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Stern & Adler Paper

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  • Pages: 4
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  • Category: Education

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In his essay, “What They Learn in School “, Jerome Stern states that schools are instilling in children “not to question, not to challenge, not to imagine.” By this statement, the author is saying that the curriculum the teachers are teaching the students is very one-sided and hypocritical. By saying that, I mean that instead of teaching students all sides of an entire subject, there are parts taken out based on what the board of education deems inappropriate.

In my opinion, physical, mental and emotional freedoms play a very large part in receiving an education but in a controlled state. As long as the freedom is on a topic and is not completely random, then I feel that it is a very useful tool. Especially for teaching children because, they have very vivid imaginations and need to express themselves. In some sense, I believe that Mortimer J.

Adler would agree that education could lead to some sense of freedom for an individual. In his essay, he states “ The young can be prepared for education in the years to come, but only mature men and women can become educated , beginning the process in their 40’s and 50’s and reaching some modicum of genuine, insight, sound judgment and practical wisdom after they have turned 60.” Although it may come later on in life, education offers some sort of freedom to those who possess it.

In Sterns monologue, he discusses the contradiction of the schools wanting their students to be educated, but yet the things that the schools want students to be aware of are the same things that they are unwilling to teach them. It was once said that, “Ignorance is bliss.” I disagree with this completely because; to be uninformed means that one cannot form an educated opinion because they have nothing to base it on. A particular quote that stood out to me from Stern’s piece is, “And they want to warn them about how not to get AIDS, But that would mean telling them how not to get AIDS… “From personal experience, I know how puzzling the school system can be.

In New York City, you do not receive education about AIDS until you reach high school and do not even get sex education until your senior year. How foolish is that, being that now young girls are getting pregnant at younger ages than ever before? Then, people get into an uproar about how they were as children and how the younger generations are unintelligent and our actions are appalling. Nobody knows what he or she has not been taught. It is the job of the school system to educate students with skills they will need for the rest of our lives.

Everyone needs to suffer because, people feel uncomfortable with some topics. It is the most avoided subject, which is the most important. This goes for many topics though, not just sex and sexually transmitted diseases. History would be a prime example. History teachers throughout the United States often teach about things Americans did for the better and also why this country is so great.

However, it is conveniently left out how the original form of slavery was now with African-Americans but with Native-Americans. Alternatively, the real reason behind most of the countries wars were based on the greed of the American people. This list can go on forever. The government has somehow brainwashed people into thinking that the tactics being used is for the best possible outcome, when in all actuality their digging deeper holes for this country to face in years to come.

In Adler’s essay, “Schooling Is Not Education”, he discusses the difference between schooling and getting an education. Schooling is the skills acquired in school. Education is the acquiring of knowledge and wisdom. In Adler’s essay, he states, “The very best thing for our schools to do is to prepare the young for continued learning in later life by giving them the skills of learning and the love of it.” In Adler’s opinion, education is not attained by going to school and sitting in a classroom.

In fact, he feels that education is a form of being wise and that it comes with life experiences. When children are placed in school, they never really realize the importance of soaking up all that they can from this environment. With receiving, an education also comes maturity. However, at young ages it is not realized. It is the job of the teachers and the school to teach students how to learn and how to retain information once they reach the “real” world. I understand the point that Adler was making in this piece. It is not being said that to be schooled is worthless, but that it is a stepping-stone to get to the most important educational experiences that will come throughout the rest of your life.

Stern and Adler’s pieces are somewhat similar, but are also very different in the points that they are trying to convey. The main point in Stern’s monologue was that the education system was paradoxical and that students hardly learn anything useful in school. If they do learn something, it is not in the entirety of the whole subject because they system finds it to be too controversial.

In Adler’s essay, he also states that students hardly learn anything useful while attending school. This is the only thing the two pieces have in common, though. While Adler feels like schools cannot provide education for students at all, Stern feels like with the proper instruction and resources the students could be receiving all the education they need.

Based on these two writing pieces, I have a new outlook on our school system. Both authors brought up very valid points. If they worked together, I think that they might actually be able to pave the way for a change in our school system.

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