Eduation Has Failed
It is arguable that a
young human
being is incapable of learning without being
forced to do so, but this theory
goes against the very essence of
human nature itself. The drive to
learn, to
excel, to
lead; these are all
engraved into our hearts. Simply put a goal in
front of a person, and that person will
strive for it. The current system of
education does not recognize this at all; it puts no faith in
willpower,
desire,
or
strength. In essence it does
nothing. The apathetic institutions of our day
serve no purpose but to
go through the motions of basic
knowledge,
demeaning the
student,
insulting the
teacher, and acting as
an enormous waste of human
life.
It is often believed that a
person cannot learn unless
threatened with some
ridiculous punishment for not
doing so: “Do this assignment, or you will
fail and
die in a pile of mud on
the street.” But why should that be necessary? Too often, the student is not
taught a subject, but taught
within a subject. It is tossed like a
rotten piece
of meat, to be
cut into thin slices and
thrown back. Meanwhile, those who think
beyond it are forced back into the
meaner train of thought, making the classroom
into a
cookie cutter experience.
While the
school system
does
offer up
knowledge, how it is taught is
completely wrong. The error is in that
it does not cater to the
individual. Hundreds of students are taught the
same
thing, in the
same way, and at the
same time –
surely this can’t be
right. No
two people have the same mind, so why should
an entire age group of
these individuals be going through the
exact same processes? Not only going
through them, but
being forced to go through them under threat of punishment. It must soon be realized that
education is
not an assembly
line – you cannot input standard knowledge like a
Model T.
Unfortunately, the system
remains, and it is a
preoccupation with
fitting the mold that holds a school
together. The high school experience is one more of
discipline than of learning;
a strict obsession with following
rules that makes education an offhand
sideshow. The
teacher will cater to the middle 10%, or 5%, leaving those
individuals that are behind to
catch up, and those ahead to
drearily absorb the
color of the walls. This is the cause of most disciplinary punishments:
dismay
at being behind, or
boredom at being ahead.
Administrators and teachers will go
to great lengths to allay the
problems these individuals may cause - they
don’t fit the
dimensions of a precise
demographic, and so they must be
punished.
In the
future, learning will be done on a much more
individual basis. One-on-one
tutors, or even situations with
computers that can
adapt to
infinite combinations of
personalities and mindsets, will be much more
common. Students will learn
at their own pace, be it faster or slower, and the
idea of
one size fits all will be
abolished. Learning should be encouraged –
educators and
pupils should be preoccupied with individual
achievement,
advancement in knowledge and thought, rather than how one student compares to
the next. A
goal is only a
limit; there should only be progression for every human being.