I know this is old turf, but I feel like I need to leave my footprint in it.
Education is something that I think about a great deal. Perhaps because I spent about 18 out of my 23 years in it.
The existing education system is great, if you are good at certain things. If you’re not, you suffer. Simple.
One of the biggest and most fundamental flaws in the education system is that a certain amount of people do not act in accordance with it. As much as life is changing for all of us, these principles have been the same since the introduction of compulsory education systems for children – some people have been interested, some haven’t; the ones who aren’t are the ones that suffer.
Of course, everyone should be educated to a certain level. We all need to read, write and have reasonable mental arithmetic (no matter who you are). However, it gets to a certain point where you start having an idea of what you want to do and what interests you, normally at some point in High School.
Why not let a child choose what he or she wants to do rather than forcing them down certain paths? When I say child I mean a teenager who is self-aware and can receive NEUTRAL guidance that is in their best interests. Obviously you can’t ask a six year old what they want to do, and they need the basic foundations of education. If a child decides at 12 years old that he wants to be a bricklayer, then start preparing him then rather than waiting another 4 years until he is completely disillusioned.
For me there wasn’t really an option Nursery—>Primary School—>High School—>Sixth Form College—>University—>Reality.
It worked for me but there are many people that it doesn’t work for.
What is the point of learning about something that you will never use or have no interest in? There is no point. If you want to be a bricklayer, when are you going to use History or RE? You’re not.
This presents a massive problem
If a child doesn’t act in accordance with the educational system, they become an academic “reject”. For example, a child gets in trouble for not paying attention in RE. They’re told off when they get things wrong. Mistake number two – destroying a child’s creativity and desire to experiment. Make a child a reject and he will find it harder to fit in at a later age,thus leading to social and other problems in society. If they are getting told off all of the time they learn to resent authority, hence leading to problems at home and with the police. I don’t think I’m stereotyping when I say this, because it’s something I’ve seen over and over again with my own eyes. Most criminals and people with social problems are the ones that didn’t do well at school. The system rejected them, and this feeling of rejection is something that they never got over.
I believe that we’re all responsible for our own actions, but the education system HAS to change to accommodate everyone, not just some. That’s what a universal system is about.
Being an entrepreneur, there’s very few jobs that I’d even consider doing. However, I would consider being a teacher, but not under the current system. The youth of our world are the future of our world, and it is important that they are brought up correctly and educated correctly; made to feel part of society rather than outcasts.
A word about SOPA
The last fortnight has been a very interesting one, we’re seeing the Internet go through massive changes. Of course piracy is wrong. My solution is to make things that are regularly pirated more affordable, such as software and music. People then won’t have an incentive to pirate them, because the potential punishment simply won’t be worth it. Why should the average consumer feel guilty about illegally downloading a record when the artist and record company are both worth tens of millions of dollars?? You’ll probably see that most of my images from now on are made in-house, I don’t fancy getting in trouble with the US Authorities lol. My take on this whole situation is that everything has a price, including freedom. But the price of freedom is far lower than the price of having our freedom taken away. Sorry, had to have my say on this one!
Your turn
Do you think that the current education system need to change or should it stay the way it is? Have you had positive or negative experiences with the education system?
8 comments
Bill Dorman
January 25, 2012 at 1:44 am (UTC 0)
I vote for change; a one size fit’s all leaves too many creative minds out of the process and sometimes labeled as failures. Some of it can be standardized, but we can’t keep trying to jam square pegs in round holes, right?
Bill Dorman recently posted..Thoughts to ponder and it’s not SOPA
Robert
January 25, 2012 at 2:42 am (UTC 0)
Hey Bill,
Yeah exactly, creativity is stifled.
That’s it, the pegs haven’t been fitting for a long time. Things need to change…now.
Robert recently posted..The Education system needs to change
Jk Allen
January 25, 2012 at 11:55 pm (UTC 0)
Hey Robert,
This was fabulous man.
I won’t even jump in to censorship because it would take me pages to share only fractions of my thoughts.
The education systems needs to change. It has to change. It must change. We live in two different countries where things are much different. My country, the US was once a top performer with the Japenese in terms of education. Now, we rank within the same area as third world countries.
We’ve been mind controlled, fed hormones, pumped with vaccinations and poisioned with so-called medicine. Our bodies and our minds have become inferior. And to top it off, our education system misses the mark in teaching young people what is important.
Instead of trying to FORCE me to learn Spanish, which I had and still don’t have interest in learning, I should have been learning to master English. Instead of trying to teach every kid high forms of math, teach mastery of the basics first. I could go on and on.
Education, as we know it, needs to change. It has to change. It must change.
PEACE
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Robert
January 26, 2012 at 12:36 am (UTC 0)
Hey man,
Thanks for taking time out to stop by!
Sorry, just couldn’t resist getting that in about SOPA, resisted writing a full post on it lol.
Exactly, we’re being poisoned in more ways than one. It’s not even about how good the education system is, it’s that it teaches us the wrong things and alienates far too many people.
For sure, it’s a simple rule of life: don’t try to conquer the exotic until you have conquered the basic (I think it was Jim Rohn who said that).
Speak soon bro.
Robert recently posted..The Education system needs to change
Ashvini@thoughts on entrepreneurship, leadership and motivation
January 27, 2012 at 10:46 am (UTC 0)
Hi Robert,
Two very interesting topics in one post .
My current city is constantly seeing a lot of suicides because the kids committing suicides could not stand up to the expectations of society , parents, teachers, peers. It is really very unfortunate.
In my opinion education has to change fundamentally and teachers should be encouraged to find out intrinsic capabilities of a child. Of course children are too young to make a choice but with proper help they are more likely to find their own path. Once there , they should be allowed to chose between grade system( some students do good there) or project system ( some kids are more oriented towards doing things rather than digging into books). That way we can leave it to kids to decide what they want without stressing them too much. However a minimum information of all subjects may be good. In my school days I read about history of whole of the world. Even though I have no practical use for it, I do find it useful to get into conversations from time to time.
Here though we are overwhelmed with remembering dates of all the historical events which to me is a waste. History need not worry about when certain thing but why it happened and how it impacted the society and world after it happened. Kids brains can be picked with this way of teaching.
I have used history just as an example.
For SOPA my take goes with yours 100%. There is no use fighting an idea whose time has arrived. A smart businessman will turn threats into opportunities. I think everyone needs to learn from Andy Grove on how to make the best of the situation
Ashvini@thoughts on entrepreneurship, leadership and motivation recently posted..Attitude towards life
Robert
January 27, 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC 0)
Hey Ashvini,
Oh yes, I remember you writing a post about that and I commented on it. It’s clearly a subject that is very close to your heart, as it is to mine. I know that particularly in Asia and with many Asian parents here in Britain, a tremendous amount of pressure is put on their children to do well academically.
That’s a great idea, a grade system and a project system. Yes, a minimum level of education in the core and broad subjects is important, and once the child gets to a certain age and has the correct guidance then they can make a choice about which “path” they will take.
That’s also a very good point. Many of the subjects could be taught from a different perspective so that they are more beneficial to the students, like your example of teaching history to show children how things were and how they have shaped the world, rather than using basic facts that have no benefit to anyone.
Will check out Andy’s take on SOPA.
Thanks for stopping by and for your continued support,
Robert
Robert recently posted..The Education system needs to change
Justin Mazza
March 1, 2012 at 4:56 pm (UTC 0)
Hi Robert,
The Education system in America is “old school” and out dated. I believe that kids need regular schooling from grades K-5. After that kids should be looking towards their career and take classes that are in alignment with what they want to do in their life.
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Robert
March 2, 2012 at 2:36 am (UTC 0)
Hey Justin,
It’s the same here and in most countries across the world. I definitely agree, everyone needs a basic education to build a solid foundation but we need to completely revolutionise the education system so that young people are actually prepared for the real job and learn the transferable skills that will allow them to thrive.
Thanks for stopping by my man.
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http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams
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