How School Harms Children

School is supposed to help children grow into intelligent, capable, and responsible adults—individuals who have acquired the knowledge and essential skills for living well and contributing to the betterment of the world.

The truth, however, couldn’t be further from that—at least when it comes to the conventional school system. Although it’s a bitter pill to swallow, school tends to harm children, both emotionally and intellectually. Here are the main ways it does so:

1. It teaches children to be obedient

School forces children to obey authority figures who dictate how they should—and should not—behave. It expects them to sit at desks for hours without complaint, doing little beyond memorizing information they neither care about nor will ever need. It tells them when to talk, when to move, and even when to use the bathroom.

Under the relentless pressure to conform to such an unnatural system, many children inevitably grow anxious and depressed.

2. It teaches children what to think, not how to think

School does not teach children how to develop critical thinking skills they need to assess information and reach their own conclusions about it. On the contrary, they are made to accept what they are taught as true or false on faith alone. If they don’t, they are bound to receive bad grades or might even be expelled from school.

In this way, school stunts children’s intellectual growth, turning many of them into little more than automatons, unable to reason or question the beliefs they have been conditioned to hold.

3. It teaches children to be uncreative

Children’s imagination is wild, but school does a remarkable job of suppressing it.

For example, although children are naturally creative, the arts are nearly entirely absent from most schools worldwide, since careers in the arts are often considered unprofitable or unimportant. Instead of being allowed to express themselves creatively through painting, music, dance, theater, and so on, children are forced to focus on subjects they don’t care about and that do little to nurture the imaginative and creative dimensions of their psyche.

School is supposed to help children grow into intelligent, capable, and responsible adults—individuals who have acquired the knowledge and essential skills for living well and contributing to the betterment of the world.

The truth, however, couldn’t be further from that—at least when it comes to the conventional school system. Although it’s a bitter pill to swallow, school tends to harm children. Here are the main ways it does so:

1. It teaches children to be obedient

School forces children to obey authority figures who dictate how they should—and should not—behave. It expects them to sit at desks for hours without complaint, doing little beyond memorizing information they neither care about nor will ever need. It tells them when to talk, when to move, and even when to use the bathroom.

Under the relentless pressure to conform to such an unnatural system, many children inevitably grow anxious and depressed.

2. It teaches children what to think, not how to think

School does not teach children how to develop critical thinking skills they need to assess information and reach their own conclusions about it. On the contrary, they are made to accept what they are taught as true or false on faith alone. If they don’t, they are bound to receive bad grades or might even be expelled from school.

In this way, school stunts children’s intellectual growth, turning many of them into little more than automatons, unable to reason or question the beliefs they have been conditioned to hold.

3. It teaches children to be uncreative

Children’s imagination is wild, but school does a remarkable job of suppressing it.

For example, although children are naturally creative, the arts are nearly entirely absent from most schools worldwide, since careers in the arts are often considered unprofitable or unimportant. Instead of being allowed to express themselves creatively through painting, music, dance, theater, and so on, children are forced to focus on subjects they don’t care about and that do little to nurture the imaginative and creative dimensions of their psyche.

4. It teaches children to fear failure

Mistakes teach us right from wrong and allow us to grow in wisdom. School, however, conditions children to fear making mistakes and to avoid failure at any cost. Those who fail—or do not perform well—are looked down upon, sometimes even mocked, as if they themselves were failures.

As a result, many children learn to see failure as something terrible and avoid setting new goals for fear of encountering it.

5. It teaches children to think play is bad

Children enjoy doing things simply for the sake of play. Play makes their hearts pulsate with joy and brings a big smile to their faces. As they grow up, however, they are taught to believe that play is a waste of time because it doesn’t lead to “success.” They are encouraged to be serious, uptight, and constantly focused on the future—achieving good grades and earning a strong diploma.

Not surprisingly, by the time they finish school, many children are highly anxious and depressed—trapped in a chronic state of stress and unable to enjoy everyday life.

6. It teaches children to avoid listening to their hearts

Unlike most adults, children are in tune with their inner voice and know what their hearts are truly beating for. Yet by the time they become adults, they usually lose touch with that voice and end up living the life society expects of them. This programming occurs mainly at school, where, for over a decade, they must do things they dislike in exchange for rewards.

As a result, they often spend the rest of their lives following a path that was imposed upon them by others and that brings them little fulfillment or joy—and plenty of suffering and misery.

7. It teaches children to associate money with happiness

Another way school harms children is by teaching them to confuse monetary gain with happiness.

Children are taught that the primary goal in life is to land a well-paying job and that only then will they be able to live the good life. That’s why, upon reaching adulthood, many become obsessed with making money, doing jobs they hate while rarely questioning the system that has trapped them in a life of hardship.

8. It teaches children to sacrifice today for tomorrow

The present moment is all we truly have. The future, like the past, doesn’t exist, and dwelling on it keeps us from savoring the here and now. Yet most people constantly chase future goals, believing they will bring them happiness and fulfillment.

This mindset is taught to us early in school, where we learn that sacrificing today will yield great rewards tomorrow: getting good grades, moving on to the next class, earning a good diploma, pursuing a successful career, and so on. By always looking ahead, so many people miss the present, and often only when they are old do they realize that they have wasted most of their lives—left with almost nothing but regret.

Further reading

To learn more about the negative effects of conventional schooling, as well as the ideals and principles a healthy education system should embody, click here.