Schools are, according to the author, "failing our children and our society", because of their way of teaching. Children are confined to the school, where freedom is "far more restricted than most adults would tolerate in their workplaces", "which is causing serious psychological damage to many of them". Additionally, scientific evidence proves that the efficient way of learning doesn't follow the school teaching method. While authorities like "President Obama and Secretary of Education" are thinking that the best way of teaching is strecthing "school days and school years", the true effective teaching happens in "conditions that are almost opposite to those of school". Furthermore, the author wraps his article stating that schools "are a product of history", that it emerged "during the Protestant Reformation", when children were instructed to believe in what was taught "without questioning it", which contradicts the school's duty; "nurturing critical thought, creativity, self-initiative or ability to learn on one’s own".
The author writes a sentence that most people will agree with, but later contradicting it, which is a good way to clarify and introduce the thesis, employing the refutation of a common belief as a stragery for the introduction. The usage of first person plural pronoun is also a good way to make a close approach to the reader, making the argumentation-persuation pattern of development effective, and make the effects of bad schooling seem closer than in third-person pronouns. Also, the overall essay's approach is a simple-to-complex one, starting from restricted freedom in schools to a short historical analysis of them. The article is powerfully convincing, however it lacks statistics, professionals' quotations, and other factual evidence which subordinate themselves to ethos.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/26/school_is_a_prison_and_damaging_our_kids/
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