Chris Messner

Paradigm Shift Essay Final Copy

Introduction
From the late 18th century to the present, positive American
student fervor towards education has declined. American schooling
has gone from a wealthy mans luxurious commodity that children
dreamed of acquiring, to a mandatory waste of time, scorned by
student contempt. How did America get this way? What happened
along the course of the nations development that changed the
average students attitude from desiring a higher level of intelligence
to suddenly hating the very institution trying to educate them?
Proving that American students actually dislike school, scientists
did a survey where they asked students around the world whether they
enjoyed their schooling or not (nationmaster.com). America was
ranked at five, the fifth highest percentage of school-hating children in
the world, at thirty-five percent.
The problem seems to lie within societys current structure and
focuses. It has been engrained into students minds that education is
no longer about learning it is purely about improving social status and
making money thanks to a degree. Education has become a
standardized process making students learn things that will possibly
never be of use to them. Last of all, education is now a form of
societal pressure, forcing students to participate in it even if they do

not want to. So what was different in the past, the time when
education was adored and revered?

History of American Education

To really begin detailing the shift in student attitudes, previous

systems of education have to be examined first. The idea for learning
and teaching originated thousands of years ago, with the earliest
known schools so to speak being built by the Egyptians
(education.edu). Education really emerged with the Greeks however,
for the Greeks thinkers, philosophers and teachers were highly
respected individuals. Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Hippocrates; all were
beloved educators who are still well known to this day. Their brand of
education was via speculation, they would simply think and analyze
the world, and at the end of the day they were all the wiser for doing
so. The Greeks were pioneers in education and discovery, because for
them learning was not just an assignment or an examination, it was a
way of life: to look at the world around themselves and formulate
ideas. But not all civilizations were like this, most mainly formed their
schools around the church. That is how education generally remained
until the 19th century, which was when in America, the The Common
School Movement (Chesapeake.edu) occurred.

In 1840 people looking to reform education called for the

aforementioned movement. The movements goals were to increase
opportunities for children to receive education, and to help cut down
on segregation due to the diversity of the student population. But
there were many other intended effects such as minimizing crime and
poverty through the access to schooling. But, this is where some of
the rules start to get interesting, because even though they are meant
to be helpful, in todays world they may in fact be hurting education.
They called for mandatory school attendance laws (only for elementary
schools at the time), which had gone into effect for every state in
America by 1918. These laws started to mark the shift from only
educating the middle class people and above, to educating everyone,
because everyone was required to attend even if they did not want to.
The idea was that education for everyone would do multiple good
things, including: make foreigners adapt to American culture, make
the population more intellectual and thus more productive, grant a
venue for taxation by the government, and teach the students the
White Protestant moral code (Chesapeake.edu). The first textbook
was specifically designed to teach such a moral code and hopefully
create a better society; it was called the McGuffey Reader, and it spoke
of kindness, hard work, and honesty. Public high schools started
appearing in the early 1800s to combat the private academies, and so

began the transformation from the selective and elitist ideology of

education to what we have today, education for all.
The reason that public opinion of school was different in the past,
is that school was originally more practical and concentrated. Even as
more people began trickling into the education system, at the time the
classes were still based upon teaching students what they needed or
wanted to know. The point was that the courses had a foreseeable
usage in mind. Perhaps this is where things began to go downhill, with
the addition of every person now being able to attend classes. Once
more people began getting access to schooling a transformation began
in how schools handled their students.
There were three transforming, movements of education
(educ.edu). In the early 19th century education began to focus on
equality with this new influx of students. The point was to give every
person a chance to learn and succeed, contrasting the original schools
which were basically means for perpetuation of wealth and intelligence
in affluent families. By the end of the 19th century, the force driving
education was industry, so education became based upon learning
actual skills that would be used on the job. It was a very specialized
era where students learned what they needed to know and nothing
more. The last movement is due to the upper middle-class families
that wanted to maintain their class difference from the commoners
now attending school. The focus on students in schools shifted from

simply getting a degree to getting the best degree from the best
school (the best ranked schools or private schools), because the better
ranked schools supposedly gave a better education. This was the first
time where school became purely a form of social status distinction,
because while it was a class distinction before with its elitist prices for
the erudite only, it was something students attended because they
wanted to learn and they wanted to further themselves while
discovering the world around them. The mindset became I am better
than the normal student because I did this special kind of education
and not simply what everyone else is doing, and this mindset can still
be seen today with private schools and college acceptances.

The Dependence on Degrees

A better school can generally get a student a better job and a

better salary,
but to get a decent salary all a student needs is a degree from a
school. So while students who are more dedicated to success go for
the better schools and the better jobs, certain students know that they
simply have to pass to get the degree. And with a degree they can at
least get the job they want. The student who figures that out then
realizes that none of the information they learn really matters in the
future, they just need the degree and then the job will follow. So what

happens is students have a blind pursuit of credentials, students will

do the least amount of work (or learning) for the greatest amount of
gain (educ.edu).
Basically, school is just something that current American
students feel like they have to do, so they do it with as little effort as
possible. David Labaree describes education as, any other consumer
good where, you dont want to overpayyou want to get a deal
(educ.edu p. 10). So most of the students are simply drudging through
the courses just waiting for the one day they can leave; to them the
course material means nothing and there is no point to actually
learning. The students are only there for the degree and the money
that follows. Although this almost makes sense, because a good
amount of the information taught in schools is purely arbitrary for most
professions due to standardization of education.

Standardization: Every Student is the Same

What made education popular in the past is that schools taught

students what they wanted to learn, it did not force them all to study
standardized topics. Standardization is instructing students nationwide
to all learn the same material and to be tested on said material via a
nationwide examination. Previously in the nations history, American
students would go to class and learn what they wanted to. Literacy,

Latin, physics; they learned anything they deemed important. And all
throughout history people have realized the benefits of teaching what
students care about. The Greeks taught the students by having them
think about what they were interested in, and all the way back in 500
B.C.E. Confucius was known to believe that if a student was not
interested in learning one way, it was important to find another more
suitable way (education.edu). But today Americas education system
has become focused on standardization, an inherently lazy process
leading to student hatred of education.
As Daniel Willingham says in his book, Why Dont Students Like
School, Humans dont think very often because our brains are
designed not for thought but for the avoidance of thought (pg. 4).
People hate thinking, so our brains are designed to memorize complex
things and regurgitate them back out. However, if a human is
interested in something, that is another story. Interest allows for
learning purposefully. If students do not have interest in a topic, their
brains are literally fighting against them to learn, because it is the last
thing their brain wants to do. People enjoy mental work if it is
successful (pg. 3) Daniel says, this is why when a student learns
about something he or she is interested in, they experience a form of
success in quelling their curiosity. In the past when students could
study information they wanted to learn, as opposed to the general
knowledge educational standardization enforces, they experienced

stimulation from their learning. Students in the present simply go

through the motions, because most of what they are learning is
unimportant to them. Thus todays students are experiencing no joy
as they perform their educational tasks thanks to standardization.
There is a belief that every student must be taught, and that
every student must be taught the exact same way. A clever political
cartoon mocking this brainless and lazy standardization is as follows
(educoup.com). Animals are standing in front of a mans desk. He
says that for a fair examination they must all climb that tree.
Naturally the monkey in the line of animals looks happy, however the
elephant, the fish, the seal, and the other animals do not look happy at
all. While the monkey would be naturally good at climbing trees, the
others are absolutely not and will clearly fail the exam. The
propaganda is saying that standardization of education is absolutely
stupid, no two students are the exact same so to examine them under
the same conditions is wrong. But yet, America has multiple
standardized exams: the SATs, the PSSAs, the ACTs, the Bar exam,
the MCATs, the TerraNova assessments, and many more. While
students who are able to conform do exceedingly well, those who
cannot will ultimately suffer and struggle. These tests are also on
topics that certain students will never need to know nor will they ever
care about. For example students in high school are forced to take
chemistry and biology, for someone interested in business or athletics

there is no reason for them to take such courses. Standardization is

making learning more difficult, boring and useless for students, all so
that students can be efficiently and quickly examined by national
executives. Any student who cannot conform their learning to this
system is then looked down on by society as a stupid or lazy student.

American Societal Pressures on Education

To really see how societal pressures impact American students

today, we can compare our society to that of a Third-World Country. It
is clearly shown by nationmaster.com that more children enjoy school
in impoverished nations, as the top 17 countries listed for student
dislike of school are all developed and relatively wealthy nations. In
places of poverty, developing nations for example, there is a large
portion of children who are unable to attend school. Most students
from those nations love the education they can get, as it sets them
apart from the poverty around them and gives them hope for success.
This success would be very unlikely to surpass lower class American
success, however the students are still happy. This is because
comparatively to the people around him, the Third-World child would
be successful. These children desire the education so much because

hardly anyone has access to it, and so when a child gets it they have a
better potential future ahead of them. This can easily be compared to
the past, where the wealthy had a positive future because they
obtained education, while the common population did not and so they
maintained their subservience.
But there is another social force at work here; it is not the hope
of a better future alone that allows for the Third-World students to truly
enjoy education. It is the fact that the societal norm is to not attend
school, or drop out. Every child in America is told that they have to go
to school and they have to graduate. Not all do, but what does
American society say about the child who cannot even get through
high school? He or she is labeled as a delinquent, and thought to have
no better life ahead of them besides flipping burgers at McDonalds.
Almost every student is told to complete high school, but not only that,
they then have to attend college and acquire a degree. Without a
degree most businesses will not even look at a persons job
application, society deems education that important. Many students
do not want to become educated, but they have no choice because
society will put them down and scorn them simply for being too lazy
or stupid to finish school. In Third-World countries life is different, the
normal thing to do is to drop out after fifth grade (ssireview.org).
When society does not tell children they must stay in school,
children will do what they really want to do. After they complete the

first few years of education they can decide, do they want to stay and
learn more, or do they want to leave school and do other tasks, such as
help their family in their fields or farms? Most of these nations are
based on subsistence living so school does not help them much in such
a situation. There are the lucky educated few who can escape the
poverty, but for the cost it is simply smarter for some children to just
help the family provide for themselves. So, the reason that there is
such a positive feeling towards education in Third-World Countries is
because the children who are actually still in school for the long run are
the students who definitely want to be there. The students that dont
do not have the societal pressures like America holding them back and
so they leave. Then the students that stay are praised for being
different from the norm, because the difference is better in this
situation. This difference is accepted and met with praise, while the
difference in America (dropouts) is met with scorn because it is less
work than the norm, and less successful.
To conclude, student sentiment towards education has declined
in America due to degrees, standardization, and societal pressures.
Students have begun to believe that learning is unnecessary it is only
the diploma that is required so school is a waste of time.
Standardization has made certain students feel inadequate and also
has forced many of them to study topics they have no interest in or
use for. Societal pressures forces students who do not want to get an

education to get one anyway so that they are not spurned and looked
down on as a derelict. As school changed and evolved to allow
everyone to have education it became less enticing to the general
population. School is no longer revered as the aristocratic dream; it is
now the tedious juvenile prison.

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Transform

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Payne, Shannon. "19th Century Education." The History of Education in

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Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

<http://www.chesapeake.edu/library/EDU_101/eduhist_19thC.asp>.

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Nov. 2014.

<http://www.educ.msu.edu/neweducator/spring99/analysis.htm>.

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Part 1

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