Albert Einstein said, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its capability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”
A quote that resonates with most of us, yet here we all are, regardless of our strengths and differences presenting a speech with a preselected topic all using the exact same marking rubric.
Every scientist will state that no two brains are the same and every teacher, parent, and Tumblr post will tell us that we are special, and unique and shouldn’t ever dream of trying to be like someone else. Then why are we all treated like a cookie-cutter frame and attend a one-size-fits-all schooling program? Imagine if a doctor prescribed the same medication for all of us, regardless of whether we had a stubbed toe or had leukemia. This simply stated is medical malpractice yet when it comes to school we have a teacher standing in front of 20 children all with different hopes, dreams, and aspirations having to learn the exact same content.
This isn’t a rant about your teacher session. I believe teachers have the most important job in the world. They are paving the way for a successful future. Teachers are heroes yet we are so quick to blame them. We often forget that they must stick to a curriculum set out by education officials many of whom haven’t even taught a day in their lives. To these officials we are just an examination number and for all they’re concerned, our intelligence is measured by our ability to climb this metaphorical tree regardless, of whether we’re monkeys or fish.
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In a schooling system where marks presumably reflect our intelligence, we are now more focused on being able to effectively regurgitate facts on a test than we are to truly learn. If you disagree, rewind to grade 10 when we would all scramble for the previous year’s science tests. Not so that we could further our knowledge or test our understanding with past papers but rather so that we could parrot learn the tests with their memo answers in the hopes of an identical copy being handed to us the following day. Our marks are now prioritized over our morals, sleep, mental health, and overall general well-being.
However, when this is actually prioritized, it’s mind-boggling to think that our quality of learning would increase. Finland has been consistently ranked as the best schooling system in the world and that is because it has completely reformed its education system. Minimal homework, no standardized testing, a shorter school day, the classroom conditions are to promote a holistic, stress-free learning environment and their aim is for students to cooperate; not compete with one another which has ironically ranked their education system number one as a result. If these methods have been proven to be highly effective, why aren’t we following in Finland’s footsteps?
Please don’t interpret this speech as me being ungrateful for my education. I fully acknowledge that I am highly privileged to receive an education and such a spectacular one at that. Without my education, I wouldn’t even have the necessary skills to form an argument against the education system itself.
I can tell you about photosynthesis and igneous rocks and even imaginary numbers, but no… I don’t know how taxes work. No… I don’t know how to change the plug point nor do I know how to cook chicken nuggets without charring them. The schooling system is presumably preparing us for the future world yet remains stagnant in the educational sphere of the 19th century.
We can have personalized ringtones, number plates, and Instagram feeds and someday I dream of a personalized schooling system where fish aren’t expected to climb trees.
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