Ezra Jethro-Enedouwa

Persuasive essay

10/19/2017

Education, Its Merits and demerits

Preface: The main reason why some students with good grades, good record and good

foundation decide to sit it out after High school. How this relates, affects or supports Paulo Freire

and Cathy Davidsons claim on modern education.

New Education by Cathy N. Davidson, expresses the demerits of in-class learning and its

restrictions. Students ability to gain is dependent on what is heard in the four walls of a

classroom, subtracting the opportunity to practicalize what has been taught (an application of

knowledge), Cathy also explains the role that STEM plays in this issue. The pedagogy of the

oppressed by Paulo Freire pierces through the amassing concept of education, Paulo emphasizes

on students education life in and outside of the four walls of the school building. Due to the pros

and cons that both authors bring to light, it speaks to their audience in ways that enjoin them to

weigh their options on going to college and looking for an alternative.

Stem is not the Problem nor is stem the solution. It is indisputable that we need more people

trained in stem fields and that relative to many other countries, the unites states is poor at training

the next generation of stem experts. (Davidson 136) The fact that students are deprived of
exposure in their field of study, is also affecting the stem fields, making it impossible for there to

be another Neil Armstrong and Franklin Chang Dias. Schools avoid taking the time to expose

kids, stem field is understood better when it is practiced and practiced until the student gets the

hang of it. Repetition is important in our everyday learning. Cathy uses the United States STEM

field in general as an example to back up her argument. She explains that problem is not with our

stem field and every other field of studies, but in the teaching system, the ability to train the

younger generation in science, technology, engineering, and math as well as another field of

studies. School trains students to march, automaton-like, passive and devoid of creativity, from

the classroom to workplace, with nothing vital or inspired anywhere in sight. (Davidson 134)

Sitting in a classroom, for an extended period of time, hearing one or more persons talk about

fishing, without them given a fishing hook, line and bate to practice fishing and learn from their

own hands-on experience diminishes their learning faculty.

Paulo Freires The Pedagogy, jumps on the talk about the student and teacher relationship,

they are meant to teach a student with reference to the happenings around them, making it easy

for them to comprehend information and retain them. His task is to fill the students with the

contents of his narration- contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the

totality that engendered them and could give them significance. (Freire 11) Without the

presence of reality-based explanations, students are left in a very vulnerable state and inability to

apply their knowledge.

Both authors make the same arguments about the implementation of experimentation and

application of lesson learned to show growth and how much they comprehend. I agree with them

because it is one thing to listen and hope that you understand what you heard, and it is another

thing to apply what you have learned. My Engineering Calculus 1 Professor emphasizes on
repetition and stresses on the fact that it is very important to constantly study and practice to

show yourself approved, in other words, it takes practice to determine if the individual in

question understands what they have been taught.

On my agreement with Freire and Davidsons claim on the importance of the hands-on

practice of what they have been taught, I also disagree with Cathys cause. She says that students

are deprived of the experience they need due to the fact that the country lacks the skills and

equipments needed to train the younger generation. According to Remote Experimentation- one

building block in online Engineering education by Sven K. Esche Stevens Institute of

Technology is currently in a dynamic phase of transforming all its educational offerings. It has

recently adopted a new undergraduate engineering curriculum with both a design spine and a

laboratory experience propagating through the entire educational program. A student laboratory

that is founded on Internet-based, remotely accessible experimental setups were developed and

implemented. (Esche 1) This shows that schools in the United States have equipments that they

make use of from time to time to teach their students, which is mandatory because of the

instructions on the syllabuses that teachers must follow. About 66% of High school graduates

proceed to college while the remaining 34% end up settling with their high school diploma due

to the fear of college loans. The most important questions students should ask themselves before

going into any higher education are, is the school providing quality education, and is it cheap .?

Per Sven Esche, questioning the teaching capability and educational strength in the United State

is as good as asking if 2 + 2 = 4.

Teachers contribute to the little setbacks that high school students and college students go

through (education wise), To resolve the teacher-student contradiction, to exchange the role of

depositor, prescriber, domesticator, for the role of student among students would be to
undermine the power of oppression and serve the cause of liberation.(Freire 15) It is necessary

to create a bond or at least some sense of relationship with their students other than just talking

in class, asking if homeworks are done, giving out important informations, passing out graded

materials, etc. in that way it is much easier to give advises and opinions and be heard. The

student will gain an opportunity to learn from their teacher not just about the topics discussed in

class but also informations about college like; how to get scholarships to avoid loans, not all

loans are required to be paid back in a short notice, not all schools are expensive etc. Results of

the National Student Loan Survey, recently released by Nellie Mae -- the nation's largest

nonprofit provider of student loans -- 69 percent of African Americans who drop out of college

do so because of high student loan debt. That compares with 43 percent of Whites who offered

the same reason for dropping out. Additionally, 59 percent of African American student loan

borrowers feel "extremely" or "very" burdened by their student loan payments. (Eric, St. John 1),

Eric shows the statistics and the numeric difference in the race of students that miss out on a

higher education after high school because of the fear of loans and all other expenses. Eric makes

us understand from the survey he took that, in some cases, some students have the chance of

going to college with the help of loans because of the absence of scholarships and unbalanced

financial status. In cases where students are either the only child or first generation to go to

college in their family, they feel some type of pressure on them, and the need to take care of

everyone in the family, basically the sole breadwinner, it just means that they must pick up that

responsibility and not shy away from it. As an adult, there is a level of responsibility mounted on

the person in question, the right approach is to embrace it and make it part of you, the wrong

approach is to subject yourself to less than what you deserve, in this case, a quality education.

Students say what happens if we dont get scholarships to go to school.? There are fundings
that students get from the federal and state government e.g. Pell grants, etc. students end up

having fewer debts to pay off after their degree.

A lot of people give reasons like, not all loans give you till the end of your degree to pay back,

not everyone gets a lot of money from the government, which brings us back to the status quo.

There are subsidized and unsubsidized loans given to students in their financial aid package, but

it is up to them to pick the one that does not require immediate payback and look for all other

free money out there, like scholarships that require a certain race, height, and G.PA.

In conclusion, students should be proactive enough to be resourceful, and make use of the

power that education must change their future. According to Freire teachers should create that

relationship with their students which in the long will avoid and prevent ignorance, and reduce

the percentage of students that miss out on furthering their education because of financial

instability.
 Work cited

St. John, Eric. Loan Debt: A new View. Black issues in higher education July 9, 1998.

Esche, K Sven. Remote Experimentation-One building block in Online engineering.