Child Well Educated

In his essay “What Does It Mean To Be Well-Educated,” Alfie Kohn challenges the current standards that people consider crucial in order for a person to be considered well-educated and explores some interesting questions that help provide the reader with a completely different understanding, perspective, and possibility for standards of good education. At the beginning, Kohn explains how people can argue about the purpose of education, but then fail to realize and recognize whether or not education has truly been successful. Then, Kohn provides the reader with an example of his wife, a successful physician who completed her study for doctoral dissertation in anthropology from Harvard, yet still lacks some educational basics that people consider necessary factors to possess in order for a person to fit in the defined group of well-educated individuals. (Kohn 231-232). After that, Kohn explores some definitions that people set as essential measurements for determining whether or not a person is well-educated and explains why all these standard definitions fail to either evaluate a person’s knowledge or make a person knowledgeable. For example, many people consider test scores, seat time, job skills, and memorization of facts as indicators of well-education. However, Kohn explains that sitting in class for a certain amount of time, “reducing schooling to vocational preparation…to suit the demands of employers,” receiving high results on tests, and memorization of pieces of

To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the

Standardized tests take away the creativity from the teachers forcing them to "teach to the test" this means memorizing

What does it mean to be well-educated? Is a well-educated person someone who went to a good school? Does it apply to someone who got straight A’s is school and did well on standardized tests? Does it mean that they are smart or just good at memorizing their material and requirements for tests? If they are good at passing test by memorizing all the material but then forget it as soon as the test is done then what good was taking a test in the first place? Is a well-educated person the same thing as a smart person? If a person went to an adequate school and receives a good education then it would be concluded that they are well-educated but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are smart. It might just mean

Standardized tests do not cover real-life topics. Standardized tests are less educational than parents think. States make schools take these tests in-order to get more funding and to see how the teachers are performing. These tests have many effects on the students and their grades. The Kansas Silent Reading Test is one of the first known multiple choice standardized test in America. This test was created to reduce “Time and Effort” in administration and scoring (Standardized). Although schools do use the standardized testing methods in the classrooms today that was not what it was originally used for. Standardized testing began in the United States during WWI because the Army needed a method to determine which soldiers were “Officer Material” (Billy 75).

What does it mean to be well educated? To be well educated it is a balance between academics and practical knowledge. Throughout this paper I will show that one does not necessarily need a college degree to be deemed as well educated. I will explore both aspects of academics and practical knowledge and how it affects individuals.

When comes to education in America, far to offer our society labels people as un- educated because the inability to pass standardized tests. In reality, we shouldn’t base a person's ability to determine if they're educated because that’s far from the truth. I believe that standardized test isn’t the only way to determine every student’s education knowledge. For example, high scores standardized test doesn’t signify that you are talented thinking or a student. The goal of education is more education, but the majority of people like this don’t get the opportunity like others. Just think they could have been people who made good grades and excelled in school, but didn’t get a full ride scholarship to a certain college. There are people who didn’t go to college, but are successful today. It doesn’t happen, for the majority of us, but we can’t just single out those people who have originated up with creativity, intelligence with ideas or investment with no college background.

To determine if a person is considered to be an educated person, we must first know the definition of an educated person. The definition of an educated person is someone who can, “Listen, hear, read, understand, talk with anyone, write clearly, persuasively, and movingly, can solve a wide variety of puzzles and problems, they respect rigor not so much for its own sake but as a way of seeking truth, they practice humility, tolerance and self-criticism, they understand how to get things done in the world, they nurture and lastly, they empower the people around them. Education is an endless growth through trials and experiences as stated by Eleanore Hanrahan, from “Seeking My Education,” out of the novel, “Criteria.” In order to claim a proper education I believe one must make independent decisions, balance life well, take opportunities, push through failure, and step beyond the normal measures of life by experience. Going to college is a significant change for many.

In the article written by Benjamin Herold, he compares the online test to the paper pencil test that some districts chose. He notes, “A mounting body of evidence suggests that some students tend to do worse on computer-­based versions of an exam, for reasons that have more to do with their familiarity with technology than with their academic knowledge and skills.” Getting students prepared for the online assessments is one of the biggest challenges to administrators. As an educator, I have seen first hand what Herold is talking about. Herold states, “All children don’t have the same access to technology at home and in school, nor do their teachers use technology in the classroom in the same ways, even when it is present.” My students do not spend a much time in the computer lab because my building only has two labs. The schedule fills up very quickly. The students do not receive any training when it comes to technology. It is expected that children have a solid knowledge of technology because of all the technology they have at home. Confirming what Herold is writing about.

Another problem with standardized testing is that these tests dampen students’ interest and desire to acquire knowledge in a wider scope outside of the subjects being tested. Students are forced to focus in the core subjects being tested such as Math, English and Science (only at times) whereas neglected other creative curriculums like Music, Visual Arts, Literature, Social Studies, Critical Thinking, Presentation, Group projects,etc. A large amount of time is dedicated to test prep and simple leaves no time to learn more “noncognitive” topics which is crucial as mentioned in the article “Does Standardized Testing Really Evaluate Your Kids Learning.” Johnson by his research strongly claims that “non-cognitive qualities—such as resiliency, creativity,

In his text What does it mean to be well-educated, Alfie Kohn summarises the fact that our generation does not know what the fundamental meaning of education is – or that each and every one of us has its own definition, making it impossible to reach a common understanding. Our education system, which is based on the “learn and spit” theory, is pushing students to memorise a large amount of facts and statistics in order to determine their level of intelligence, all of that according to their specific standards. What I mean by “learn and spit” is that students work hard to learn all the required material, so that they can “spit“ it out on paper and never talk about it ever again.

Does the phrase well educated refer to the quality of schooling you received or to something about you? Who gets to decide what it means? Is it a standardized test? Is it our test scores or memorization of facts? How much or how well we can remember at a given point in time? How much knowledge we ought to have? What could it possibly be? I think this society has given “Well Educated" a poor definition. Sitting in a class for a long time does not make us educated. Test scores does not make us educated neither does reading faster than others or solving mathematical calculations. Not everyone has to same knowledge of a certain thing, so why judge us on the same criteria. Does it denote what we were taught? If the term refers to what we know or what we can do then we could be poorly educated despite receiving a top-notch education, and if it is, then the numerous people constantly going to get an education in big name schools are unintelligent. In addition, if it refers to the quality of schooling, then many well-educated people sat through lesson that was too irrelevant for them to remember a few years later.

The next stage of Kohn’s reasoning involved ruling out what might not be considered as being well-educated. Being well-educated does not depend on the number of hours spent in class, how well-prepared for a career one is, test-scores, or rote-learning (2003, pars. 12-15). Although intelligent students do get good test scores this does not happen all of the time as there are several smart students who do not seem to perform well. Also, and in this as in the previous point I completely agree with Kohn, memorizing everything that is just a click away on the internet does not necessarily translate into being considered well-educated.

Psychology, Mathematics, and Ergonomics were one of the areas where the comparability of paper based testing and computer based testing was made but few studies looked into this issue in the field of language assessment. Some studies have revealed that there is a significant difference between the two testing modes (Pomplun, 2002; Choi, et al., 2003) while others have concluded the opposite (Boo, 1997; Whitworth, 2001; Bugbee, 1996). Previous researches focused on the product of the experiment for example, scores of the test and the processes of factors that resulted in these scores, but not on both aspects. It has been found that computer experience was a major factor in explaining the difference between students’ performance on computer-based arithmetic reasoning tests (Lee, 1986). However, Boo (1997) found that there was no significant relationship between computer familiarity and the students’ performance on three computerized

What does it mean to be well educated? According to Alfie Kohn, well-educated means to, ". . . have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends" (Kohn). In Kohn's article, he questions the qualifications that the public school system uses to determine what makes a well-educated student. Although he raises very important questions, Alfie does not attempt to offer any solutions to these problems; however, I will explain what it means to be well-educated and include some information on how to decide what environment will work best for your child. Parents must evaluate the American public school's method of adequately preparing students for college and future jobs, realizing there is an alternative option for educating children, so they can truly become a well-educated individual.