Like the opening of a flower, I’m having one of those moments – a glistening realisation, or, more clearly defined; finally understanding a method of communicating certain feelings I have had locked away inside my head for years.
These feelings concern the education system.
I may only be twenty three – and perhaps this is where the problem lies, that my perception of how to conduct myself with regards to this argument is a direct result of being conditioned to think my opinion doesn’t matter in this area because of age, or experience – but I know, with every fibre in my heart that our education system is wrong.
Bluntly put. It failed me (not the staff by the way, they are trapped by that same system). Though I was lucky that through a series of encounters and, one might say reverse psychology, (though it is no excuse – in failing me it intensified my own wants, needs and actions) I landed on my mental feet – or at least, I believe I did. For better or for worse.
There is so much I could say, so much I have wanted to say since I was at school – wanting to blurt out opinions and information that the classroom environment just isn’t willing to accept. I enjoy learning, but my definition of that term is so very broad compared to what I was expected of and restricted to.
…so, I happily hand the reigns of this over to someone for whom the translation of thoughts into the real world in this matter is no problem.
Sir Ken Robinson.
…ever a source of interesting discussion, this gem from TED passed me by – though thankfully I discovered it recently, on of all mediums, Facebook.
What sticks out for me is the idea that children are not being listened to, or, frankly a more direct statement, that we’re not watching them enough to realise what they are trying to tell us. Impressing upon them our own individuality as adults instead of understanding theirs.
The remark about a seven year old Shakespeare rings home a little too true, and it scares me to think that such a young literary innovator’s ideas could well be first quelled and then destroyed by the age of fifteen via today’s ‘correctness’ in the English class.
So I ask, why are children being taught ‘yes’, and not ‘why?’
Often I have memories of being told, “…you don’t have to know why, just that it does…”
The ultimate exam statement – a defeatist environment whereby a lazy attitude to self-teaching and one’s endless search for new information is created.
Honestly I will have to stop typing on that note because the sheer amount of things I want to say on the matter may very well descend into an incoherent mash of angry emotions and effortlessly bitter thoughts about the destruction of creativity.
My own experiences aside, I find my struggle with how the education system is geared to be increasingly poignant because I see my younger brother at school and know the road he is walking and how it has changed him so far.
…so, please watch it – and if you have any thoughts, lets discuss.
I am sure there many.
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