Education in its broadest sense is a process of getting new knowledge and skills both through primary socialization and special facilities. It forms a foundation for human development, a basis for a happy and prosperous future for any child. Therefore education by itself is multi-layered and involves both families and schools. At the same time, the very essence of education is unclear. The main question is whether a child should learn how to think independently and become able to defend their own opinion on a given issue or if it is more important to form certain patterns of behavior, necessary for survival in the harsh world of adults. In this paper, I will present two points of view on the essence of education and argue that, while it is important to provide the knowledge about certain patterns of behavior, the families should leave this task to schools, focusing on development of their children as independent thinkers, able to critically evaluate any issue and successfully defend one’s own perspective on it.
In the article, titled “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls”, Katha Pollitt poses a question – should the parents teach their children certain patterns of expected behavior on the basis of their gender or not? The author highlights the positive changes brought to the society by feminism. She claims that the roles in a family or community are not as strictly divided as they used to be:
“Three-year-olds may indeed insist that doctors are male and nurses female, even if their own mother is a physician. Six-year-olds know better. These days, something like half of all medical students are female, and male applications to nursing school are inching upward. When tomorrow's 3-year-olds play doctor, who's to say how they'll assign th...
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...tion, claiming that the parents must focus on teaching their children how to think independently. If parents, trying to make their children’s life easier, simply promote stereotypical behavior, we will have a mass of mediocre citizens. However, if the parents motivate their children to verify before trusting and make up their own mind before taking sides, no school can modify such individuals or turn them into a silent rule-abiding conformist. Then the only thing that the creators of the system would be capable of doing is (and here I agree with Gatto) managing themselves. So let’s allow them do it!
Works Cited
Gatto, John Taylor. Against school: how public education cripples our kids, and why. Harper’s Magazine 307.1840 (Sept 2003): 33-38. Print.
Pollitt, Katha. Hers; Why Boys Don't Play With Dolls. New York Times Magazine 08 Oct. 1995. Web. 10 Apr. 2011.
Nontraditional gender socialisation can help the child develop a more complete understanding of their personality, that takes both their feminine traits and masculine traits into consideration. This can be illustrated by Jeremy telling his mother that he got to be “a complete person” (Bem, 1998, p. 190), when asked how his upbringing enhanced his life. Further this type of parenting allows the child to be more analytical of traditional gender roles and how they might be present and potentially affect their lives. This can make them more aware of them, and could help them avoid or fight against negative effects that might arise from their presents. This can often be advantageous. Bem educated her children about traditional gender roles and their negative aspects, like sexism, and through this allowed them to have the tools to identify them early on, like Emily did in nursery school (Bem, 1998, p. 119-120). When children are being educated about traditional gender roles and their disadvantages they have an easier time identifying them later on and possibly fighting
Many Americans do not question the credibility of the education system within the country because they believe it forms good citizens and creates a stepping-stone to success. John Taylor Gatto is an American teacher who has experience in the classroom for thirty years and has now devoted his life to critiquing American schools exploiting his own experiences. In his essay “Against School”, he argues that the 12-year system of school may not be necessary, due to its curriculum, and that it may be a tactic of manipulation from the government to promote obedience. I agree with his argument because there are many paths to individual success outside of public education, such as homeschooling or vocational school.
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
Although our school system is in need of change, the film did not consider the part parental involvement plays in education, a drawback of the film. Education spending in our country has more than doubled in recent decades, but children in most states have proficiency rates of only 20 or 30 percent in math and reading (Weber 6). One must wonder if, with all of this extra spending and consistently low test scores, the problem goes beyond the school system and into American families. After all, even with small class sizes, the amount of one-on-one attention is limited for each student. Isn’t it up to parents to push their children to succeed? Amy Chua, author of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother uses an almost militant form of parenting which – though highly controversial – demands nothing short of excellence from her children. While other children were allowed to ride their bikes or play video games with their friends, Chua demanded that her seven-year-old daughter practice t...
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
Even though our country supports equality in gender, differences still exist. This issue of gender and sexuality of our society has had one of the biggest impacts in my life since I was raised with five brothers. Since birth, I was immediately perceived by my parents as my gender role of girl and daughter. My brothers were given action figures, cars, and guns to play with. I was given the traditional girl toys Barbies, baby dolls and kitchen sets. Of course, I enjoyed my traditional girl toys but it might have been nice to have a choice and be able to have the same toys as my brothers to play with. I eventually concluded that I should be satisfied with whatever toys were given to me by my parents.
John Taylor Gatto in his essay “Against School” explains the lack of motivation that students have to the educational system of the USA. He also explains the damage that the system makes to both, students and teachers, by the non-interesting topics they are taught in class. Furthermore, he enlightens the indifference of students towards the teacher, seem as incompetent and unprepared. In addition, he also highlights the dark side of the school system which intends to brainwash and rescind the ideas from students. He addresses a main goal of the educational system; convert juveniles into the next docile and manageable generation. Wherefore, he proposes an educational system that should be structured and not controlled. In addition, he demonstrates
Conant is responsible for having most of the Prussian education system in most of US high schools like the nine months of school years, and the attendance of thousands of students that go to the same high school (Gatto 36). The Prussian’s system wanted to manipulate a person’s abilities to favor the government, to damage the students’ critical thinking by implying their own standard to create a governable society (Gatto 36). The standardized testing leaves students who didn’t have a good score in the test to be placed in low-level classes. Gatto says that government 's purpose is to assign a group of people to complete the mission of watching over and controlling a society whose expectations are low so that the government can lead without being challenged or questioned (37). In that case, parents and teachers should work together to encourage every student to do their best to not let the government put a hold on their dreams and
Gender Socialization plays a big part in a child’s life in shaping their femininty and masculinity. Every child is brought with to have played with at least one toy to have called their own. Now, the purpose of the research that has been conducted is to take a further look into how toys that is sold through stores and played by children. This will then give hindsight as to how what is considered the gender norm has a part in gender role stereotyping and the affect these toys have on children view of gender characteristics.
Furthermore, Vygotsky declares that knowledge is constructed by social interactions with people who surround the child. The author also presents the concept of “zone of proximal development” as the distance between what children do without any supervision and what they are not able to achieve unless a more knowledgeable person guides them through it. In other words, the zone of proximal development refers to activities children cannot do, though they manage to fulfill with certain level of difficulty by following their better skilled fellows' suitable guidance. In the educational field, teachers play an essential role on their learners’ developmental process. Educators serve as models and provide a vast range of learning opportunities that enable their students reach their next level of development and become more autonomous each
From the very beginning of history, women were portrayed to be insignificant in comparison to men in society. A woman 's purpose was deemed by men to be housewives, bear children and take care of the household chores. Even so, that at a young age girls were being taught the chores they must do and must continue through to adulthood. This ideal that the woman’s duty was to take charge of household chores was then passed through generations, even til this day. However, this ideology depends on the culture and the generation mothers were brought up in and what they decide to teach their daughters about such roles. After women were given the opportunity to get an education and treated as equals, society’s beliefs undertook a turning point on women’s roles in society. Yet, there still seems to be a question amongst women in search of self identity and expectations from parents.
John Taylor Gatto, in his essay “Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and why”, argues that the contemporary purpose of education in public schools is to produce “harmless electorate,” “a servile labor force,” and “mindless consumers” (28). According to Gatto, he is blaming public schools by explain that the purpose of education is to shape students to certain expectations and habits without their interests. He argues that students “want to be doing something real” (Gatto 23). Also, He explains that they produce a manageable working class and “mindless consumers” (27-28). His point is that students want to learn something new that help them in their life better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience (23). So he recommends home-schooling as option to schools (24). Gatto claims that contemporary schools “adopted one of the very worst aspect...
In Katha Pollitt’s essay “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls,” she explains the differences between the genders and she argues how feminist movements are hardly appreciated. Pollitt further demonstrates that women’s have the same power as any men have, but society doesn’t let women get higher than men. Pollitt explains that, “It’s twenty-eight years since the founding of NOW, and boys still like trucks and girls still like dolls” (544). From here, we can infer that the author is comparing the activities of boys and girls, and their choices of toys. Since, I am able to read and see the World, I saw that all the time that boys are more rivalry. There have always been presumptions in society that boys are very outgoing and bold, on the other hand, whereas girls are a little laid back sometimes. Girls play quietly and with non-hunting objects. However, boys always make noises. In addition, Pollitt keeps using the word “feminism” throughout her essay, and talks about how women and men should have equal rights. For example girls can do the same things as boys can do or vice versa. I can relate to this story as I grew up with two brothers who always played with cars, trucks, and other toys like dragons, but I was expected to stay away from their things and go play with my, so called, girly stuff.
Gender-neutral parenting is a method for raising children, used by parents who have a passion to teach non-sexism and social justice to their children (Dumas 2014). It is rooted in a desire to maintain a child’s individuality and offer more outlets for self-exploration. For example, parents do not restrict their child, regardless of a boy or girl, to wear pink or blue, play with Barbie dolls or fire engines. Parents allow their child to freely explore what they are passionate about without attaching any labels. The concept of raising children with gender-neutral identities is considered feminist and extremely radical. Butler (1990) argues that gender is performative, arguing that the naturalness of gender is something that we do rather than something we are. Parents have the most influence on the gendering of children during infancy, foremost in handling expectations for behavior. They are also responsible for their own behavior as it related to the treatment of
In this era, males and females both uphold household duties. Children watch and learn from their environment. A boy watching his father care for an infant is going to want to imitate his father. Playing with a doll is simply following what he has seen his father do. Taking away the doll is taking away that child’s future as a nurturing father (Gioia, 2010). Many men feel that their male child playing with a doll is not teaching him to be tough and will negatively impact their future, when in fact the boy will learn how to care and use their imagination by playing with dolls (Epand). Females are often praised when they are gentle and nurturing, while boys are not- causing boys to r...