Why Our Current Education System Sucks

Photo by Max Fischer from Pexels

If you can read this, thank a teacher!

I've been recently pondering about my school days and in this blog post, I want to share my school experiences while providing a commentary on the education system from my individual perspective. 

Education runs on systems and have their own modus operandi. Most countries have their own way of imparting education to children. In countries like South Korea and China, studying is extremely important and getting good grades is a must since it is a competitive world. It is pretty much the same in India as well, where I live, although not as strictly enforced (as far as I've seen). I guess it should depend on the family, the students, the goals, and what not.

I've studied under our "dear" education system for about 18 years, from kindergarten to undergrad. Like most people, and for the most part, it was a less than pleasant experience. While the school experience was great, the studying, for me, wasn't.

We all know that the system we are familiar with involves sitting inside a classroom and listening to a teacher teach, taking notes, asking questions, taking exams, quantifying the results, and seeing who did well and who didn't, reward the achievers with ranks, and what not. It has not changed since the Industrial Revolution.

It has its uses and advantages and works for some students, but I don't think it's something extremely reliable when it comes to students with other interests. In other words, it's a one-size-fits-all system.

From what I see, this would be an excellent system for those who do well in remembering things and writing long answers. It couldn't be me because I'm not good at either! I don't remember things well if they're boring, and being a straightforward person, writing a three page essay on a topic that I know only one page worth of information of is difficult and annoying.

Studying and learning was harder especially when my teachers didn't look even the least bit interested in teaching, the subject they taught, or the children they taught. I don't blame them for their circumstances or what they were going through, but I don't think they realised that they had and still have a great influence on children and their views on the subject they teach. 

For example, I have awful memories of learning math in school, home, and at tuition. I would not be allowed to use easier methods of solving problems simply because "it's not in the syllabus". Wasn't math supposed to teach us problem solving? Why did it matter which method we used to solve a problem? To this day, I shy away from math. 

Similarly, I was once shouted at by my Physics teacher for not completing my notes (in my defense, I had gone to India at the time and had only reached UAE the previous night) and ever since then, I've had a decided dislike for Physics.

When I think about it now, I find it sad, because math and science and many other subjects can be interesting and well loved if they were taught well, and if teachers were nice too.

I experienced this in college when I attended classes for Journalism and Psychology. Both the teachers loved their subjects and talked and taught about them with passion, and they attended to our questions and problems with patience. Although I didn't have much of an inclination to Journalism, I can't deny that I really enjoyed those classes. As for psychology, because of my teacher, it really pushed me to learn as much as I possibly could about human behaviour. 

These are the wonders that can happen when teachers are passionate, kind, interested, and patient! 

Anyone who knows me for a while knows that I love art and I love to draw. And anyone who has known me for years knows that I would prefer doing literally anything over studying.

I've always loved to draw, and I've had an inclination towards it from a very young age. It was severely disappointing that art and artists weren't so much encouraged in school, although there were art classes and art and craft competitions, and annual talents day programs. But art was confined only to those things in school and was considered least important. 

I don't think teachers, principals, or anyone involved in the education system realise that art is all around them. Some "old-fashioned" elders shun art and and want their children to be doctors, lawyers, or engineers, and what-not. I personally don't have any hard feelings towards those professions, but it makes me sad to think that the parents don't realise that being and carrying out the procedures of each of these professions is an art in itself, and that the professions they shun are also just as important.

With all these things running in my head on a quiet day, I wrote a long, descriptive poem of my feelings entitled "Education System Rant" which you can read below: 

EDUCATION SYSTEM RANT

I've had a love-hate relationship with education and school.

My mother told me that, when I was a child,

I would hate to leave the nest,

And helplessly go to school in tears.

School was a rollercoaster all throughout my life.

I soon enjoyed school in the formative years,

And then it went downhill.

With my body and environment changing,

Nearly all had gone south.

One by one

Were stacked expectations.

And when I failed to reach them,

I was a grievous disappointment to my parents;

My teachers shook their heads at me;

My tuition teacher's mouth was full of degrading words.

Upon my pencils, paints, pens, and sketchbooks

I looked at with contempt,

Hating that I loved to draw.

Upon my textbooks and notebooks,

I looked at with malice and hatred,

Wanting to tear those miserable books to shreds...

Books that ruined my happiness.

I looked at my school in rage, 

For trying to pluck out the artist in me,

For making me feel like I was stupid and slow.

My rage roused the poet.

Within the confines of the miserable jail

I looked out the window

Seeing people walk about,

Jealous that they didn't have to go to school anymore.

I longed for the day when I would be free...

Free from the books and teachers

Free from the looming void in my heart.

I longed for my term to end;

My diary is my witness.

Yet I held on,

Counting the days when it would all end.

I joined a new school in a new place,

And then a college.

My joy, talent, and grades finally had some space to blossom

After many years of thorny ground.

It was only happiness from now.

After college, happiness increased,

Although sad to have left college,

I was finally free from the shackles of school education.

And then as I stepped into adulthood, 

There awakened a desire in me to learn again, 

Seeing that I had fallen backwards in the sciences and mathematics. 

Seeing the need for the very foundations 

That I couldn't bear to build as a child, 

I got to work again. 

Whatever I couldn't get in my head in school,

I learn and still learn

Not within the confines of a year, and a classroom,

But by myself, my own pace, my own environment. 

My phone and my laptop are my teachers;

Patience is by my side. 

I think now, as a young adult,

My youth in school was deprived of the joy of learning, 

By uninterested, unloving teachers, 

Boring methods of teaching, 

Impatience, and harshness, 

Thinking that by being hard, 

They would motivate me,

But it only crushed my spirits

And increased my hatred. 

For I see now that 

I thrive in learning science and mathematics, 

Subjects that I hated with passion,

When I learn them on my own. 

In nature and in the sky I see them.

Why weren't we taken out to the gardens 

To see Fibonacci's sequence? 

Or look up at the sky at the clouds, 

Wonder how they are formed, 

And marvel at how they make the sky look like a dome above us?

Or look at the boisterous waves of the sea

And wonder why they don't come past a certain point? 

Would not the beauties of nature enhance learning

And leave a lasting impression on the mind?

Oh! I would've found a better teacher in the God I worship. 

For unlike my school, 

He would lead me beside still waters

And restore my soul, 

Whilst revealing the mysteries 

Which he has hidden from the wise 

And revealed to babes,

For He is the Author of it all. 

I hate the education system.

The system that deprived me of joy, 

The system that birthed children who are braindead

And gave no consideration for the thinkers and questioners.

That is why,

Even though many people hold with pride their many degrees,

They are brain dead.

They speak, 

But out of their mouths come foolishness. 

This is the folly of the "educated".

Only a few among the educated 

And among the uneducated 

Are there thinkers and doers,

People who want change

And make change. 

These are strong words,

But out of the mouth of a student, it must be voiced: 

I hate the education system

For ruining and failing the youth

And in turn the world.

It is deserving of a bath

of gasoline and fire.

- Platinum

One particular line in this poem about my being jealous of people who didn't go to school anymore is now a dream come true for me. I still vividly remember how in 10th grade, I looked out the window just before afternoon's extra classes, feeling this feeling. I don't miss school even one bit. When I think of it, it makes me sad because it's where I spent most of my time as a child. Wasn't it supposed to be fun to learn?

Thankfully now I can learn whatever I want whenever I want and at my own pace. It's so much more fun and enjoyable that way!

What are your thoughts on the education system? Did or did you not benefit from it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

See you in the next,

Arnica