Do Not Learn as a Machine Essay

Its twelve at night. Tons of papers and a cup of coffee on the desk wide-awake for pulling an any-nighter. Studying for the exam tomorrow, cramming rafts of class- nones and materials. Students be fighting for an A. However, what do we expect them to fit from it? Is it heretofore beneficial to them? After all, most students go out almost eitherthing as soon as they finish the exam. App atomic number 18ntly, there be virtually fundamental riddles in our current educational system.In the cardinal essays, The Banking plan of Education by Paulo Freire, Against nurture by John Taylor Gatto and The proceeding of Desire by Richard Rodriguez, the authors realize different problems of the educational system and pack different opinions well-nigh it. In my point of view, the main problem in the current educational system is that it pull aheads students to receive teaching meekly, without doubting, questioning or even observeing the material. As a result, these students rese mble machines which acquire many an(prenominal) facts still foundation barely develop their own critical thinking.The three aforementioned authors have differing opinions on the current educational system, but they all describe it as a system where students merely receive information but do not lowgo critical thinking. In Against School, Gatto states that the educational system is a scheme the government uses to make people more(prenominal) manageable by reducing their critical judgment. To achieve this, school append processs of any question to the students. It works because Easy answers have removed the destiny to direct questions (Gatto 155). It is true.Since students were taught in their early life that teachers are absolutely right, and that they should follow the authorities, as a result, most of them do not judge the teachers explanations. As they grow up, students tend to determine the answers from books or teachers instead of figuring the answer out by themselves . Thus, their critical and original thinking have been blotted out completely under this educational system. Moreover, the boredom of schooling flourishingly removes the students speciality which drive them to ask questions. A similar idea appears in The Banking Concept of Education.Freire uses the term banking system to describe the educational system where the teachers deposit a large amount of acquaintance on the students. Students soon become receptacles which race only as far as receiving, filling, and storing the deposits (Freire 1). These students do not understand how the information related to the real world, and house neither apply the intimacy to the real world problem nor develop their own critical thinking. In The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez mainly describes his early life as a successful student.It confounds a concrete example to support Gatto and Freires opinion. As he describes himself as a great mimic a accumulator register of conceits, not a thinker (203), it fits Gatto and Freires description about the educational system, that even a considerably successful student could not realize critical and original thinking. Under this type of educational system, students try to find their way to achieve high scores. However, it turns out that the best way to be successful in this system isnt the best way to uplift.In the essays, the authors describe how the successful student is like. According to Freire, The more meekly the receptacles tolerate themselves to be filled, the better students they are (1). In order to be considered advanced under this system, students need to receive a large amount of facts on a superficial level. The best strategy is not to think, not to question, sightly believe and memorize it. Freire observes a phenomena in which teachers talk about limit which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them (1).In this way, students acquire tons of facts and maybe enhance their mem orization ability, but fail to understand how these facts are connected to the daily life. In The Achievement of Desire, Rodriguez realizes that he was the worst student, even though he was considered successful in the system. He becomes in every obvious way the worst student, a dummy mouthing the opinions of others. But he would not be so badnor would he become so successful, a scholarship male childif he did not accurately perceive that the best synonym for primary education is imitation (203).The scholarship boy noticed that the best way to succeed in this system is to imbibe and copy the ideas of others. Clearly we know that this is not the way to evolve, as training requires original processes. Therefore, it can be concluded that organism successful in the educational system is not the same as being successful in learning. My experience supports this. Some teachers in my high school ask students to memorize all the model answers to every possible question that readiness be asked on the standardized test, but do not give explanations or have activities which could actually help students understand.The aim of teaching would so become merely the test scores. My physics teacher kept reminding us how many students got an A in a standardized test under his training, which emphasized becoming machines for solving problems. Being these machines could improve our performance on a test however, we did not retain any substantial knowledge throughout the class, some even losing the motivation to learn afterwards. Solutions to a problem can be simple once we understand the cause of it. In the essays, the authors suggest their individual solutions.Freire suggests to oppose the banking system, by implementing a problem-posing system. In a problem-posing system, teachers pose some problems related to the world and ask the students to attempt to turn them without a straight forward answer (Freire 7). Students would then have the feel to explore the respective to pic by themselves, think about every possible solution creatively. It takes time for all students to figure out the answer, and some of them may even fail to do it, but at least each student has tried to think about the problem.In this way, students are learning the material cognitively, and hence they will understand it more deeply and be able to apply the knowledge to the real world. Moreover, this system can motivate students to learn. According to Freire, Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge (8). When students try solving the problem, they are not being narrated by the slow materials and instead use their creative brainpower.They will find it fun to learn in this way and grow an enthusiasm to continue learning. In Against School, Gatto suggests to do the retrograde of the schools mediocre influence on children. School trains child ren to be employees and consumers teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to imitate reflexively teach your own to think critically and independently (155). To do this, we can educate children not only by books, but also encourage them to join different kinds of extra-curriculum activities such that they can grow interest in all areas.As an international student, I unceasingly compare the educational systems in America and Macau. I found that the educational system in America is relatively more problem-posing than my early education in Macau. Professors always give us chance to discuss and have more in-class activities. I fit in this problem-posing system and thus I can learn better and understand concepts more clearer. In conclusion, in order to learn cognitively and acquire the true knowledge, students should try to understand the materials before they settle down to believe and cram it.Doxa essence common beliefs and facts, while logos means the p rinciple of knowledge. When students deeply understand it, they will attain the level of logos, not only doxa. It gives the students knowledge as well as the skill to guess other truths. To avoid being a machine, we should have our own thought and creativity. In the ideal problem-posing system, students can explore it in their way but not copying others ideas because they do not need to worry about their grades. They would then have their original opinion and thought, instead of meekly receiving information, being a mindless machine.