Part A Final Discursive Text – Are schools crafting futures or confining
possibilities?
When I think back to my early years, I remember the constant battle to finish
homework in the middle of a stressful storm. During those moments, I couldn't
help but wonder: Do schools actually mould our destinies, or do they just
unintentionally narrow our paths to success? This age-old question is widespread
in conversations about education throughout society, reflecting the reflections of
countless young brains struggling to make sense of their uncertain futures.
Young students experience the involvement of education and behaviour
management, allowing them to either succeed in creating futures for themselves
or to stifle their chances from graduating and achieving their profound job.
Schools from the beginning have been in the fundamental part of students lives,
their educational rubrics prepare students with necessary subjects such as
Science, English, Mathematics, and other important topics. However, in order for
schools to balance academics with behaviour management, they restrict
students with unnecessary strategies of teaching. And while schools wield the
necessary skills, strategies, and social experiences for a child’s future, they also
operate with systems that tinkers with personal growth and exploration in which
creates a barrier of creativity and possibilities. This leads to different
perspectives of whether school provides the inevitable access to opportunities or
minimising their chances to mere possibilities.
To this day, schools have been the first stepping stone for any child, their
teachers and learning sources provide students’ knowledge on basic skills and
strategies and continue into more advanced levels when aging up from there.
From these stages, students will eventually accumulate a treasure trove of
knowledge that will open doors to bachelor's degrees or any other degree from
universities, paving the way for them to become financially independent and self-
sufficient. According to the Australian Bureau of Statics, 5.5 million people
(5,464,631) reported having a bachelor’s degree or higher, a 30.7 per cent
increase since 2016. Based on the case, learning from a young age in schools
could benefit children knowledge of handling, managing, and supporting
themselves as an individual. Even as the world adapts consistently, schools
would become the primary source of educating young people so that even as
they grow older, they can become flexible to any subject or fact when
approached by them, allowing their futures to resolve the conflict over beige,
beeping computers, and sleek, modern technology. Thus, the continuous gains of
degrees from individuals will allow students to gain waves of knowledge and
reach their job options into millions of decisions that can be financially stable and
benefit the community such as better teachers, smarter doctors, and creative
engineers.
While schools provide the best knowledge there is to a child, their package
includes ranges of rules and regulations that may create barriers towards the
child’s path of gaining a future. Many students are not in favour of being still,
quiet, and listening to unengaging presentations, they prefer to be interested,
active and excited through their lessons. Their efforts of free engagement may
lead to cases such as disruption from the class and continuous detentions as well
as behaviour notes forced upon the child. According to the department of
education, the long suspensions of 2020 were 16,327 with 9080 students being
in years 7-10. The number of suspensions given to a young student may show
that the harsh ruling cages the child from their chances of gaining knowledge.
This could also impact the child’s chances of entering new schools or universities
as smart institutions care more about educating rather than beating their
students with nonsense rulings. But even when rules and regulations rename
schools as prisons, do they also inhabit personal life skills that can assist through
their future?
This brings upon the next point which states how much behaviour management
in schools can be effective through carving the path for their students’ futures.
For anyone, the word ‘Rules’ sounds obscure and oppressive but in general they
are made to keep anyone’s life secure and simple. Rules in school can descend
many things then just detention, they establish special skills that can make you
more professional and adequate. This can assist when having a job interview or
managing problems during your career learning. Studies from the Australian
Education Research Organisation in 2023 states, “Well-designed, positively
framed and clearly communicated classroom rules help to promote safety and
create a learning environment where teachers can teach, and students can
learn.” The process of gaining “clear communication” requires some discipline
and enhanced strategies to accommodate authority. Some strategies can include
awarding well behaved students, making small competitions within group
projects and allowing misbehaved students to engage more in the classroom,
thus cases lead to a more positive and safer environment which allows students
to study and teachers to teach. In spite of this, will life skills be the number one
solution in crafting your future, or is there more to this than meets the eye?
To contract briefly, knowledge is not only the main ingredient for the dish, but it
also needs the consistency of positive behaviour. Sometimes, problems can not
only be solved by the use of facts and statistics rather they can use a moral and
emotional response as individuals with aggressive behaviour may tend to cause
harm and damage rather than solve and respond to the problem. Jobs such as
lawyers and teachers require behaviour management skills as strict
conversations from the audience requires calm responses from the
knowledgeable person themselves. Gowthaman Sounderajj in 2023 states that
"Behaviour is always greater than knowledge because there are numerous
situations in life where knowledge fails, but behaviour can still handle them."
This relates to how speakers interpret towards the audience as aggressive
behaviour may sound strict and impulsive rather than calmer individuals will
sound more professional and knowledgeable through their responses. Having a
workplace surrounded with inappropriate behaviour will result in cases such as
disruption in the workplace, damage to reputations, lack of socialising and
negative responses to customers. When carving children’s path to their success,
it is important for them to contain the gradual level of optimism as well as
containing delicate life skills in which would benefit the progression of the
student’s management at work.
The ongoing discussion surrounding schools and education continues to shape
students' futures. While schools provide essential knowledge and skills, they also
impose difficult learning strategies that limit their absorption of the subject.
Despite this, schools serve as the first stepping stone for many individuals,
offering certain life skills that could assist through management at both home
and work. However, the concept of behaviour management is also a requirement
as it restricts an individual’s instincts from committing irrational attitude. Despite
these challenges, schools offer opportunities for learning and growth, shaping
individuals' futures, but are there certain limitations and obstacles that may or
may not affect the student’s future?
Part B – Final Discursive Reflection:
In my discursive text, I chose to begin with a personal anecdote towards school
in order for the audience to find relatability throughout the concept of school
studies. I introduced the topic of school and contained summarised points that
would be contrasted with the summarised counter arguments for the audience to
get a grasp of what would be mentioned. Rhetorical questions as well as
metaphors and imagery were used in most paragraphs to incite engagement of
the audience’s opinion and depict both sides of the argument. I also included
quotations and statistical evidence to enhance my arguments and create
reliability towards my text with a merged structure of my argument and
counterargument to make it within non-persuasion.
The source of inspiration that I used for my text was an article by Edge
Foundation titled “Does education prepare students for the real world?”. The
writing style I used contained a balance of informality and formality and the use
of rhetorical questions. An example of their writing style is “Does education really
prepare students for the real world? It heavily depends on what you consider the
purpose of school is.” I incorporated this technique into my text when by ending
with “Despite these challenges, schools offer opportunities for learning and
growth, shaping individuals' futures, but are there certain limitations and
obstacles that may or may not affect the student’s future?” The ending of a
rhetorical question enabled readers such as I to allow their proactive thinking
with the topic discussed.
Throughout my discursive, I could have improved the use of engagement in my
text such as creating more balance of formality and informality as I lacked the
informal writing style through my body paragraphs. This would allow readers to
stay consistently engaged when studying my piece. I also could have broadened
my in-depth analysis as I believed my explanation were too summarised and
used very little examples. The use of more examples would allow better
visualisation to reader and clearer understanding of the topic discussed.
Based on the feedback given, I was told that I required more critical analysis as
my examples did not delve deeper into the issue. Thus, to overcome this issue, I
explained more about the evolvement of school and how they will continue to
stay as the fundamental part of students lives. Another point received from the
feedback was that my piece required more creativity and originality, my
paragraphs contained little to no literary techniques leading to less engagement.
So, I have conducted more metaphors and analogies by saying phrases like “…
students will eventually accumulate a treasure trove of knowledge…” Thus,
creating exciting pieces for individuals to read.
Harvard Bibliography:
Australian Bureau of Statistics, (N.A), Education,
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education [11/03/2024]
Australian Education Research Organisation, (19/03/2024), Establishing and
maintaining rules: Their role in classroom management,
https://www.edresearch.edu.au/summaries-explainers/explainers/establishing-
and-maintaining-rules-their-role-classroom-management, [29/03/2024].
Bridge to Success, (11/10/2016), Why School is Important,
https://www.waterburybridgetosuccess.org/why-is-school-important/#:~:text=No
wadays%2C%20school%20has%20become%20the,school%20equips%20a
%20child%20with [11/03/2024]
Edge Foundation, (4/06/2021), Does education prepare students for the real
world?, https://www.edge.co.uk/news-and-events/blogs/does-education-prepare-
students-for-the-real-world/ [11/03/2024]
NSW Department of Education, (21/04/2020), Suspensions and Expulsions 2020,
https://data.cese.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/c0a90a6f-2509-45c5-ba77-
cf5b00350043/resource/9c5e9853-cc77-42d0-a5d5-bcdddc776aa3/download/
2020-suspensions-and-expulsions-factsheet_accessible-v3.1.pdf, [29/03/2024].
Sounderajj. G, (16/07/2023), The Symbiosis of Knowledge and Behavior: An
Indispensable Duality, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/symbiosis-knowledge-
behavior-indispensable-duality-sounderraj-, [29/03/2024].
Statista Research Department, (02/01/2021), Share of population with a
university degree in Australia 1989-2022,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/612854/australia-population-with-university-
degree/, [29/03/2024].
