Don T Send Your Kids To The Ivy League Analysis

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, education is defined as the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process. However, each person in America has his or her own definition, which contributes to how he or she views the American school system. Some opinions may be that schools across the country set students up for failure, while others may be that schools across the country set students up for success. It is obvious, however, that the current school system has failed the youth in America. It teaches students to care about grades more than learning, it is outdated in its methods for approaching knowledge, and it gives students false expectations about what it means to be successful.

It is evident that schools

But why? In reality, there is nothing special about studying at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. As a matter of fact, William Deresiewicz expresses that “an elite education may actually harm students by turning them into people who are anxious, timid, lost, with little curiosity, and a stunted sense of purpose,” in his analysis of the Ivy League schools, Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League (Deresiewicz 201.) The anxiousness, timidness, and lostness all stem from the fact that the kids who are attending the Ivy League schools are so focused on succeeding, that they forget to take care of themselves and end up being overworked. For many of the students, “the prospect of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them” (Deresiewicz 203). Because of the high expectations the American schooling system has for the Ivy League students, many kids end up failing from being too overwhelmed with the responsibility to meet these high

Many scholars express that the education in America sets students up for life and provides them with the necessary skills to contribute to society. Gatto states that schools help to establish “each student’s proper social role” and also establish “fixed habits of reaction to authority,” in Against School (Gatto 119.) Proper citizenship can be learned through the education ladder in America. Although creating conformity may be true, there can only be negative affects. Every student in America is forced to have the same goal of receiving the best accolades, instead of being able to express individuality and set his or her own goals in life, which results in low self-esteem and ultimately,