Lee Si Yun and Chng Jiu Hui 4C

1. IS CONFORMITY IN SCHOOLS A CURSE OR A BLESSING ?

Although conformity in schools might be seen by some to be a blessing, in our opinion, we feel that it is a curse.

This is because conformity in school have resulted in students not knowing their true talents and hence not being able to achieve their full potential.
In "Education as a Path to Conformity", it is mentioned that the obedience system produces a herd instinct. Children end up wanting to stick with safe state jobs, instead of venturing to different careers based on their interest. From "the learning revolution" Sir Ken Robinson states that human community depends on a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability, which is the result of a conformed education system that produces batches of people with a herd mentality of doing only certain jobs. A range of talent is needed in every community, and everyone is different and is capable of doing different things. As Sir Ken Robinson said, Children should be given the opportunity to discover and nurture their own talents but they are being forced into a linear road to "success" when indeed they are not truly passionate or happy. From "standardised testing and its victims" it is said that schools are cutting back or eliminating programs in activities and materials that will not appear on the standardised tests, so as to let the pupils completely focus on what is "necessary" and raise scores. This is also one reason why students do not discover talent and passion in what they do and simply have no choice but to follow the predestined road to their future. They cannot discover themselves what they want to do, because ultimately they do is what is expected of them. This is not achieving their true potential.
However, conformity can be seen as a blessing because it is easier to control the masses, and it is fair.
It streamlines the process. Everything is faster and easier when everything is the same, thus requiring less effort to control the students. Moreover, there is the underlying fallacy that fair means the same for all. If everyone is exposed to exactly the same facts the same way, then no one can claim bias. Conformity ensures that everyone will be on the same starting point, and thus make it fair for majority of the masses. However, after being through a long period of conformity, it results in students refusing to step outside of societal norms for fear of rejection or reprisal. It shapes their personality into one who blindly follows the crowd to be "safe", they are not willing to step out of their comfort zone, and does not dare to venture out to explore new things. They become afraid to try out new things because they feel that it is "unsafe". It is those who were non conformists and willing to step out of those boundaries who made inventions which moved society forward technologically. Hence, we still feel that conformity in schools is a curse.