Education and our future lives
So, having been a student at a school and receiving an education like most people in first world countries, I believe that what’s being taught is absolute rubbish. Do we really need to know how to find a side of a triangle when we could be learning how to do taxes? Do we really need to learn about every element on the periodic table when we could be learning about how to love ourselves (which seems to be something most teenagers need to do). I think not.
Throughout all my schooling life, the teachers that seem to be liked the most amongst students aren’t the ones who are funny, or don’t give us any homework, it’s those teachers that teach about how to live life to the fullest. It’s those teachers that teach us life lessons, instead of maths lessons that are the best, because as growing teenagers, nearing adulthood, we have no single clue on how to live an adults life. I possibly speak for the majority of students out there when I say, I’m absolutely terrified of what’s going to happen when we hit adulthood, suddenly being overcome by living expenses and student loans, and working day after day after day, because that’s just what we’ve grown up doing.
Why are we forced to sit in rows 6 hours a day memorising facts just for it all to be forgotten later on? I can’t say for others, but I think this is disallowing students to be creative and imaginative. School’s don’t seem very proud of showing of the artistic talents of it’s students, when in most cases, this is what the student’s enjoy most. As Picasso has said, children are born artists, the problem is remaining an artist. Alright, I suppose learning calculus can prove our ability to learn and retain information, but that doesn’t we should completely abandon the Arts.
It seems like such a big problem in schools if a child can’t pay attention in class. Is it really so bad though? What if that same child is thinking of a speech that’ll make him Prime Minister one day. What if he’s creating the concerto that’ll be remembered for centuries but was forced to abandon those daydreams because of a simple History class?
What seems like an even bigger problem is the high rates of depression and even suicides in schools. Factors that contribute to this staggering number of deaths include, stress from work and studies. Why are we still trying to cram so much information into a students brain when, as already seen, that can lead to them taking their own life. A child’s life is a lot more important than a graduate certificate and we shouldn’t be making curriculums so harsh on students, to the point where they are willing to end their lives just to escape the workload.
I can’t say that the entire system is failing us, but I do believe that we need a better curriculum, adapted to allow for students to show their creativity. We also need for more classes that allow for students to learn about what it’s like being an adult, the responsibilities, not just shoving them out the school doors so they can fend for themselves. There seems to be a new subject rising dedicated to this called “Health and Personal Development”, and I think it’s a wonderful idea, though it doesn’t to seem to get the recognition it deserves. These are the classes that allow for students to grow, and, well, personally develop into a responsible adult.
Maybe this is all a lie, that this student here writing is really just procrastinating from doing his homework, but what if it is true? What if the public education really is taking in children and turning them into drones rather then adults? What does this mean for the next generation of adults? And then the next? So, next time be careful when you tell a child to pay attention in class for daydreaming, after all, you might of just ended the career for the next Beethoven.
