Why Do People Go to School - Essay Example

Why do people go to school? People go to school because they want a successful life. People have the perception that schools ensure a successfullife. Most people believe that having a well recognized qualification will get them a good job (the general idea of a good job is that pays well). So people go to school because they want to earn more money when they complete their education. To me, that is the plain motivation behind sending children to school. I completely agree with the image which Paul Murray’s wife gets at the thought of Tim (their child) not going to school. She thinks that if Tim doesn’t go to school, in twenty years, he will end up under a bridge living on beer and social security. That is exactly why people send their children to school. They want to see them successful as lawyers, doctors, artists, engineers and all the jobs that pay well. But I don’t agree with Paul when he says that when children go to school wearing uniforms, they look like as if they are being drafted into something. To a certain point in the school career, children need to learn the basics, that is necessary. No one is pressing and molding children into robots by sending them to schools. There is a reason why there is a greater number of successful people who went to school than those who didn’t. While at school, children don’t only delve into their books, there is a whole package to school education. For instance the extra-curricular activities are not directly related with job hunting but, they are necessary for overall grooming and development of body and mind, which is something people get as a side dish when they get school education. When a person goes to school, he meets new people, makes new friends, deals with them in dorms. School education teaches students how to meet deadlines on their assignments and juggle huge work loads of various subjects. That is why when an employer hires a person who has gone to school knows that that person is good at time management and multitasking. Paul Murray probably has the same idea about education and learning as John Holt. Unschooling is a term coined by John Holt in referring to custom learning. This type of learning has a purpose not for the schools or college admins but for the students who are learning those things. There is no imposing of any kind on the child. If he is interested in hot rods, his interest might lead him to learn the mechanics of an engine or even building a complete automobile. Who can disagree with such a brilliant concept about education? But my disagreement is on practicality of such a notion. Unschooling is a relatively new idea and is driven by the motto, ‘Trust Children’. It will need a lot of time to seep into the mainstream education system. Getting a school education pays off both in the short and long run. Many people take great pride in only saying that they possess some specific degree or they went to some prestigious institute. They should feel proud because if people do not go to school, other peoples and specially employers think that they are not serious about their life or they do not have enough courage and hard work in them to attain their life goals. With good education comes many benefits which include improved work environment, health benefits and a an educated social community. People might not know all these things when they take their children to school on their first day but in the back of their minds they have this idea embedded in them which drives them to get school education for their child. It is true that whatever there is to learn at school can be learnt on the outside but not everyone is that determined to learn things on their own. Learning out of school demands sacrifices as much as they demand in a school or college but the difference is that there is no supervision on what when an individual learns, which is the hardest part of getting education outside schools. In schools, people have to follow work schedule and assignment deadlines, they simply ‘have to’ do all of their work. When the same person is on his own and there is no apparent deadline, why would he go to the libraries and research the material only to do one paper? People have done that, even some of the greatest literary and scientific minds got educated out of school but not everyone is Einstein! There is a concrete reason as to why everyone wants to get education at the best rated institutes. It is because it guarantees a better job. Individual do play their role in getting a better job but no one can deny the fact that a hiring employer unconsciously makes a positive perception in his mind when a candidate is a Harvard graduate. Everyone needs that extra edge in their job hunt. That is why so much investment is done in entry tests both monetary and study hours of the most popular schools and colleges of the world. The Walls family is a classic example of an ‘unschooled learning’ from Jeannette Walls’s novel The Glass Castle. Rex (Jeannette’s father) is a genius and has learnt a lot on his own. John Holt argues that such an education can be learnt outside of school while some do get useful education at various educational institutes but many children waste their time in pursuit of such skills because either they are not interested in those skills in the first place or they are not interested in the whole package of that subject which requires them to learn a lot of things that seem trivial to them. But that is one glitch or a technical fault in school education. It only needs improvement and not to trash the whole concept of schooling over Unschooling. Considering a hypothetical situation, had Rex Walls had sent his children to regular schools, he would had to get a decent regular job like everyone else and his children would not have to steal lunch from other school mates and root trash cans for food. But demonstrating Unschooling, what Rex and her wife taught their children about literature, art, music, history, astronomy, geology, and mathematics added so much useful knowledge to their children’s learning but character training was completely absent from. And that is why such an intelligent and knowledgeable family had to live their lives like nomads.   I don’t disagree with Paul Murray and John Holt on the basic idea about education and it is a fact that deep down inside, no one wants to go to school as it is hard work. But I need more pragmatic solutions to their idea of not going to school or Unschooling. Loitering around, doing nothing, watching movies, playing in the parks and sleep when tired, sounds like a dream life but imagine if everyone starts doing this, then there would be no more technicians and engineers to run a TV station. There would be no journalists and writers to play interesting news on TV and publish interesting books and magazines. Like food and water, knowledge or education is the basic necessity of a successful life and school education is one safe way to achieve that. Works Cited Following, The. "The Glass Castle Summary at WikiSummaries, Free Book Summaries."Main Page Summary at WikiSummaries, Free Book Summaries. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. . Holt J. Three Sets of Info by or About John Holt, 16 Dec. 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html Murray, Paul. "Back to School - NYTimes.com." NY Times Advertisement. 04 Sept. 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. . Read More