Language Development - Draft Essay

Marie Brazda

08/13/2010
Language Development

The freedom to create

     In We Should Cherish Our Children's Freedom to Think, Kie Ho reminds us that if education in the United-States encounters some problems, it has also made a lot of improvements and that, though students may not know as much as their ancestors used to know, they acquired the freedom to create and to think which is probably the most valuable quality in nowadays schools. It is undeniable education depends on freedom but the text fails to put a distance from common sense and gives a simple vision of complicated and intricate issues. Its self-centeredness and lack of objectivity prevent it from seeing a bit farther in terms of what a child really needs to consciously create in a world of constant demand.

Kie Ho starts his article by saying that native and non-native speakers agree on the same idea that there is a lack of efficiency in the educational system in the US. To him their dissatisfaction is not funded. Choosing the word  « tragically » in the rhetorical question on line 12-13, it is obvious he is mocking the anxiety of the persons who complain. Thus, he compares the Americans of the old generations with the immigrants to show how widely spread are the criticisms. By doing this, Kie Ho puts in the same boat the Americans born and raised in The United-States as well as those arrived from a country sometimes radically different from their welcoming country, and overlooks the real fear they might have ignoring everything of the culture, with no Americans to refer to in their family to tell them what works and what does not in this given system of education. It is agreed that some critics can be generated by nostalgia or the refusal to see things change, but some may actually emerge from misunderstanding. A good thing would have been to take that into account instead of enumerating the flow of people discontented with what is subjectively seen as the best quality in a school.

Plus, his beliefs are probably blurred by the pride for his son‘s creativity: « his Romeo would take Juliet to an arcade for a game of Donkey Gong » (49-50) and even more by his personal feeling of having been oppressed by education: « When I was 18, I had to memorize Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy flawlessly. » (47-48) or « In my high school years, we were models of dedication and obedience: we sat to listen, to answer only when asked, and to give the only correct answer » (32-33). When talking about him, the words are overwhelming and refer to pain but when talking about his son's education, the lexical evokes freedom: « innovation » (13), « creativity » (20), «experiment » and « ideas » (30), « concocting » (38), « self-expression » (46). Therefore, it really sounds like the child inside the man speaking, the one that « simply did not have a chance to choose, to make decisions. » (36-37) and who now worship the things he missed of. Therefore, how can we trust his statements?

Indeed, given the vision he has of his past, it is not surprising he considers that acquiring freedom should overlook the need for a child to acquire skills and knowledge: « However, unlike his counterparts in Asia and Europe, my son had studied creative geography. » (24-25). He even goes as far as exaggerating his point to make the reader feel guilty to think otherwise: « Do we really want to retard their impulses, frustrate their opportunities for self-expression? » (45-46). The author never mentions the importance of discipline, skills and knowledge in the process of creation. Of course, it is not necessary for everyone to know « 50 lines of The Canterbury Tales », still education must find a balance between old times schools and the author’s idealistic vision. If we look at the pyramid of Maslow, we find that the basic needs of an individual are to be fulfilled for him to evolve to higher levels so that he can have new needs and continue his path towards total achievement. Freedom in education could be compared to food in that pyramid. It is a vital goal but not the ultimate one. So if America is the country of innovation maybe it is due to other facts than merely freedom. What about perseverance, skills, will and awareness?

Besides, reducing the freedom to speak and create to the United-States only is a vision either very naive or very indifferent to other parts of the world that actually have the same rights. His sentences sound really patriotic: « Where else but in America » (51) and do not leave much room for a constructive and trustworthy criticism. All in all, the text acts more as an indirect reminder to be more grateful for being free and as a praise of the American system of education providing this opportunity than a real article trying to put in perspective the issues on education and the advantage that could be taken out of the differences between countries. The author does not look for building a bridge between the education he received and that of his son and, though using the interesting device of comparison, he does not use it as a means to open the narrow minds, but to strengthen his one-sided point of view and remains stubborn: « Critics of American education cannot grasp one thing, something that they don’t truly understand because they are never deprived of it: freedom. » (55-56) In the end, you can be impressed by a text or a map created by a child in an elementary school, but what does it mean to really create at a world level and to hold that standard? Probably a little more than being free.

     Though Kie Ho’s opinion is clear and relevant, it is built on his own personal experiences which prevents it from being objective and constructive. Only expressing his thoughts and belief like a child having a tantrum it does not try to deal with the real issues hidden behind the Americans' (parents, teachers, researchers…) criticism.

It is fair enough to say that freedom is by far the most important quality teachers must provide their students but creativity is a long and complicated process that does not depends on freedom only. Being a first step towards achievement, which might seem unreachable for some, it should not forbid those who are lucky to have it to ask for more. After all, one might have a job and an apartment and still want to find love and happiness.

So no matter how priceless that quality may be, education must reach higher grounds and build a bridge between knowledge, skills and freedom to help children evolve and learn for real, a bit like democracy found a balance between dictatorship and anarchy.