There are two moments in my university career (since it is going on 4 years now, I am going to call it a career and nobody can ever tell me otherwise) that has been odd to say the least. Not because university was a new and weird place, which it was, but because as I was looking back trying to remember something, I learned in school in the past to help me in the present, I drew a blank.
Okay so firstly, I took a year where I didn’t study Maths, English or all that other stuff and only focused on the core subjects that I wanted to study. I mean it was just a year, but I was still using Maths and English so it was all good right? Wrong!
Fast-forward I am around halfway through my first year, the lecturer is talking about this (in my mind) very difficult topic, I am freaking out when the lecturer skips a major step that helps to solve the question, I am confused about what just happened and the lecturer says that (to my complete shock) that she won’t be explaining this part of the equation because we have should have gone through it in high school. I mean yeah, I went back and learned the work (and passed with a 90%), but in that moment 12 years’ worth of education went away in around a year. I mean in my mind 1 year shouldn’t be enough to forget the accumulation of 12 years’ worth of work, but I guess that is just me.
The second time this happened was recently. My friend was helping a couple of first year with their assignment, an assignment in the course I 90% in. This means that this was work that I did literally 2 years ago (and did very well in), so I have to know what the work is right? I mean this is work in the course I am currently studying, a subject in the course I passed extremely well so I should know what is going on right? Wrong! Again!
I spent like 10 minutes looking over the assignment and then I realised something. Since my first year the only time that I have used this work in my academic career was just to pass this the questions of this that would come up in the test. So, since I started my course the only time, I used this was this was to pass my first year. What is the point of learning something if we are never going to use it at all?
I mean shouldn’t the things we learn be things we are going to use not things that the curriculum says we should know.
I did a little research into the origin of the school system and I found that the origin is centred around making an obedient workforce. Literally the reasons schools were created was to make workers that were made to work in factories. This is a reality that no longer exists but the school systems that exists is still trying to train people for that. From bells that tell us what we can do and when we can take breaks to the uniformity that is encouraged, we are being groomed to become part of a workforce that is slowly being phased out.
I know that it is hard to change an established system, but it just seems that the system is barely changing. I know that there are changes that are now that are schools and institutions that help people grow and become the thing that they were always meant to be.
I mean schools are meant to help us become the best version of ourselves, so why don’t they help us to actually pursue what we are talented at.
I did a little research and found the country with the highest rated education system and the way they do education is so drastically different from anything I’ve seen that I can’t even believe that it exists. Firstly, the only start school at 7 and for the first 6 years they aren’t really measured. Secondly, I found that they only have one standardised test and that is just to see who needs help. The children of Finland start school and 9 and finish around 1 or 2 and they don’t even get that many homework, they also get 15 minutes break after every subject. They also try to focus on each child to help them grow their own personal skills and help the struggling kids catch up.
Of course, due to socio-economic and cultural differences it will be hard to implement these changes into any other country. This means I am not the problem, the school system is!
I mean I really wish that schools would be more focused on making each child the best they can instead of trying to make each child identical to the next.
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