As an educator, and a human being who learns, I have random thoughts about education. This started as a Facebook status based on a comment I left, but I expanded a little, since I felt like ranting.
It feels to me like too many educators don't actually understand how learning works, and what kids need in order to maximize not only their education, but their overall growth as a human being and their overall quality of life.
Education and fun are not two separate things. The things that inspire passion and fun within kids are the very things that help inspire them toward their careers, and yet these things are so often pushed down in favor of the things students hate doing the most.
If students can Google the answers to tests, and their research skills are adept enough to thoroughly answer the questions, then they can do the same thing to get by in real life. Google is a powerful and valuable tool, so why prevent students from teaching themselves how to use it?
It's like a calculator. Everybody said I needed to learn long division and algebra because I wouldn't have a calculator on me all the time. Well you know what? That's a bloody lie. I have one in my pocket everywhere I go now. I never freaking need long division, and the only reason I ever use algebra is for programming, which is an entirely different context than how they taught it anyway. Using Google doesn't seem any different than using a calculator. If it's relevant to my life, I'll figure it out when I need to. If I need to calculate a tip, I'll pull out my calculator.
Just let the kids research the answers. They'll put more effort into the subjects they're passionate about, and those are the subjects they'll excel at in life because you let them focus on them, instead of exhausting them with things they don't care about. Why force things on them so harshly when all the real world is is googling what you don't know anyway?
It's so frustrating to me how little people care about education. Parents just drop their kids off at school and consider it out of sight and out of mind. Any issues with their kids' education is considered not their problem, and yet a kid's education is one of the most important parts of their development. When a kid is doing poorly in school, the parents' response is often negative, reinforcing that the kid needs to study more, or work harder, or stop slacking off. So rarely do most parents stop and think about the issue being with the way the kid is being taught, or that maybe the school itself isn't a good fit for the kid. Or, godforbid, maybe it's a subject the kid can simply skip and take care of later in life, when it becomes more relevant to their lives.
This is not an issue that can be solved by throwing money around. This is an issue with the school systems themselves. They cater to the idea that every human child should learn the same exact material in the same exact way, rather than the fact that all human beings are individual people with different interests, hobbies, and talents. Everything must be tested with statistics and math to determine the maximum potential effectiveness of the education, right? Like making up the budget for a company, they're trying to maximize the profits. But human beings are not currency, nor robots. We are not all the same, and we do not follow perfect logical rules, nor are we completely predictable by mathematics and statistics. We don't all fall into the cookie cutter laid out for us.
When a student hates a subject, the educators and parents cut the focus on the subjects that student likes in favor of the subject the student struggles with, instead of allowing the student to excel and perfect the subjects they're passionate about. If that subject is truly important for the student to learn for later in their life, what's the big deal about waiting until later in their life to learn it? Would it not be easier to learn that subject after is has become more relevant to the student's life?
This negativity and pressure and stress kills their ambition. It kills their love for learning. It can stunt their ability to learn the subject even worse, as they grow to despise the subject.
Anyway... I guess my rant is over. I guess I'll end this on a positive note. I am very happy that the school I work at understands this and allows me the freedom to teach my classes the way I want to, because the students at our school are thriving so much, and they all seem so much happier than at other schools I've been to. At least there are some places out there fighting for the education options our kids deserve!
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