One of the most crucial aspects of being human entails the ability to acquire and process information. Much like every other animal we do this by exposing to our environment. Our culture has devised specific methods for transferring information but seem to be stagnant for more than 3 centuries. What we call Modern Education is nothing more than a persisting relic of the past — a repackaged and hasty solution that aims towards conformity rather than individual creative development.
If one needs to understand how Modern Education works, I would advice a visit to a factory assembly line. Much the same, students are placed on a narrow, constantly moving path. Within a specific time interval, information pours down to the student, irrelevant to ability, comprehension or even desire.
If something goes wrong in the assembly line, nothing can be done to be corrected. Much like a factory, our society treats students on the same grounds of cost-benefit analysis. The defects are left out and eventually are getting brushed away.
As if this was not enough, those who are resistant to this absurd ritual of information gathering are medicated so they can conform. Humans are animals that thrive on activity. Our bodies are build for constant movement, not sitting immobile for hours. If one has an inability to concentrate to the suffocating classroom environment they are labeled as hyperactive — often given medication for ADHD. This is how flawed our system is. Instead of changing our oppressive ways, we poison our children with drugs to make them sit still.
The model of the Modern Class hasn't changed much since the early 1800's. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, factory workers were taught their tasks in specific classes. All wore the same uniform and all ought to digest the given information if they were to be employed and make a living. This model of worker training was copied in education and was followed to the letter. The student was ready to roll right after they left school. Fast forward 200 years later and not much has changed. Most people end up as wage slaves, serving someone else's happiness instead of their own.
There are solutions to this problem and there have been plenty of individual initiatives. The internet is perhaps the most revolutionary advancement towards a better education since the student can take control. We can become our own teachers. Online Education also brings another revolution to the outdated Model. Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, makes an excellent point about this. He pretty much states that students can control their education by functions such as pausing and repetition, something that is unheard to the assembly line system.
Everyone learns on their own pace. With an educational video a student can take as much time as they need to digest the material and even take multiple brakes along the way. Communities can be formed not on arbitrary age but rather desire to learn and level of accomplishment.
The state remains resistant to such changes and for good reason. Governments see students as future sponsors of their model. From a young age, children are taught a specific version of history and culture that supports the state's agenda. This is not some conspiracy theory. This is much like working in Apple, promoting that you and only you makes the best products. If you don't have the same positive spirit as the group then you will be casted away.
While I was in Australia, I met Aboriginal students that taught themselves English and math through the computer. We are talking about people that live extremely remotely and are pretty much cut off from the rest of the world. Yet, they managed to find information without much hassle. Some of them even ended up getting college degrees.
There is absolutely no need for one to attend school in this time and age. All we need is right in front of us. Technology. I often hear the argument that children need guidance — even if they can learn teach themselves in front of a computer. This is nothing but a blind belief that is often mascaraed in fear. What we truly desire is to teach children what to think instead of how to think. This has been the single most important problem in the educational system.
Humans are no different than other animals. Through exposure to our environment we learn how to adopt and prosper. By being given specific answers for every problem we limit our creativity severely. Ken Robinson has given a great lecture about this. More or less he employees studies in order to explain how children are able to come up with more creative solutions when they are young. This ability severely diminishes as we grow older due to restrictive nature of our educational system.
Future generations will look back to our indoctrination model and wonder how we got this all wrong for so many years. Sacrificing so many children's potential for the sake of efficiency is an unthinkable act. A child is nothing more than a vessel of possibilities. We owe to nourish and empower them. They are the ones controlling our future.
There are three main things that I believe go wrong with our current educational system.
Firstly, it's way too focused on theoretical subjects, leaving out important skills that are no longer taught at home, such as planting, building, repairing, cooking and plumbing. All subjects we learn in school are important. There is no balance between theoretical knowledge and practical skills, however. It's really weird spending 12 years in school and not being able to survive on basic skills that everyone should know. These are skills that people used to learn at home, but times have changed and the educational system is not adapted.
Secondly, the learning methods are also outdated. The point is not to memorize facts, but learn how to learn. Critical thinking is almost never trained, teachers are happy when students acquire information, whether they can actually process it or not. A correct education would combine content, thinking skills and personal development. The founder of Khan Academy has also founded the Khan Lab School, which is a good example of how education could be much more interactive and promote personal growth. This is the difference from traditional schools http://khanlabschool.org/why-khan-lab-school and you can check out its curriculum here: http://khanlabschool.org/curriculum . Furthermore, a concept has to be well-understood no matter how much time it takes, so as to avoid knowledge gaps. Flexible, non age-related fixed academic groups are a good idea.
Note that apart from language/thinking skills mentioned above, it focuses on
science a lot more in a project-based learning approach. Which brings me to the third point. The current educational system is not up to date with technological advances. People barely know the basics of computer science, while nowadays most of the economy, health system, services etc are based on computer programs. A computer is not a tool anymore. It's a necessity. Learning a programming language is as important as a foreign (human) language. Furthermore, science should be learned through projects and not theoretical concepts.
I plan on writing an article on this topic in the near future. Education is so important and currently, as you said, it serves mostly the state system instead of individual development.
Great analysis elemenya. Please do write an article about this.
I was one of those kids. Luckily I tossed the medicine aside after 2 confusing years. I never fully believed that something was wrong with me and so I embraced what was different about me. There is no coincidence that children with "ADD" or “ADHD” are often found to be more intelligent although I would consider it a specific kind of intelligence, sensitivity. We pick up on things. We know that we are on a conveyor belt and it troubles us. I would like to write about this extensively in the future. Thanks for the post.
My pleasure. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward for your post
My spouse works as an education assistant. Education assistants who actually care, do try to make the hole square for those pegs that are square. Unfortunately, these workers have little power and must conform to the wishes of the teachers despite the assistants having a much more intimate relationship with their target students. Its definitely a flawed system and the only way to fix it is for the parents to become more vocal (after they understand what is actually going on at the schools). Parents must become more involved with their children's education and ask more questions.
I don't think any parent understands the underlying architecture of the system
Quite honestly, I wish I could turn back time and re-write the history for my own children's school experiences. Had I known then what I know now, I would have been much more forceful about how my children were educated. I feel that both of my children's education had been compromised because I was too busy to understand what was going on at the schools they attended and trusted that they knew best.
Like you said, its a machine and it processes children. Some will fall out of the 'standard' and they are disposable misfits and rejects.
If you don't feel like you could have done almost everything better as a parent then you are probably not trying hard enough. I have four and am combating my past inadequacy with future efforts. I do not think think that perfection is attainable so steem on and love them as best as you can.
Great reply! No point in beating ourselves up about something that cannot be altered. However, we can talk about it and hopefully someone else will benefit from our mistakes.
I think so many parents share your view
This post was spot on! I am graduating this Thursday June 1, 2017 and I feel like the past 4 years of my life have been complete wastes of time. I had learned all the basics of math, writing, reading and even geography by the 8th grade. They continuing of elaborating on these subjects was a complete waste. The schools are more worried about our attendance so that they get their allotted money. The teachers are the only ones that actually care about the students and understand the school system is ruined and corrupt. I am sad that I could not partake in the future schooling system and had my time wasted. I am very grateful that the future is on the horizon and things are changing for the better.
More or less, they want you to be kept in line
Having been out of high school now for several decades and also having had the experience of substitute teaching, I've come to doubt that most teachers really care about the students. For one thing, the teachers' union likes to portray teaching as the most important and practically the hardest profession in the world, when it's not.
We homeschool because my son was a square peg that the school wanted to fit in a round hole. It wasn't working and the problems being created were just crazy ridiculous. Now this kiddo is flourishing and at 9 years old is working at a high school level in some areas!
There you go. The school was low tier for his true potential
It's true. He does miss some of the friends he had but he has so many friends through other groups that he's a part of. Sometimes I'm tempted to send him just for lunch (as he is afforded the right to part time attendance and/or ancillary services by law) but they are only allowed 15 minutes to eat so he wouldn't even get to enjoy being with his friends.
He won't regret it as he grows older.
It is my daily hope and prayer that he will look back and be thankful that I invested in his talents and mitigated his challenges and didn't leave him to fall apart in the drone factory.
nobody knows the absolute correct path for someone else's future
It's true.
Education is just a matter of business for school and university owners. They're taking advantage of the human's desire to acquire knowledge plus the affiliation of the government.
It's always business. Thing is, children are the products...
It could also be a fault of the government in general because they are encouraging the people to gain education but their regulating schools and universities to do the same. Instead, they are all making profit.
Well, we are electing the politicians that form these policies, so really, it is our fault.
Good point :) But if the government only will be true in helping the people, this would be easy.
The government is not there to help people. It is there to serve the vested interests of politicians through a corporate scheme of favoritism.
That's the problem. They are only there for their own interest.
Very true!
My friend, one of the views we differ on. I believe in selections not elections. Like the Simpsons episode for the year 2000 , we see trump on a escalator doing EXACTLY the same motions and hand gestures. Predictive programming at its finest.
lol. Indeed that was scary but I guess even a broken clock can tell the correct time twice a day...
It is a business and they likely don't WANT us to THINK; they want sheeple who believe the lies they tell and follow blindly believing everything is just fine!
This why the world had fallen.
Home schooling, online schooling, and alternative learning are all areas that I'm interested in. I don't have any children yet, but when I do have kids, I hope that my wife and I have the resources to teach our children from home.
A few months ago, I was in a play that was for all ages. One of the 12-year-olds turned to me during rehearsal and said something I'll never forget...
"You wouldn't want to be a student in public schools right now. Kids bring guns to school these days."
Even if it schools were technologically advanced, I'd still be fearful of what the other children were up to. It's sad, but almost necessary for parents these days. I hope that security and education improves in schools for the children's sake.
The worst thing about public schooling is the group mentality that ends up following them later on in life — especially in politics. Instead of learning to become individuals we succumb to the will of the masses.
It's incredibly sad that we indoctrinate our children into the cycle too. It's vicious and hard to break free from without awareness...
One can only take individual action. It is extremely hard to brake off from the herd-educational mentality.
Remember what Hitler said: "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future."
That's an incredibly scary (yet accurate) quote. It absolutely gets you to think.
Indeed, kids at that time were turning in their parents at alarming rates. You created me but we belong to Hitler was the mentality and this is precisely what Hitler and his gestapo wanted.
Very true, nothing modern about what we have now. It's closer to archaic than modern.
precisely
Public schools were originally called common schools and they were brought forth through the protestant reformation and its US leaders. This had to be ended to retain control as the monarchs and high Vatican knighthoods still till this day need to keep under wraps. The education system has been infiltrated and destroyed as most free systems in the US and elsewhere conducted by the ideology of the communist manifesto. We have been under military government since 1933 so the constitution has not applied in all this time.
"The Common Law is absolutely distinguished from the Roman or Civil Law systems. "
People v Ballard
155 NYS 2d 59
The Roman Civil Law has always been outside of Common Law, operating on SUMMARY PROCESS, in gross violation of our RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS.
Wow. that's some scary shit.
Absolutely it is, whenever another human being is trying to go over ones head to manipulate their child or children only few issues are on as scary of tale.
indeed
homeschool
anything but what we have today really
That's not the answer, kids need a social circle and need to spend time among peers. As bad as the "modern" education system might be, it's still better than homeschooling your children. If you have the time to teach them things, do it, but send them to school as well.
if you live to your expectant age then you'll live to be about eighty. Of that you'll be a child about ten years (infant and toddlers don't interact with 'peers' so much)...so why would you want to spend a decade teaching your kiddos how to do something that they will NEVER use again? (interacting with children)
wouldn't it be best to teach them to deal with adults from the start? Why teach em something that they have to discard and then relearn.
besides...why expose them to the bad habits and bad ideas of BAD KIDS...(and bullies)
and no...government schools are nowhere NEAR as good as homeschool. My grand kids are shining examples. My granddaughter was homeschooled thru her jr. year in highschool..then went one year in highschool to 'get the piece of paper'....in the mean time she was taking college courses online. She graduated from highschool at the VERY top of her class, then received a full-ride scholarship to Texas A&M...which she started as a SOPHOMORE. (she tested out of her freshman year)...she graduated with a DOUBLE MAJOR...and now she's got a GOOD job and is pulling down BIG BUX...in Dallas.
so no...gubment schools are not needed.
Your point about teaching kids to interact with adults from the get go sounds compelling and it did make me think. Threating children and young adults as proper individuals (or as one might say adults) is important, but human development and especially the social aspects of it are more complex than just getting skill and knowledge for the future. Being part of a group of peers as the context of your development has a lot of benefits and I believe it's the healthiest way for things to be. I have some experience as a high school teacher and as an informal educator and I have read and done research on the topic and this is my interpretation and opinion. I've seen a lot of homeschooled children having trouble fitting in later in life and for many of them the lack of interaction with peers shows. Of course, this is not true for everyone and there are individuals with similar problems caused by regular schools and their downsides (like bullying which you rightfully pointed out).
I'm sure you realize that the single example of your grandchildren is barely representative. There are tons of success stories and tons of failures with both systems as the success of either is largely dependent on highly variable human factors. There are tons of kids who have gone through the public school system who are raking in the BIG BUX alongside your granddaughter and she probably has somebody with that background on top of her in the company food chain. In my opinion that's a moot point.
In the end, it's really a matter of opinion and every parent has the right and responsibility to evaluate the the options available to their child and their child's needs. I'm by no means an advocate for the current state of education and surely not to what it is in the US, but I'm convinced homeschooling is not a good solution to the problem.
P.S.: I think you should attribute more of your granddaughter's success on her and her abilities and dedication as I'm sure that she would have been successful if she had gone through the other route too.
one word.
Detroit.
or...with an increased vocabulary...as homeschoolers would have.
Kansas city..where the federal government came in for a decade or two because the public schools stunk.
or...how about the department of education?
I drove a school bus for years...I saw bright eyed cheerful happy kindgergarteners..turned into sullen, hateful, resentful teenagers in just a decade.
Kids are born GENIUS...and it take K-12 to beat it out of them.
That's all undoubtedly true. I'm just saying it's not an either-or situation. Of course, the US is not the place to look at for good examples in K-12 education.
the absolutely BEST thing the government could do for education in the united states (or anywhere)...is nothing.
Quit.
Walk away...go do something else.
let the parents handle it..
I can't upvote this enough man.
...Implying that schools are the only place students can have socialize ...
By no means are they the only place, of course. But that's the main real benefit they provide despite the obvious caveats like bullies mentioned by Everitt.
Well, there are alternatives but do make life much harder.
Yep. For many parents harder turns out to be prohibitive as unfortunate as it may be.
Great article. The fact that children are treated as commodities and afforded almost no choice or agency in their learning is perhaps the most disturbing facet of the public education system for me.
Zombies more or less.
Very true! The first step to better education is unlearning the toxic data that has been forced down the throats of our children. Self-study that prepares a student for his/her preferred future, and taking into account personal talents is the way to go.
can a child really unlearn though?
I believe it can, but it is a process that will require effort.
The modern educational system is functioning exactly as it is designed to. It is not about 'educating" but indoctrinating children. My wife and I have struggled trying to balance our children's' natural curiosity and common sense with not being labeled by the schools as troublemakers. 4 more years and they'll be done with the US school "system".
indeed. especially in the US the situation is tragic
Namaste!
Exactly what I am trying to express ,explain ,and expound upon!!!
knowledge is the key to freedom! the flavor of life! helping rather than suppressing people!
namaste!
keep up the good work then. people will listen. eventually.
lol... unfortunately(?) I am not a sheep whisperer...lol...
all I can do is try.. the choices are personal...best I can do is let them choose..not my right to control..
namaste!
yeap
I'm so glad that my kids are adults now and I don't need to worry about this. One headache less, for sure.
That comment gave me a good chuckle! :D
I imagine,.. especially if ones lives in the states.
How about your grandkids?
I gave my kids ,,good" education and they are independent and well prepared for real life. I'd teach them how to survive,work and respect other people. They need to raise their kids by them self. They don't listen to me any more, but you know better than me: monkey see- monkey do. You the one who studied this stuff. I'm not worried about grandkids. Mother nature will take care of this. Like usually.
Great philosophy. Indeed, once you dig the ditch properly the water flows by itself.
Thanks. Good one. Very useful. I will write down this one.
People don't realize how easy it is. Just look at the nature and animal kingdom. You'll find all answers.
My grandpa used to say it all the time.
Even engineers copy nature for their new models.
Hard to beat millions of years of wisdom.
Now that's a sentence worth remembering! Perfectly said!
@oldtimer, When having children you wonder what will be the best schooling route going forward with the way the public education system has become.
Look. Public school education is just a small part of the problem. You need to dig deeper. We chasing money and unnecessary goods. We send our wives out of home to jobs. Our excuse is we don't have time for raising kids. Beside school children should spend some time with parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, animals etc. They need to have experience different situations. Good and bad. Today we want to protect them from all bad. And we do more harm then help. All that together is education and school is small part of that. It's easy to blame school. Most of the time is our fault. Kids are smart. Don't worry to much.
I appreciate your feedback.
Growing up in downtown San Diego then going to school and working on a farm in Idaho really helped to see the world from a grassroots perspective that I had not appreciated before.
My dad ran his own business growing up and working in that environment was some of the best preparation because of the experiences I had and the skills I learned.
Would not have traded that quality time and experiences working with my Dad as a young kid for the world.
Best,
Isaac
Good point, but probably also school made big contribution to your personality.
Homeschool
it has been mentioned.
Great article. Thanks!
my pleasure
very true so i agree with you
thank you for your comment
Overall I agree, but I will poke at this repeated claim that humans are no different than other animals. Certainly we are similar, probably more similar than dissimilar, and defining objective differences between us and other animals is generally difficult. Nevertheless, we are clearly different from other animals in the scale and complexity of what we can practically learn and accomplish, so it's simply false to say we are "no different." We most certainly are different; it's simply difficult to get a handle on exactly what the differences are.
"no different" from that perspective on that line - aka needing exposure to the environment in order to learn.
In terms of intelligence we are all different. not better. different.
It is impossible to know the differences since we cannot be them.
excelent post
Thanks for sharing
Followed,
thank you
Happy to be one of your followers ,
As you have a lot of posts with good contents that I need to read.
Have a great day
great!
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thank you. will do.