Jack McNulty

Professor Rodrick

English 115

22 October 2017

Cookie Cutter Students

While observing the typical high school classroom, one will find its pretty dull and sad.

There are isolated rooms full of sleep deprived teenagers, standardized testing, and a set of

guidelines for you to follow involving your studies. In high school, there really is no freedom in

what you can study. You are forced by the school to study what they want you to, or risk failure.

Students need to be ready for the world once they graduate, and being shaped by a conformative

system for the first 17-19 years of their life does not help. In these first years of their life, US

students are kept in confined rooms while useless information is being shoved into their head.

Even if you know you want to be an accountant when youre older, you still have to attend US

history and art classes in order to prepare you for the unexpected, which makes absolutely no

sense. Wouldnt students be more successful in contributing to this society if they were not

conditioned to be so alike and could study what they wanted for eight years rather than four? The

typical US high school educational system is shaping young teens by keeping them in isolated

learning environments, forcing them to think a certain way, and failing them if they dont

conform.

Taking a closer look at a typical US classroom, there really isnt much there. The walls

are covered in cheap educational posters, few windows allow light to enter the dark

environment. The class is full of growing, sleep-deprived teens, and theyre all being looked

after by an underpaid adult who could be only 10 years older than the students. In her article,
Emily Corinne shows how disruptions in the classroom environment can lead to dysfunction of

the student. She explains Previous research has shown how fundamental attribution errors, and

cognitive errors in general are due to stereotyping and prejudices, which can cause

discrimination that can negatively influence the classroom environment, which is exactly what I

think. I agree with Corinne on nearly all points, except for the fact that she deals mostly with

teacher to student punishment. One of the main reasons why students are effected in a negative

way by their classroom environment is the overall isolated nature of the setting that molds them

into this robotic learning machine. With no freedom in the classroom, the student has no room to

grow and find out what he or she likes. The students are literally lined up in desks and not

allowed to get up or move for forty five minutes to two hours. Corinne does imply that teacher to

student punishment has a negative effect on the learning of that student, and most of those

punishments are not fully created by the teacher, but by the overall system. This includes limited

bathroom breaks, technology in the classroom, different desk arrangements, and many more. The

school can make up excuses such as it being a fire hazard for the desks to be arranged this way

but in reality it is not. Giving students more freedom in their isolated classroom will allow them

to really flourish in their studies rather than be in an isolated learning environment where their

personality and actions are shaped into a cookie cutter model of a

student. The determination for students to succeed and continue in their

studies is being sucked out by this conformative environment with

lifeless teachers and a lack of freedom inside of the classroom. The environment in which these

students learn in is dull and provides a perfect example of the conformed society the educational

system wants these students to be a part of. Along with an isolated learning environment comes

an isolated curriculum that is standardized across the nation.

 Students are forced to study and think a certain way by pre-chosen courses. In high

school, there are subject requirements that you must complete in order to graduate and progress

onto college. However, this dilutes the non-conformative goal that some students have. Taking a

broader view of the situation, some students may like the way the classroom and school system

is set up. They enjoy being a young kid with a barcode on the back of their neck in a shaped

school system with a future they have no control over. But the hypothetical barcode is on the

back of their neck, where they cant see it. They dont see any other options than to just go with

the flow and conform themselves to a system that was created for them. The closed off

classroom can be seen as a wall between reality and what the school system wants reality to be

viewed as. High school students today are sat down in a desk and forced to learn subjects that

may not benefit them in the future. Another aspect of the US education system that forces

students to learn a certain way is through standardized tests. Standardized testing puts more of an

emphasis on memorizing the subject at hand rather than actually

understanding it. If testing methods were more hands-on and less

informative, then students would be more likely to understand topics

that they will use for future careers. For kids to fully comprehend these

topics, they must be fully engaged while they are trying to learn, and allowing the students to

study what they want will greatly improve this. Greg Jouriles explains in his article about the

cons of standardized testing; that the test basically tells us what we already know. Jouriles says

Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don't already know.

Jouriles, throughout the essay, points out that standardized testing merely reports the obvious.

However, by taking this a step further, we can assume that the tests are basically another biased

obstacle that students need to pass in order to graduate. The test can be viewed as a set of
guidelines that the student must memorize, and most of the time its a ton of information on a

variety of subjects. This limits the need for creativity and shapes the learning capabilities of

students to a very single-minded outlook. Having to learn in such a controlled environment based

on curriculum will greatly the limit the potential of that student, and this happens through pre-

chosen courses and a standard testing basis of knowledge. Sadly, the students who understand

this and refuse to follow the guidelines of the conformative system will most likely fail due to

the way the system us set up.

If you dont conform, you fail. The way the school system is set up in high schools forces

students to conform to a certain way of learning, and if one does not, then the system essentially

boots them out. An example of this would be a student who has amazing math skills but

struggles with world languages like Spanish or Sign Language. Worst case scenario, the student

fails all of his or her language classes and cannot progress onto college until those credits are

completed. This system singles out the kids who dont succeed in all of the required courses even

if they dont necessarily need the knowledge from those courses in their future career. The need

for basic knowledge of multiple subjects shapes the learning identity of these young kids to make

them think a certain a way. A way that requires minimal knowledge on a broad spectrum of skills

that is nothing like the real world out of college. Jerry M. Burger is a Psychology professor at

Santa Clara University. He provides a great example of conformity in his article Conformity and

Obedience, where he explains the different reasons people must conform to a societal norm.

Burger says Another reason we conform to the norm is because other people often have

information we do not, and relying on norms can be a reasonable strategy when we are uncertain

about how we are supposed to act. Burger provides a spot-on assumption that can easily be

related to students in the classroom. For one part, they are students, they are looking up to the
teachers for answers because they know very little. Students are easily taken advantage of and

forced to conform to a style of learning that they may not like. The downfall of this is if a

students does not conform, then the answers are not there for them and they essentially fail.

Conformity means success in an educational system like today's and conformity only happens

because students do not know any better. Therefore, the system can be viewed as a skinny piece

of wood across a cliff. One step out of line, and you are done. This is an unfair method because it

cuts out a large majority of students that are very knowledgeable in certain subjects who could

make a huge difference in the world. Due to the conformative based educational system, they

cannot succeed because the system denies the need for individuality and promotes a standardized

way of learning.

The typical US high school classroom is shaping young teens by keeping them in isolated

learning environments, forcing them to think a certain way, and failing them if they dont

conform. Young teens are shaped from the very beginning by being isolated in a room that does

not allow creativity and freedom of their knowledge. They are required to study a certain way

using standardized testing methods and are forced to learn subjects that will be inapplicable in

the years to come. If the students do not conform to this unnecessary style of learning, they will

be left behind and will not be allowed to continue their studies. The shaping of teens in the high

school educational system needs to change and adapt to allow them to acquire an advanced set of

skills that will be used for their future career rather than forcing them to take classes that will be

irrelevant as they progress into college. The environment that these students are in is very

controlled, and this is done on purpose so the system can shape the students. Allowing the

students to acquire advanced knowledge on the subject they are interested in from an early stage

in their life will produce smarter citizens that can contribute to our society.
 Works Cited

Burger, Jerry M. Conformity and Obedience. Noba, Creative Commons Attribution, 12 June 2014,

Accessed 23 Oct. 2017.

Classroom Desks. Photos Public Domain, Photos-Public-Domain.com, 21 Aug. 2011, Accessed 23

Oct. 2017.

Corinne, Emily. The Consequences of Discrimination in the Classroom. The Consequences of

Discrimination in the Classroom - Applied Social Psychology (ASP), 20 Mar. 2014, Accessed 23

Oct. 2017.

Jouriles, Greg. Here's Why We Don't Need Standardized Tests. Education Week, 6 Oct. 2017,

Accessed 23 Oct. 2017.

Zyglis, Adam. Square Peg, Round Hole. Surge, Orlando Sentinal, 9 Mar. 2015, Accessed 23 Oct.

2017.