Conformity In Public Schools: Article Analysis

Public schooling systems had various goals in in mind when it came to teaching their students. These goals included giving help to each student to gain personal fulfillment and to help create good citizens as well. One goal aimed toward the teaching of individuality among the children while the other aimed toward the teaching method of conformity. Conformity deprived children from growing as students and stripped them of the chance to learn freely. Former U.S. president John F. Kennedy once stated, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” This quote signified the dangers of conformity and what it could lead to. Students needed individuality to express their interests in education and learn in a way that was best fit for

Students were taught how to fill out and take tests in kindergarten. Shown in source C was a picture of a possible cover design for a book. The book was about teaching kindergarten students how to take standardized tests. On the cover was a clock, pencils, and a piece of paper showing test bubbles needed to be filled in. This book taught them how and what to do when it came to testing. This source showed how conformity was introduced to students at a very young age. They were to all take this test and later have their grades be compared to one another. Children learned that grades were the most important objective the school focused on and that this would continue the rest of their school career. School systems made students well aware of this by a very young age so they would know what was expected of them in the future. Although good grades were important, ridding school systems of these tests would be more beneficial in various ways. For example, the absence of these tests would assure the pathway of learning material was more important than final results of it. No test on a subject meant the main focus of the course was on the students and their comprehension of it. Focusing on individual needs of every student would help every one of them have a better understanding of lessons. The understanding of the material was more important than the student’s ability to remember information and test on it. A grade on a test should not be what defined their intelligence. Each student’s individual needs and understanding were more important than the group results after a