed mass that needs to understand its place. Yes you are an 'IT' to them.
So, this whole 'school is prison' deal is symptomatic of a much bigger problem we are having in the US. All of us in the 'underclass' are losing our freedoms because we don't have the money to buy back our freedoms.
To me, public school administration has failed our communities in the most potent way possible. They have allowed are children to be murdered en masse under their watch. This is what they think of us. We aren't worth defending.
FIRE them all and replace this whole system with something responsive to the soverienty of the American People.
ALL of them...from the President down.
Only then can we have people that respect us enough to remember they WORK for us!
God Bless America and Be Free Again
I concur
As an educator in one of the nation's largest inner city school districts, I would fully agree with Marik. When you get down to brass tacks, life is a prison. A large majority of the population will spend their lives working in a job that will also feel like a prison. A substantial portion of my student population is likely to experience real prison. The benefit for them ... no one will be trying to teach them anything and they won't have to work. It doesn't take Nostradamus to predict which students it will be, and if we could use that foresight and remove these students from their current prison, where all they are achieving is gumming up the works for teachers and students that want an education (or at the very least know they need an education). These are the students that ruin every facet of school including free time, lunch time, break time and all the times that they are given freedom. Does their naturally inherited ability to learn include the fist fights, destruction of property, bullying, cursing, touching others inappropriately, behaving disrespectfully to staff and visitors alike? I ask because that is what happens at my school. So, now our school does operate like a prison.
In the end, everyone is in a prison. We ALL have to do things we don't enjoy, that don't inspire us, that bore us, or that we just don't want to do. We ALL are accountable to someone and we will ALL be told what to do at several points in our life. School is the perfect preparation for this. For those who don't want it, enjoy the prison life. Once again, you won't have to work or learn, so it should be like heaven.
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Way it Spozed to Be
Louis,
You sound just like the Principal Mr. Grisson in James Herndon's "Way it Spozed to Be"!
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