Ender's Game Essay On Education

Education in the 21st century is arguably extensively different than that of the previous centuries. Children are resigning their mental health for an education that only a proportion of them will put to use in the future. At the same time, the public school system helps encourage a healthy development by forcing children to become independent. Both the positive and negative results that public school have upon children in today’s society are a parallel to the way that battle school alters Ender as an individual. In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card demonstrates the manipulations Ender is put through in battle school as a comparison to real life education; in both, children are forced into experiences that help them grow as individuals but also knock them down, wholistically changing their personalities. Although the public school systems today offer many counseling options and work hard to avoid putting stress on students, studies done by the American Psychological Association show that 45% of teens report that their stress originates from the pressures of school (Neighmond). As the process of applying to universities becomes increasingly competitive, more students become driven to maintain a superior GPA. Although success is possible throughout a numerous number of paths, most students are brainwashed to believe that high school intelligence is the main deciding factor upon future success. Therefore, students levels of stress are continually increasing and reaching unhealthy levels. Similarly, in Ender’s Game, the battle schools are Card’s way of representing the public school system in today’s society. After manipulations were made and Ender was becoming unstoppable, the directors of battle school continually found ways to attempt to defeat Ender. Many of these attempts included rule breaking and emotionally harming Ender. At the beginning of the book when Ender is first being transferred to battle school, Colonel Graff begins to praise Ender in front of the entire group of other students. He does this not to make Ender confident, but in fact to maliciously set Ender up to be bullied by other students. Colonel Graff rants towards the group, “Take a good look at him, little boys. He’s going to be a commander when you're still in diapers up there. (Card 32)” Immediately following, other boys begin to harass Ender in attempt to tear him down. This one example is simply an overview of what occurs throughout his entire experience at battle school and command school. In another situation, the leaders of command school set up a battle in which Ender’s Army is facing two other armies at once. Ender finally reaches his limit during this battle and claims that he is quitting because of the cheating and unfairness that this has amounted to. Command school has broken Ender down to the point where he would rather quit than go on. This representation shows just how easily Ender gave up on himself. His determination slowly faded away over time. In real life, this may become reality for some students. AP tests are created to show …show more content…
In Ender’s Game, we often times forget how young Ender truly is. When reading the book it is easy to become sidetracked and not pay much attention to his actual age. Card writes about Ender in ways that make us feel as if he is a teenager at times. In doing this, we are shown how much Ender is forced to grow up quickly regardless of his numerical value representing his age. In the book, Ender is restricted from crying because it is viewed as an action that represents immaturity. “The touch of kindness in this frightening place was enough to push some over the edge into tears. Not Ender though. When Dap came, his crying was over, and his face was dry. (Card 44)” At age six, Ender was shown that crying was a sign of weakness. Although this may seem strange, it actually represents a sign of maturity. It is very normal for children to cry. However, simply the fact that Ender is able to take this and process it in his mind shows just how cognitively developed he is. This process of showing Ender the ways of life and separating him from his parents made it a quick process of growing up. There was no time to mess around. Mental toughness was built from situations like this and will eventually help him in other aspects of his