Response to “We Should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think” by Kie Ho
We read the article, “We Should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think” last week. The author Kie Ho uses his own experiences about his son’s thought and many examples to prove his point. He thinks that public education certainly is not perfect in America, but it is a great deal better than any other country. Children should be more liberal thinking, writing and imagining, rather than comply with the rules or follow the prescribed order of their parents and the execution of what adults say. Children’s creativity brings inspiration to adults, improves the act of education and makes the change to the world.
It is also can make children have a better future. The system of education is not perfect; it is difficult for the children to freely to think, write and create when they began to study the knowledge from the school for a long time, because school teaches the knowledge that is scientific and rigorous. The knowledge is the system and it needs to be audited and modified. Chinese students spend 15 to17 years study knowledge in school. So the school does not require students to research the new knowledge. They just need the student to memorize and calculate rather than to validate it that is correct.
Just like the sky is blue. Why? Because our teacher is telling us the sky is blue. When people are very young, they do not know what many words mean. And the meaning of these words is also what other people give to it. After that their parents or teachers teach them what these words mean, because that knowledge is fixed and cannot be changed. The reality of the society requires people to not only to remember the knowledge, but also have to complete experiments. Solving the reality and ideal conflict can also make the education system more perfect.
I agree with the author’s point that the students just use ways of dedication and obedience to answer the teachers’ question about knowledge. The teacher very easily controls and manages the students’ learning progress, and can quickly lead students to think about the knowledge. They do not have a chance to choose the answers because teacher will give a correct answer when the student asks. There is nothing that can replace it. If the student does not use the correct answers to fill in the homework or exam problems, they won’t get a good result, which has a great influence on their GPA.
So that in the future they can’t go to a good university. Therefore there are many schools that will provide opportunities for students and guidance to exercise to have a rich imagination. In China, many parents send their child to this school to exercise the ability before children go to the elementary school. Parents always are willing to provide their children with future security. People need the very rich and colorful thought from the children, because Children’s thinking is not restricted and is not affected by the external environmental effects. Adult feeling and thought has a fixed pattern.
And they also think things should be comprehensive and meticulous, they cannot do wayward things before they think. They need to have sense of responsibility and social moral consciousness, because they have more force of action and also have independent economic needs to support their actions. So the idea of children of the enlightenment, schools can compensate for these external factors, and reduce the bad influence of socially. So in conclusion I agree with Kie Hos’ ideas that people should cherish their children’s freedom to think, write and be creative in imagination, and make education system more perfect.
He improves his idea on children thought, and uses his experiences to show other people what he thinks about the freedom of young people’s ideas. In return, I think that he demonstrated the ideas and perspectives made by the adults to reflect on their own ideas on the future of children’s thought, Children’s thought can help adults instead of limiting children’s development. The children’s thought is very rich and colorful, and they cannot be influenced by the adult’s thought. The adults will from their mind bring inspiration of the children. Do not imprison our thoughts. We can make our country perfect.
