Name: Pham Anh Thu

Class: 17E3

“School is bad for children?”

OUTLINE

I, Introduction

- Thesis statement: It’s believed that school is an appropriate place where children can
develop; however, in my opinion, school is not a best place for students due to its
negative impacts on both children’s mental health and behaviours.

2, Body:

a, Mental health

- Exams in school make students stressful:

+ The important role of high score.

 Example: In China, gaining high scores in tests plays a crucial roles in student’s
life since scores are regarded as the only thing which can prove children’s worth.
Both teachers and parents evaluate their children’s abilities through test results =>
high score: encouragement, low score: get punish.

=> Students are under presser from their parents, teachers. All day they have to cope
with a large amount of exercises (half a Chinese students’ books are exercise book, spent
4-5 hours per day to get the courses’ purposes) (Kirakpatrick & Zang, 2011)

- School-age children suffer from verbal punishment at school:

+ Students reported that their teachers often use negatives words as a punishment to
correct their misbehavior
  Evidence: Some teachers speak rude words to their students: donkey, stupid, goat,
and ugly (Elbla, 2012)

=> Children who experienced verbal punishment often had poor academic
performance (lack of concentration at school, difficulty in reading, writing) ;
moreover, they felt upset and aggressive (Elbla, 2012)

b, Behaviours
- Cheating becomes more and more common
+ In the exam-oriented education system, in order to prove their worth, students have to
gain high score in the tests. They need to learn and remember a lot of abstract theories to
pass the exam.
+ The competitive educational system where top students get the better chances than the
lower.
+ Students do not have enough time to prepare for too many tests.
=> Students choose to cheat.
- Students are bullied at school, which leads to negative influences on children’s
behaviour
+ Students are frequently bullied by their peers at school
 Example: Students are bullied at least once a week. (Rigby, 1997)

+ Victim will steal money and become more violence to avoid being bullied

Example: To avoid bullies and avoid injury, victims may request or steal extra money
from family members => Victims will obey and steal their relatives’ money. At night
victims may experience difficulty sleeping and have nightmares (McNamara &
McNamara, 1997). Victims are more likely than non-victims to bring weapons to school
to feel safe or to retaliate (Brockenbrough et al., 2002).

3, Conclusion:
Going to school is regarded as a good way for children to gain knowledge and develop
their abilities; nonetheless, sometimes we are likely to neglect the negatives effects of it
which are not good for children.

References:

Kirkpatrick, R., & Zang, Y. (2011). The negative influences of exam-oriented education
on Chinese high school students: Backwash from classroom to child. Language testing in
Asia, 1(3), 36.

Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Midgley, C., Reuman, D., Iver, D. M., & Feldlaufer, H.
(1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students' motivation. The
elementary school journal, 93(5), 553-574.

Rigby, K. (1999). Peer victimisation at school and the health of secondary school
students. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(1), 95-104.

Smokowski, P. R., & Kopasz, K. H. (2005). Bullying in school: An overview of types,

effects, family characteristics, and intervention strategies. Children & Schools, 27(2),
101-110.

Thornburg H.D., & Jones, R.M (1982). Social characteristics of early adolescents: Age
versus grade. Journal of Early Adolescence, 2, 229-239

McNamara, B., & McNamara, F. (1997). Keys to dealing with bullies. Hauppauge, NY:
Barron’s.

Brockenbrough, K. K., Cornell, D. G., & Loper, A. B (2002). Aggressive attitudes among
victims of violence at school. Education & Treatment of Children, 25, 273–287

Elbla, A. I. F. (2012). Is punishment (corporal or verbal) an effective means of discipline

in schools?: case study of two basic schools in greater Khartoum/Sudan. Procedia-Social
and Behavioral Sciences, 69, 1656-1663.