Education: Where we are and where we need to go.

“A goldfish could be a genius, but if you ask it to climb a tree, it will always be dumb.”

This is the way our education system works in Australia. Students are forced to become carbon copies of each other, and to abide by rigid testing that doesn’t cater to everyone’s individual learning methods. Even though today’s job industry requires creativity, ingenuity and imagination, these things are hammered out of students, forcing them to think one way and one way only, which can and will have a negative impact on their prospective jobs in the future.

This form of education dates back to the 1800’s in England, where children were taught with strict teachers, who discouraged creativity and individuality. This prepared them well for a life of factory work, but in this day and age, this method of thinking is no longer practical, applicable or acceptable.

If this is the case in our modern society, where are we headed? Nowadays, schools are beginning to encourage students to express their creativity and individuality. While things are improving, we still have a long way to go. With so many different types of students, all with different learning types, how can we still force them to abide by outdated methods of teaching and testing that doesn’t cater to a person’s individual personality learning style? To truly make education better for everyone, we will have to abandon the system put in place hundreds of years ago.

So I leave you with one question: Why should the goldfish climb the tree?