Does the Present System of Education Encourage Us to Admit Our Lack of Knowledge Essay

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INTRO: For most children, school is a mandatory requirement that they grow to increasingly loathe as the classes get more difficult. Perhaps the reason that they abhor this institution so much is because school represses their natural urge to ask questions and inquire about the world around them. The present system of education, with its emphasis on testing and grades, puts too much pressure on students to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge, rather than encourage the inquisitive nature of children. BODY1: Take for instance, the concept of testing. Tests are growing to be an increasing source of stress for youngsters as they reach adolescence and early adulthood. Although their theoretical purpose, to make sure that students are studying the material taught, is very important to the learning process, when given too much emphasis, they become a stumbling block to the child's progress. Most teachers in institutions of higher learning have a grading policy where the majority of the points come from test scores, and tests are given on a weekly basis. However, students are faced with an increasing number of classes as well as other responsibilities, so they are not given enough time to fully absorb the material taught before they are given a test on that subject. It is not uncommon for students to have two or more tests on one day, on a frequent basis, which is undeniably a major source of the stress that they experience in their teenage years. BODY2: The way that the material is taught also suppresses natural human curiosity. The introduction of standardized testing and numerical grades make teachers focus their classes on test prep, covering only topics tested on exams and dismissing subjects that are out of the scope of these tests. Students are expected to only care about the "what" rather than the "why" of concepts. This takes the fun out of learning,

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