My point of view more closely aligns with the belief that formal education tends to restrain our minds. However, the education we receive highly depends on those who are delivering the knowledge to us, in other words, it is hugely contingent upon the professors, deans, educational ministers - anyone who has an impact on the system of education. Therefore, one may agree with the first or the second statement solely basing on his/ her personal experience or the thoughts of other people. My school and university years made me agree with the second one.
First of all, the majority of the tests and assignments are based on the black and white concept, meaning that there are only two possible outcomes: right or wrong and nothing in between. Therefore, such a mindset of educators creates a frame and immures their students in it. Thinking outside the box in such an environment is considered to be the wrong answer. In order to fit in and have good grades, students should espouse the beliefs of their teachers or test-makers, even though they may highly disagree with them. This situation may impede the development of the student’s own identity and foster his reluctance to think on his own, argue and support his ideas. It may sound a little exaggerating, but in the long run, such a system of education, which shores the imagination and creativity of students, may create a reluctant and easy-to-manipulate society that lost the skill of the critical thinking.
Secondly, formal education in Russia, and in other countries as well, only offers a rigid set of subjects for a certain career. As a result, students must follow the prechosen track by a person in power. There is no opportunity to be free in your choices, nor to discover areas outside of your main field of interest. This leaves the students with the only option to develop parochially.
Admittedly, not all schools and universities, as well as not all teachers and professors, are the same. Some of them may, in fact, encourage their students to free the mind and spirit by allowing them to express what they really think without imposing any boundaries or putting labels on them. Through being open and feeling the freedom of the speech students will be more involved in the discussion processes, therefore, it will help them to exchange their ideas to form valuable conclusions, which otherwise would not be reached because of the restrictions of somebody in power, be it a professor or a minister trying to push a new law.
In conclusion, I can predict that everybody will have different views on this topic and this is absolutely understandable as each person has had different experiences during the school years that shaped this opinion. My opinion was shaped in the way which aligns more with the claim that formal education tends to restrict our minds by not allowing us to think outside the imposed box.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, really, second, secondly, so, therefore, well, as to, in conclusion, in fact, as a result, as well as, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.5258426966 77% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.4196629213 105% => OK
Conjunction : 24.0 14.8657303371 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.3162921348 97% => OK
Pronoun: 45.0 33.0505617978 136% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 74.0 58.6224719101 126% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 12.9106741573 101% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2412.0 2235.4752809 108% => OK
No of words: 489.0 442.535393258 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93251533742 5.05705443957 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.70248278971 4.55969084622 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.77821296975 2.79657885939 99% => OK
Unique words: 270.0 215.323595506 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.552147239264 0.4932671777 112% => OK
syllable_count: 743.4 704.065955056 106% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 6.24550561798 144% => OK
Article: 2.0 4.99550561798 40% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 20.2370786517 94% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 23.0359550562 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 71.0314198357 60.3974514979 118% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.947368421 118.986275619 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.7368421053 23.4991977007 110% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.47368421053 5.21951772744 162% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 10.2758426966 88% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 5.13820224719 97% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.19530467167 0.243740707755 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0531412095291 0.0831039109588 64% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0704302549084 0.0758088955206 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.102802350835 0.150359130593 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0400240105092 0.0667264976115 60% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.1392134831 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 48.8420337079 112% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.1743820225 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.1639044944 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.69 8.38706741573 104% => OK
difficult_words: 118.0 100.480337079 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 11.8971910112 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.2143820225 107% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.