Two Thoughts

It is an interesting concept to say that a student needs to be well rounded to be more “valuable” to society. It is a concept of which I am torn on. Part of me agrees that a student or a person cannot merely be good in one thing. It would be like only exercising your right arm and not any other muscle. Working the right arm is a great thing, but it alone can’t accomplish as many things as if the whole body was exercised. On the other hand, a person can over work and burn themselves out in trying to be well rounded, which ultimately doesn’t accomplish anything.
To completely change focus I wish to share something I cannot get my thoughts around. In my practicum, my co-op said that once the students enter into the school they lose many of their rights. I can’t help but ask why. The rights were not specified in our discussion, but the idea that rights are taken away does not sit well with me, and does not seem to fit with the idea of democracy. If the schooling system is truly supposed to be a catalyst for the future society that the students will be a part of, then students rights must not change simply because they are in a building. I understand part of the reason why this is the case is for safety reasons in the case of taking away a student’s right to bare arms, but when freedom of speech is taken away, there is a problem. It makes sense that there are things that a student cannot say to one another or to a teacher for the sake of allowing things to flow, but there also comes along a restriction with this. If a student is always worried about how they are going to word things, then there is an unneeded obstacle for that student to participate. Rather than simply saying that a student may or may not say certain things, I think that it is the teacher’s job to allow the students to speak as they will but then show them what type of speech is the most productive for society. Society needs to not change within the walls of a school. Again, if a school is supposed to be educating students for the “real world,” this idea of taking away student’s rights is creating a fake environment. This is a concept that I would love to hear what you all have to say about.