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Summary Of John Holt School Is Bad For Children Rhetorical Analysis

1343 Words6 Pages

John Holt’s essay “School Is Bad For Children” is full of rhetorical devices, however, they are not as effective as Holt intended them to be. He begins his essay with a strong introduction, then changes his tone, he only taught at a private school as opposed to a public school, his over use of repetition and hyperbole lead to confusion, and makes assumptions of his points without proper research. Each of these factors cause the essay to fade in its effectiveness, thus making it more difficult for the reader to understand the content. In the introduction, Holt states what he perceives as the general experience of a child on his or her first day of school. This gives the reader a pleasant image of an excited, young, lively setting as shown …show more content…

Hyperboles are a great device to use in writing; they can bring stories to life and give it greater potential if used correctly, but once again Holt does the opposite of that. Much like he did with the repetition, Holt overused the amount of hyperboles needed. It seems as if not every sentence, then every other sentence in this essay is a hyperbole. These exaggerations make the essay lose its strength in many ways. The majority of Holt’s exaggerations leave the reader to not believe the argument and point that he is trying to convey. His points are more than clear, yet, he lacks evidence to back them up. The only reasoning Holt uses for the bulk of his essay is the over exaggerative statements that do not help the overall message of the essay. To get the greatest use out of them the best thing to do would be to keep the hyperboles to a minimum. For example, “And so, in this dull and ugly place, where nobody ever says anything truthful, where everybody is playing some kind of role, as in a charade where the teachers are no more free to respond honestly to the students...” (Holt 74). This is a vast over exaggeration because teachers will always be honest with their students. It is the teacher's job to be honest with a student and to help them. Also schools are not dull and ugly as he states. Many schools are full of life and beaming with excitement, which is why this example is but only one of many that is not

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