I can reflect on what has been without a doubt the biggest waste of time I have ever experienced, and most likely will ever experience, without being categorically ignored.
Our education system is flawed at a fundamental level. We demand the unquantifiable be quantified in test scores and aptitude tests. We ask for personal responsibility in all the wrong places, demanding hours a day in the classroom and having little reward for levels of understanding beyond rote learning. Everything operates on the basis that something learned once will be remembered indefinitely, and that we are all going to become modern day renaissance men and women. There is no focus on the ability to troubleshoot a situation. There is no expressed desire of true understanding for the extension of basic principles. There is not even a sense that competence is even a compliment - the admiration/jealousy expressed towards those of higher standing does not stem from the fact that they are the most efficient, only from the universal understanding that they have the godlike, unprioritized work ethic to put more hours in than anyone else is willing to.
I live in a pretty good school district, by conventional standards anyways. I have no doubt that it is better than most school districts, and I am thankful that my parents have the will and the way to make that happen. This also means I have seen how criminally inefficient the system is at taking what talent it has and making it achieve to its highest capacity. Students will change their attitudes to suit the requirements of the rewards dangled in front of them. In the case of education, the only immediate goal is that of class rank/gpa at the moment. Students are rarely presented with means to judge themselves against their peers and reward each other or be rewarded by the administration for demonstrating skills and abilities outside achievement in the classroom. If competence in the classroom mirrored what is viewed as competence in the real world, this wouldn't be a problem. When those classroom skills are that of strategic test taking, finding the mental equivalent of woodworking jigs to identify and solve specific types of problems, and the work ethic of George Orwell's Boxer, then the values in and out of the classroom are obviously very different.
I know one kid, ranked within the top 10 (out of 1361), who couldn't make a circuit out of a long piece of wire and a battery. I know another kid ranked within the top 20 who asked me a couple months ago whether the stove we were cooking on was gas or electric. Our #2 was very good in history classes - beasting through reading assignments multiple times before quizzes and tests - and at memorizing her way through all the regurgitation material in physics, but couldn't do the most basic application questions. These - along with the cheaters that make up a rather large percentage of the "successful" people - are the people being rewarded in this system. It's not just the fact that desirable traits are not being nurtured. That alone wouldn't be so bad. The fact is the desirable traits are being repressed in favor of other traits that are more profitable in the short term. As it is set up now, creativity, intuition, the desire for understanding, and the ability to struggle with problems independently are being systematically crushed out of students.
Public schooling lasts too long. As soon as most children are able to function maturely and responsibly they should be funneled into a form of the work force. That does not mean 20 year olds don't meet this requirement; there is a difference between the choice to act immaturely and the inability to act maturely. At least by age 15, kids should be directed towards their area of interest very closely, and those industries along with personal drive should begin to take charge of their education. A very high level of specialization is demanded now, and will be in even greater demand in the future. There is no reason to be wasting the time of perfectly able people in a fairytale land of gpa and free rent when education could become extremely pertinent and rewarding.
The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions.
- Bishop Creighton
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.
- Bill Beattie
The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.
- Ayn Rand
Our education system is flawed at a fundamental level. We demand the unquantifiable be quantified in test scores and aptitude tests. We ask for personal responsibility in all the wrong places, demanding hours a day in the classroom and having little reward for levels of understanding beyond rote learning. Everything operates on the basis that something learned once will be remembered indefinitely, and that we are all going to become modern day renaissance men and women. There is no focus on the ability to troubleshoot a situation. There is no expressed desire of true understanding for the extension of basic principles. There is not even a sense that competence is even a compliment - the admiration/jealousy expressed towards those of higher standing does not stem from the fact that they are the most efficient, only from the universal understanding that they have the godlike, unprioritized work ethic to put more hours in than anyone else is willing to.
I live in a pretty good school district, by conventional standards anyways. I have no doubt that it is better than most school districts, and I am thankful that my parents have the will and the way to make that happen. This also means I have seen how criminally inefficient the system is at taking what talent it has and making it achieve to its highest capacity. Students will change their attitudes to suit the requirements of the rewards dangled in front of them. In the case of education, the only immediate goal is that of class rank/gpa at the moment. Students are rarely presented with means to judge themselves against their peers and reward each other or be rewarded by the administration for demonstrating skills and abilities outside achievement in the classroom. If competence in the classroom mirrored what is viewed as competence in the real world, this wouldn't be a problem. When those classroom skills are that of strategic test taking, finding the mental equivalent of woodworking jigs to identify and solve specific types of problems, and the work ethic of George Orwell's Boxer, then the values in and out of the classroom are obviously very different.
I know one kid, ranked within the top 10 (out of 1361), who couldn't make a circuit out of a long piece of wire and a battery. I know another kid ranked within the top 20 who asked me a couple months ago whether the stove we were cooking on was gas or electric. Our #2 was very good in history classes - beasting through reading assignments multiple times before quizzes and tests - and at memorizing her way through all the regurgitation material in physics, but couldn't do the most basic application questions. These - along with the cheaters that make up a rather large percentage of the "successful" people - are the people being rewarded in this system. It's not just the fact that desirable traits are not being nurtured. That alone wouldn't be so bad. The fact is the desirable traits are being repressed in favor of other traits that are more profitable in the short term. As it is set up now, creativity, intuition, the desire for understanding, and the ability to struggle with problems independently are being systematically crushed out of students.
Public schooling lasts too long. As soon as most children are able to function maturely and responsibly they should be funneled into a form of the work force. That does not mean 20 year olds don't meet this requirement; there is a difference between the choice to act immaturely and the inability to act maturely. At least by age 15, kids should be directed towards their area of interest very closely, and those industries along with personal drive should begin to take charge of their education. A very high level of specialization is demanded now, and will be in even greater demand in the future. There is no reason to be wasting the time of perfectly able people in a fairytale land of gpa and free rent when education could become extremely pertinent and rewarding.
The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions.
- Bishop Creighton
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.
- Bill Beattie
The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.
- Ayn Rand
