Well, since I don't have a whole lot of interesting things to say about what I'm doing these days-mostly job searching and working at a daycare. So, I thought I'd write about something that's been on my mind- an opinion, which is far more interesting than events, I'm sure.
Here's the problem: The education system as it currently works doesn't make us any smarter. I used to think that learning to read early, learning mathematics early and how to do things a certain way was always favourable. Since I met a few people that are incredibly intelligent in my life experience, I've learned that what really makes us smarter is being able to ask lots of questions about how things work, what they do, what's around us and get answers early so that we can continue to search for the answers from our questions. Thus, what makes us smarter is having the ability to ask questions and get answers.
You see, the problem is, that in school, for example, as a child, we are not fully responsible for our learning because we don't need to ask questions. All the information you need to know is presented right in front of you. If you have a question and the teacher doesn't know the answer, you simply don't need to know and that's what we're learning at a very young age. With this in mind, we learn to accept that we don't know about a lot of things, and at some point, we pass the curiosity stage and we stop asking questions.
The food we eat is a prime example. Could you tell me what's in, say, a frozen pizza? Not just the toppings, but in the crust, the cheese and what preservatives keep it fresh. Well, I know I couldn't tell you, and sure, you can look at what's on the label, but when you eat it, do you really think about what you're putting in your body? Most of the time, we don't even think about such and we swallow whatever is presented in front of us.
We accept that we don't know, and we don't wonder, because we're accustomed to not knowing, which is a dangerous way to be, not just for our bodies, but for our minds, but our souls and overall brain stimulation.
There are many issues in our education system, but here's one that irks me, because I don't see how it could possibly make sense for the individual's well-being: group teaching and teaching by age, not ability and teaching as well as teaching the general majority. Here's my problem with this: no two people learn the same way. Sure, the majority of people learn better when, in general, more parts of the brain are stimulated (visual, auditory, tactile, ect.) and we know this, but everyone learns at a different pace, each day varies for focus (without focus, the time is practically wasted, really) and a person's mood varies a great deal. Furthermore, teaching by age rather than ability doesn't make much sense to develop cognitive thinking, since it's likely that most of the time, at least half the class is either bored out their skulls, and the other half are in over their heads. Let's not just group the 'slow' ones together and the 'smart' ones together though, because then there's no motivation for the slow ones to speed up. The other thing is teaching the majority, which is crazy, since there's no possible way one could please every single student all the time, and assure that each individual is developing their potential. In fact, I believe this only takes the pressure to develop off the student and puts it fully onto the teacher, which is a really big problem for students in the north. I won't get too far into examples from the north, but students don't need to bring their own materials to school, which is one thing that really bothered me, since they were not as careful not to lost things and it's one example of how they are not responsible for themselves.
And last, but not least, our ability to figure out how to do things for ourselves is completely shattered by the school system. "Just wait until I tell you what to do," I've heard teachers say. Often, we're shown what to do, before we even know what it is we have to do. Tell me the problem first, then give me some time to figure it out, and eventually, I will. That is, if it's not too hard. Instead, we're given a formula or specific way to do it so we can learn faster and to follow a certain recipe rather than trying to work it out for ourselves. Following a formula is easy. Creating a formula? Well, for me, at least, seems nearly impossible now. I know someone that creates his own formulas just from how he makes sense of how the numbers work and he would come out with the same correct answer in the end. He just didn't always get the marks for this, since he didn't show his work. In our education system as it is, there's just not enough time to teach such skills, seeing as this takes much more time than to teach a formula. For example, how did whoever figure out that you need to borrow when subtracting? I have no idea, but if I wasn't taught this skill so early, I might have figured this out myself if I felt motivated to do so.
This person I know made working mechanical structures I couldn't even consider when he was just 11 or 12 years old with never having been to school.
What I think makes a person intelligent is individual learning by oneself combined with getting answers from another knowledgeable individual. Above all, the ability to learn by oneself by thinking and making sense of things, without books or prior knowledge is what makes a person most intelligent, which school does not and can not possibly teach.
The more time I spend with young children, the more I think about why each individual would act a certain way, why I act a certain way and what development caused such, and I keep thinking that a lot of the damage, in the end, goes right back to the base: our education and what we consider to be teaching learning in common society. Thus, it is evident enough, my opinion stands clear that with the current educational system and common cultural ways, we're digressing development of our own cognitive ability to think, creating a stagnation in the brain cells.
Note: Though this is written much like an essay, no topic-specific research was done on this topic. Rather, this was developed as a result of observation and life experience. Thus, proving my opinion that life experience is more valuable than education or scholar learning can be more beneficial for a person.
