Minhthu Nguyen
English 102
Teddy Chocos
Learning Or Stuffing
Have you ever think that you are smart and you are better than anyone else? There
is not a right or wrong for the answer. It’s because nowadays people expect for many
definitions for being smart. When you are good at something and you call yourself smart
or someone labels you that smart name, but what about other things? Are you good at
them too? People in the society are shaping the word “smart” wrongly because the
expectations are totally different with the reality. Additionally, Sydney J.Harris made his
claim, which is very strong and true in the article “ What True Education Should Do” that
nowadays pupils are stuffed by their teachers in school. What is meaning of the “learn”
word?
“Learning” and “ stuffing” are totally different; learning in my point of view is
when you are getting the knowledge by your abilities, by the way you learn, by the way
you understand the core of what you are adapting in your memories. Later on, you can
know how to apply it on the social, on your work and even in your life. Instead of all that
meaning, stuffing is something you are forced to get it. It is just like how all teachers are
doing with their students; we are going to school and are forced to remember things that
we cannot understand, we cannot use apply for anything. Sometime, you don’t even
know what you are memorizing, you can get a highest score in the test for coping and
pasting from all the things you memorize but you don’t understand it. Then what is the
purpose of memorizing for? However, they say that it’s a successful education.
I strongly disagree with what the expectation of the society for the education
nowadays. There is a brilliant example for being successful without even being stuffed at
school; he is Sherman Alexie, he grew up in a Native American family and he loves book
because the inspired from his father. He addresses his experiences in his article “
Superman and Me”, “ I love those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose.
I was trying to save my life.” He is very upset with the school’s system with the
discrimination between white folks and Native Americans. All the Indian children do not
have chance to express all the abilities they have, the school is stopping them from being
successful instead of helping them being successful.
Moreover, accordingly to Isaac Asimov’s article “What is Intelligence, Anyway?”
he tells us what the meaning of being intelligent really is by a story of how embarrassing
he is when he cannot answer the question from the auto-repair man while he gets a really
high score for IQ test. So the point he is trying to tell us here is being intelligent is in
many ways. You can be good at taking test and get a high score but it doesn’t mean you
can even fix a bull light. Therefore, the expectations of being intelligent are getting all the
knowledge from school, which are not true at all. There is an conversation in his article, ‘
“Did you catch many?” I asked. “Quite a few,” he said, “ but I knew for sure I’d catch
you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “ Because you’re so goddammed educated, doc, I knew you
couldn’t be very smart.” The auto repair even makes joke back to Asimov about how
intelligent he is. Therefore I believe that being at school nowadays won’t totally help you
being successful if the school’s system is not about learning instead of stuffing.