Is School like Prison?

Negative reinforcement, emphasis on silence and order, abridged freedoms, no input in decision-making, dress code/uniforms, and more, are all similarities that you can see between school and prison. Overall, both industries suppress people into conformity.

In school, you must arrive at the same time and leave at the same time, day after day. You are given a schedule to follow and rules not to break. You are expected to follow the rules built into the school and expected not challenge the infrastructure of the system. Teachers are all-powerful. They control what your mind is being fed, and other school officials decide what your body is being fed as well. We have no control over how they go about our everyday lives because such a huge part of it (eight hours of school) is being controlled by others.

We don’t have a say in what we are learning. Our knowledge is what empowers us, and because there is such a strong disconnect in what is being taught, we no longer feel that knowledge and education are important in our lives. The biggest reason for learning and putting effort into our work is the why factor, why is what we are learning important to us? So many curricula do not answer the most important question, therefore we don’t care about what they are learning because there is a good reason to be learning it. Instead of teaching lifelong skills, like handling personal expenses, growing your own food, health, and wellness, how to change the oil in a car, etc., we are being taught information that will never matter in the real world. 

In my opinion, school is like a prison, but we are allowed to leave. If we do decide to leave early, we get a detention, which would be like getting more added to your sentence. I definitely think, as high schoolers, we should be able to have more say in what goes on in our lives. Do we need all 3 years of math that we will never use? In English we go through the same thing year after year, but with different projects. 

 

Questions 

Do you think we should have more say about what goes into our lives? 

Is school like Prison? 

If they taught life skills, would you actually listen? 

How do you think we could change this? 

How do you think school prepares us for the real world? 

 

Sources 

https://fee.org/articles/policing-the-public-schools-how-schools-are-becoming-even-more-like-prisons/

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/11/11/when-school-feels-like-jail

https://www.mackinac.org/blog/2022/whats-the-difference-between-school-and-jail

 

 

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  • I think school is kind of like a prison. I think to make it feel less like prison we should be able to choose our own classes based on what were intrested in. I also think if we learned stuff that would actually use in the real world I would be more intrested and willing to actually learn about it. 

  • I think that we should have a say in what we are doing in our lives I think that we shouldn't have school every day I think that we should have only 4 days of school during the week but I don't think that school is like a prison 

    • 4 days a week would be nice, but I also don't want to be here during the summer. I don't like the fact that we have to have an extra 50 hours of school. That's is just what Harlan does. They have it go 50 hours more then required 

  • I do think that we should have a say in what we are doing in our lives. I think that we shouldn't have school every single day and I think that we should have more breaks. I do not think that school is like prison. I dont think i would pay attention no matter what they are teaching.

    • I agree, we should have a say in what we learn, especially since it's our lives and they can't control our lives after highschool anymore 

  • I think that school is kind of like a prison but also not like a prison. It is because we have to go here against our will and keep going for 12 years of our lives. It isn't like a prison because a prison is a harsh environment, when school isn't and we can talk to people and eat better food then in prison.

    • I agree, it's not quite as harsh as prison, but it is pretty close 

  • We have no rights in school. It is like we are locked up all day for 7 hours forced to do and listen to things we have no intrest in or benifical to our learning. Im not saying it is prison but sometimes you could say the way we eat could be compared to prison food.

    • Yes, it's just as prison is. We are literally locked in (well out) of school if we leave and we can't do anything whatsoever 

  • I could see why people think school is like prison because we dont have a whole lot of rights, like we cant cuss, blurt out words, wear hats, food is bad and etc. But its not so much prison because they are providing food and teaching for us and helps lots of people be sucessful in life

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