Order 1090773: Higher education
tutorthammy
Unit3Essay2-Edmundson.docxBanks 5
Maya Banks
Professor Debra Martin
EN106DLGU1A2018
June 24, 2018
Unmasking the Prevailing Culprits in The Present-Day Education System
In pursuit of a holistic, critically provoking, meaningful, and educational oriented environment where teachers are free to teach, and learners are free to think, and the disappointing reality continues to present itself from every dimension. The faults in the current education system are critically unmasked by Mark Edmundson and Paulo Freire in their two invaluable pieces of articles. A careful analysis of the ideas tabled by the two influential education thinkers illustrates numerous underlying commonalities in their works as well as some overlooked ideas in their arguments. The fact that their central ideas in their respective scholarly works revolve around unmasking the true culprits in the present-day education implies that, if Edmundson and Freire were able to converse with each other, they would both agree on the need to change the current education system and build it around critical thinking. It’s to this end that this paper seeks to synthesize their ideas in an attempt to identify common grounds, differences as well the areas they both overlooked.
Looking at the prevailing schooling system in America as well as the ways through which learners are carrying out their studies, the perception of the two education thinkers is of great heed to the whole education system. Deeply entrenched into the Edmundson and Freire respective pieces of literature is the overarching conspiracy and oppression theme where the established, who is this case is the teacher among other the education leaders seek to contain, manipulate, and control the thoughts of the learners. As acknowledged by Freire, “Teachers either work for the liberation of the people- their humanization- or for their domestication, their dominance” (p.243). As a result of this domination and hierarchical relationship, the only knowledge that the learners in the prevailing education system receive are from the teachers, an aspect that dehumanizes the students as they do not get the chance to develop their own knowledge or even challenge the one received from the teachers. The oppression and domination ideology as presented by Freire cast invaluable light on the need for both teachers and students to embrace an “authentic” approach to education which grants them some chance to be aware of their respective incompleteness and eventually strive to be fully human (Freire 244). In a bid to rethink Freire’s oppression implication, as a college student one ought to act as a co-creator of knowledge at the expense of posing as an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the college professor or instructor.
Similarly, Edmundson acknowledges the presence of oppression in thinking and learning approaches in the contemporary schools, but from a different angle from the one used by Freire. While Freire profoundly argues that students are highly dehumanized and oppressed by teachers, Edmundson reveals the opposite whereby by acknowledges that students through the aid of western capitalistic society conspire against the teachers’ success in the teaching process. It not astonishing to find that Edmundson relates colleges and universities as businesses which are in place to follow basic economics principles including that of demand and supply (Edmundson 395). By being treated as customers, the student’s needs must be met for the teacher to make sales as the students are always at liberty to change schools and join the ones that meet their needs, which in most cases are not learning-oriented. “To put it a little indecorously, the place is looking more and more like a retirement spread for the young. Our funds go to construction, into new dorms, into renovating the student union” (Edmundson 395). This case of consumerism is diluting the education quality in the currently embraced education system where the quality of education, as well as the teachers’ input, is overlooked at the expense of the student’s input.
This phenomenon described by Edmundson is crystal clear in the American high institutions whereby schools regularly showcase their luxurious campuses, stadiums, and accommodation facilities despite the fact that they do not play any substantial role in the learning process and the overall education system. By being treated as consumers, its high time that the students value their education, an aspect that would definitely compel the producers, who in this case are the institutions to fund new laboratories, libraries, and more effective learning environments and equipment among other learning supportive conditions. However, if we as education consumers prioritize entertainment; stadiums and new dormitories among other extraneous facilities, the prevailing culprits of the current problem in our education system will remain to be none other than the individual students.
Despite the fact that both Edmundson and Freire deliberate on the role of the teachers and students in the current problematic education system, there is a huge gap in their respective articles in addressing the influence of the values of individuals. In their suggestion, apart from pointing out the need for a critical thinking education approach, the two education thinkers are reluctant to point out that individual desires are the most critical determinants of the pedagogical approaches. The individual will often have the deciding factor on his or her own educated decision, and it’s on the individual that will attend or ignore these concerns.
From a personal point of view, in the two invaluable pieces of literature, I see two rationale education thinkers pleading with the society as a whole to think of themselves and the future it wants to create. It’s beyond reasonable doubt that Edmundson and Freire would agree on the inevitable value of critical thinking ever to meet and talk about the nature of the prevailing education system. In addition, expanding on the idea of Edmundson and Freire being able to talk and table the same idea about the current education system, I believe the two can reach a consensus on the need for the education system to create room for the students to think critically. This observation is based on the fact that the two thinkers directly expresses the need to implement an open dialogue between students and teachers where the learners can freely express their thoughts.
Work Cited
Edmundson, Mark. "On the uses of a liberal education." Harper's Magazine (1997): 39.
