Positive Reinforcement Analysis

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.” –Oscar Wilde

Education is a vital part of every person’s life. Knowing what to do, or say, or how to act given certain circumstances, is the product of being educated – may it be institutional or acquired from experiences. In simple terms, education is the process of acquiring knowledge (cite source) and the ultimate source of these knowledge are the different institutions where children are sent to study and spend years to perfect the educational process.

Schools have the power over people. (Cite source) These are institutions designed to teach students in a manner easily understood by a larger scale. They are

Being able to attend school means they’ll have better job opportunities, thus, making their well-being much better.

But, do schools really instil knowledge in students or do they somehow limit acquisition of knowledge?

The reward and punishment system with is known as the operant conditioning highlights most of the actions of people.

“Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding while negative reinforcement, which is a removal of stimulus, strengthens behavior by stopping or removing unpleasant experiences.” (McLeod, 2015) And this concept would be then applied to schools.

An educated person has more chances of getting good jobs, paying enough salary, thus giving enough money to provide for his/her needs. Another reason why people go to school is because being educated means a person will have a wider view of reality and be open to equality. Education also makes a person confident about himself/herself because educated persons are taken more seriously than those without schooling and also self-dependent, not just in financial terms but also in making decisions in life. It’s also a tool in making someone’s dreams come true, if he/she want to be a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant, or whatever he/she wants to be. (Reda,

(Edo Keijzer)

Tests, according to many teachers, limit the scope of the learning opportunities of the student and somehow emphasize on the basic skills, and fail to measure higher level of thinking which are more important. (Ledesma, 2011) Tests became a tool for measuring the capability of students to memorize a whole paragraph, and sometimes, a whole book. The more you memorize, the higher your learning is, as what is believed by most people, but the odds are, the only things you remember taught at school are the basic knowledge and most of them are not essential in making lives better. (cite source)

Schools instil in the minds of the students the reliance on topics they have already mastered limiting their knowledge inside a box and never letting it slip outside. The knowledge of students should abide by the norms of the educational system making risk-takers much less likely to take their risks. (search for sources) Creativity, is then limited to the four corners of the