So, as everyone knows, I graduated. That's old news. So is the fact that I despised all 13 years of it... Except maybe Kindergarten and First grade. I was kinda stupid back then. Plus, our homework was reading these little paper pamphlets and making art with Barbasol shaving foam. I did enjoy some moments. I remember we had a reading group where two older kids would help you find a book and then help you read it. My first chapter book was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
But I digress. The point I am making in today's blog is about how the system employed by schools worldwide is rather messed up. Except for college, and I'll explain why.
Let's start with Elementary school, say Kinder through 5th.
This is the most basic schooling. The normal human being cannot get along in this society without at least the elementary school level curriculum. Doesn't matter how you got it, homeschooling, public schools, reading books, whatever. I don't remember once protesting about learning in elementary school. I loved it. I absorbed what I learned like a sponge. I read everything I could get my hands on. I made friends and even when I had my brief interlude into homeschooling for two years, which may actually have helped more than anything, I loved school.
Move on up to Middle School, 6th through 8th.
Still, very basic schooling. This is more made to delve deeper into the basics. It helps ingrain them into our minds. It is merely a three year segway into High School. Sadly, as I visit my old schools, I notice that the push the curriculum back further and further, until now they are teaching the stuff I learned in High School to 6th graders. It is sickening... I understand that modern day jobs require more education, but why force it on someone who will never use it.
Which brings us to High School. 9th grade to the bliss of senior year.
This is where I have trouble with the system. The taught material in High School is just plain useless. You learn stuff that you will never use, unless you become a teacher, mathematician, nuclear physicist, or insane asylum inmate. I feel that High school should be a lead in for college. In college, you pick your classes based on what your end goal is. Why can't High School give you a similar option? Who in the baking industry has ever had to know how to multiply a matrix and then find the square root of negative 1? (It's e by the way. Yeah. Most of what I learn is stuck now...)
I always scoff at the people who say, "But it helps teach you how to learn."
Yeah. But why not do the same thing about a subject we give two cents about? Teach them properly by teaching them something they will listen to. It's merely a positive approach. And in my experience, positive always trumps negative.
Sadly, most schools take the negative route. They force the info on you and beat you (mostly metaphorically) for not making it. When in reality, you just didn't care. Not even your brain saw a reason to learn the garbage being forced on it.
So why not try the positive approach? Let students choose their classes based on aptitude tests and personal interests. That way, they want to know what they are learning and the stuff that is hard, they at least know they will use it on something they want to do. Why not? They have the curriculum up to High School to get along in the world even if they don't get their job of choice. I never met a restaurant manager sitting around calculating the mass of his food and the velocity required to flip a pancake.
And if they struggle, don't fail them. Give them a chance to fix it. Forget no student left behind. For their passions, a person would gladly spend a little extra time mastering the skills needed.
Just a thought.
This is Jake. Until next time.
But I digress. The point I am making in today's blog is about how the system employed by schools worldwide is rather messed up. Except for college, and I'll explain why.
Let's start with Elementary school, say Kinder through 5th.
This is the most basic schooling. The normal human being cannot get along in this society without at least the elementary school level curriculum. Doesn't matter how you got it, homeschooling, public schools, reading books, whatever. I don't remember once protesting about learning in elementary school. I loved it. I absorbed what I learned like a sponge. I read everything I could get my hands on. I made friends and even when I had my brief interlude into homeschooling for two years, which may actually have helped more than anything, I loved school.
Move on up to Middle School, 6th through 8th.
Still, very basic schooling. This is more made to delve deeper into the basics. It helps ingrain them into our minds. It is merely a three year segway into High School. Sadly, as I visit my old schools, I notice that the push the curriculum back further and further, until now they are teaching the stuff I learned in High School to 6th graders. It is sickening... I understand that modern day jobs require more education, but why force it on someone who will never use it.
Which brings us to High School. 9th grade to the bliss of senior year.
This is where I have trouble with the system. The taught material in High School is just plain useless. You learn stuff that you will never use, unless you become a teacher, mathematician, nuclear physicist, or insane asylum inmate. I feel that High school should be a lead in for college. In college, you pick your classes based on what your end goal is. Why can't High School give you a similar option? Who in the baking industry has ever had to know how to multiply a matrix and then find the square root of negative 1? (It's e by the way. Yeah. Most of what I learn is stuck now...)
I always scoff at the people who say, "But it helps teach you how to learn."
Yeah. But why not do the same thing about a subject we give two cents about? Teach them properly by teaching them something they will listen to. It's merely a positive approach. And in my experience, positive always trumps negative.
Sadly, most schools take the negative route. They force the info on you and beat you (mostly metaphorically) for not making it. When in reality, you just didn't care. Not even your brain saw a reason to learn the garbage being forced on it.
So why not try the positive approach? Let students choose their classes based on aptitude tests and personal interests. That way, they want to know what they are learning and the stuff that is hard, they at least know they will use it on something they want to do. Why not? They have the curriculum up to High School to get along in the world even if they don't get their job of choice. I never met a restaurant manager sitting around calculating the mass of his food and the velocity required to flip a pancake.
And if they struggle, don't fail them. Give them a chance to fix it. Forget no student left behind. For their passions, a person would gladly spend a little extra time mastering the skills needed.
Just a thought.
This is Jake. Until next time.
