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Philosophy of transcendentalism
Philosophy of transcendentalism
Transcendentalism final reflection essay
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Philosophy of transcendentalism
Philosophy of transcendentalism
Transcendentalism final reflection essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Many topics concerning education and its institutions are discussed in Amanda Ripley’s book “The Smartest Kids in The World: and how they got that way,” however, one of the most interesting can be found in chapter five “An American in Utopia.” The introduction of Kim, an American exchange student studying at a high school in Pietarsarri, Finland opens the chapter. Using Kim’s experiences in the Finish school system, Ripley continues to make a comparison between the students' in Finland and the United States. This segment highlights Finish teachers and students viewing education as a legitimate pursuit, while the American students more often than now saw it as a forced activity.
No longer does education encourage ideas such as “thinking outside the box” or to be creative and original. In Farenheit 451 it teaches conformity and a strict sense of being like everyone else. One can attribute this loss of free-thinking to the fall of the world into the state that it was in. The biggest contributor to this was the curriculum loss and change in values of schooling. In the book school is described as being, “School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored,” (Bradbury 53).
The key claims that Horace Mann develops in Report No. 12 includes, most importantly, the idea that the single most important characteristic of any successful society is the common education of its students. Mann maintains that students need to be well educated to even the playing field between rich and poor to create a better future. He also supports the idea that education is essential to a Republican society to be prosperous. When Mann is education the reader on the importance of educating the youth, he draws on the idea that education takes in the children as “raw material” and turns them into productive members of society using education. Mann stresses that schools are the most effective of all forces in civilization, mostly because it so strongly influences all of the other forces.
Roughly “15% of life is spent at school” in the United States (“What percentage of”). Humans are in school during the early years of development, thus the education system impacts their thoughts, choices, and overall wellbeing. It promotes discovery, but still confides the students to certain rules. This concept is explored throughout many poems including “Pass/Fail,” “Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School,” “Zimmer’s Head Thudding against the Blackboard,” “The School Room on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill,” and “Fork.” An overall negative attitude emerges from the themes that discusses how education and schooling impact you, for better or for worse.
Our entire lives we have been told that we need to attend many years of schooling to be successful. (To have high paying jobs, so we can afford the better things in life, so we can have a higher quality of life.) John Gatto,( a writer and teacher of twenty years,) presents the question, “Do we really need school?’ adding his voice to the decades long debate over education reform. In his article “Against School”, Gatto brings up topics we’ve all heard before, but attacks them using logos, ethos, and quite a bit of history.
Bradley Curtis English 101 4/10/24 Holt begins his essay with the powerful statement: "Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter, more curious, less afraid of what he doesn’t know, better at finding and figuring things out, and more confident, resourceful, persistent, and independent than he will ever be again in his schooling. " The tone for the remainder of the essay is established by this thought-provoking statement, which grabs the reader's attention right away. Anecdotes are a clever tool that Holt uses to make his points.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “From Education” emphasizes the value of education and wants to improve the currently flawed system by granting students more freedom and individuality and he does this through his use of tone. In order for Emerson to push his message out, he must in someway convince the audience that the current system is flawed and does this using negative diction to establish his tone. When Emerson talks about the current school system he associates it with the word “mechanical” and “drill”(192), and this is important because this is one way Emerson will advance his message. The word “mechanical” sounds emotionless to the audience and “drill” will translate to repetitive busywork; this develops frustration with most of the
Emerson has shown that he has a negative opinion on the way that the general public has been taught in America, but how does he show his stance in the matter? In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writing “From Education”, he uses a harsh contrast of diction when speaking about different mediums of education, creating a contrast of tone that allows a simplification the argument to take place for some readers, while simultaneously showing his point of view in this particular debate. When speaking about the repetitive, modern way that students are taught, Emerson uses such diction as “Mechanical”, “Tampering”, and “Thwarting” (Emerson 190-191). Meanwhile, when describing the more natural, one-on-one type of education that most individuals would hope to be
One of the main goals for school systems was to expand the minds of the young in order to maintain a functional and cordial society. A part of Horace Mann’s six principles of education was that “citizens cannot maintain both ignorance and freedom” (“Horace Mann Biography). This meant that if there was no education, the entire population would not be able to create their own views and opinions. They would just follow one leader, and essentially be slaves to their own minds. The entire government would become a madhouse because the people would be unable to contribute any useful ideas and information (“Only a Teacher”).
As a person achieves great success in his education career, the author is considered to be knowledgeable for the audience to trust his opinion. When reading his essay, readers can see the value, benefits, and importance of education
In the “Against Schools” article, author John Gatto describes the modern day schooling system and its flaws. He uses several rhetorical strategies in trying to prove his point. He successfully uses all three types of rhetoric in writing this article, which includes ethos, pathos, and logos. He establishes these strategies very early, and often throughout the article. He believes one issues with today’s schooling system is boredom, and that there is a distinct difference between what it means to be educated and schooled.
The essay, The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto addresses educational curriculum with a cynical truth that transpires around the United States. His brutal honesty grasps the reader by using common sense and a hint of sarcasm to appeal to humor. The main point of his argument in my perception, states that we must develop children to be critical thinkers and not always agree with authority. By allowing the schooling in a child’s development expecting them to not question an adult’s words does lead to a population that has accepted being dumbed down. Following what has been indicated, a direct quote positions people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius (Gatto, part III, pars 3).
Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. In each essay, all three authors ward against the dangers with the education system of their era. Whether it be diversity, segregation or the goals of the system itself the authors believe changes need to be made, as education systems form the future leaders of our society. Through their text the authors believe they must solve the faults within the education systems, to conform society to what they believe is morally and ethically correct.
Analysis Essay Our job as an author first and foremost, is to grab the reader’s attention. One we have gained attention from the reader, it is important to provide a voice that will prove to be unforgettable. Amongst many of the recent articles read by myself, Mark Edmundson’s, “Education’s Hungry Hearts” has proven to be the most affective. This article demonstrates how education is often misunderstood. Edmundson develops his article in a way that establishes credibility, authoritative testimony, and emotional appeal.
“That I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology” is the beginning of an enlightened composition of thought on reclaiming tools of learning by one Dorothy Sayers, whose expertise in learning and writing few question. And yet, she in her personally presumed hubris, set out a theory, if you will, of education and a conceptual analysis of the learning process that have stood the test of time and has been quoted, supported, and debated by modern scholars, who in their limited modern educational realms, have presented nothing greater in concept or quality. This theory presented requests that we look back in time, through history, to a time when learning flourished, and