My Thoughts on the Education System

The educational system is flawed, creativity is on the decline, and an increasing number of students learn the bare minimum just to get the passing grade they need. Modern instructors are putting textbooks in front of students and telling them to regurgitate the knowledge presented for next week’s test. Math teachers teach their students a formulaic approach to problems and expect them to stay within the confines of this formula if they want that mark. When teachers are asked an insightful question, they are likely to respond with “You don’t need to know that for the test” or “that’s beyond the curriculum.” School no longer inspires the minds of the next generation; it simply determines who can follow the book the best. The book known as the curriculum. Because of this students just accept what they are told. They stop thinking for themselves. Instead, they adhere to the strict guidelines imposed upon them. What other choice do they have? We are told day after day that education is the key, that if we want to get a respectable job, have a high income, and lead a prosperous life, we need to do well in school. They say marks don’t define you, they say you’re more than a grade, more than a piece of paper, but when you apply to a university, engineering or research program, the first item they require is your transcript. Your future is determined by that piece of paper. You may be passionate, a student who loves to learn, who loves to invent, but if you perform poorly on tests, these organizations will not consider you. How can society progress if we do not cultivate and inspire the creative minds of the future? Innovation will stagnate if this current ideology of education is followed. John Holt once said, “We destroy the disinterested love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards — gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards… in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else…. We kill, not only their curiosity, but their feeling that it is a good and admirable thing to be curious, so that by the age of ten most of them will not ask questions, and will show a good deal of scorn for the few who do.” Moreover, we see instructors penalizing their students if they do not follow the standard approach. The student is practically being told not to think for himself. That is definitely not something that teachers, the creators of tomorrow’s leaders, should encourage. How ludicrous.
However, the first step towards change is awareness. The next is to remedy the disease that plagues our system. The educational system needs to be completely reformed to revolve around a research-based environment with less emphasis on completing a limited curriculum. To accomplish this, educators need to abolish the “memorize-and-regurgitate” method of teaching, and instead instill in their students the deeper structure of knowledge in a discipline and how different fields of study are linked. Furthermore, instructors need to help kindle students’ appetites for discovery, and motivate their natural curiosity.
Students should not utilize a “convergent thinking” approach in their lives. They should not be robots. The leaders of tomorrow need to pave the way for the future with their own novel visions. Just as Sir Isaac Newton never did particularly well in school, he is now universally known for his laws of universal gravitation. Just as Albert Einstein got mediocre grades in high school, he is regarded as one of the greatest scientists to have ever lived. Just as Thomas Edison was called mentally-ill by his teachers, he is now known as the man who lights up our lives, literally. If we truly want to reach the golden age of humanity, to transcend what is imaginable, the system needs to be reformed entirely. We need to tell students not to follow the system, but rather let the system follow them. To shape the world, not let the world shape them.