Education

Welcome back. I’m going to assume that you all loved the first blog I made, and couldn’t wait to read another masterpiece. For that I thank you all. Today we will be tackling a topic with (hopefully) less history and more thinking and philosophical discussion: the Education System. And so with that wonderful introduction out of the way, let’s begin.

What is the point of education in the United States? I mean what is the point of going to school for 12 (or 13 if you count kindergarten) years? To get to college and study for 4 or more years for a dumb piece of paper? Society says that we have to do this in order to get a good job and be happy and stuff. There are many problems with this idea because in this age, people can have jobs without leaving the comfort of their homes. I’m not saying that education is wrong, rather that the way education is done is wrong. Anyone can tell you that in school people are told how to do things, without learning about why they do what they do.

In history, for example, students are taught that events happen, but very rarely are the students taught WHY these events happened and their importance. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is an excellent example of this. Time for a quick history lesson. (Yeah, I said there would be less history in this blog. I lied. *evil laugh*). Anyway back to the lesson. In 1914, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Serbian rebels. Why was he assassinated? That’s the part most teachers tend to gloss over because they don’t matter. Does anyone want to know? Does it matter? The answer is yes. The reasons for why this happen matter. (Even if you don’t want to know, now you will. Another *evil laugh*). So in order to explain why the Archduke was assassinated, we have to go back about five or six years. In 1908 was the First Balkan War, a war for the Balkans states: Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria were fighting against the Austria-Hungary Empire to remove it from interfering. Long story short, the Balkan states won, and eventually there was a Second Balkan War few years later. This led to the tension in the Balkan states, which culminated in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and World War I. This is condensing many years and events of history into a couple of short sentences, so please excuse me if there are some thing I didn’t cover.

Now a show of hands, who knew anything about the Balkan Wars? I’m gonna assume no one did. So this is just one small example of what is missing from history that needs to be taught to understand the greater scheme of events. There’s so much background in events of history that simply are not taught in schools because the state standards say that only certain things matter and should be taught. It’s these state standards that prevent actual learning from taking place for the most part. The other problem with the modern education system is that there is less focus on actual learning than on memorization. Now before anyone says anything, I do acknowledge that memorization can be used as a tool for learning, the way it is used in schools is not as a tool bit as a crutch in place of actual learning.

“What do you mean?” some of you may be asking, and for that I congratulate you for asking a question.  What I mean by this is that in some subjects, such as math, science, and to an extent, English memorization is a useful tool in learning, but it should not be used for every subject. I really hope I’m being clear about this. Anyway, if I asked you readers to tell me what the Pythagorean Theorem is or what the quadratic formula is, I’m sure most will be able to recite them, no problem. Now if I asked you to tell my HOW to get the Pythagorean Theorem, or the quadratic formula, then I think that there would be a problem, since most of you are just told what the formula is not how to figure it out on your own. This is my problem with memorization: It takes away from actual learning and teachers expect you to know what things are without proper explanations.

This leads to another issue with the way education is done. There are many teachers out there that do not care much for teaching, teaching just because they couldn’t get another job, or who knows why. Throughout my high school career and beyond there have been many teachers that don’t do good jobs at teaching. (*cough* Moses *cough*) The movie Here Comes the Boom shows this issue with the main character being an apathetic biology teacher, who doesn’t teach and arrives late to class. I love this movie for several reasons, one of which is how the school system is shown to be all about money and little care for students. This is unfortunately true for many public schools in the “ghetto” areas of towns or cities. I believe that passionate teachers are essential for learning and the issue with the system is that there are many teachers that have seniority and tenure, so they can’t be easily fired. (*cough* Moses again *cough*). It’s these teachers that hinder the learning that should be happening in classrooms. I once had that spent most of the time of class on his computer, probably on Facebook or something like that. The other issue with this teacher, that shall remain unnamed, is that he knew most, if not all, of the class didn’t read the textbook or paid attention in class and still gave the class quizzes and tests to see if we were learning (we weren’t, we were talking about stealing penguins and stuff. Yeah I know, I was weird like that). This shows how some teachers don’t teach and still expect students to do work and learn.

So this is another major issue I personally have with the education system: grades. We’ve all been there at some point, struggling to get at least a C- in a class we haven’t been paying any attention to because the teacher is boring, or we don’t care about the class. I believe that grades ultimately don’t determine anything when it comes to proving if anyone has learned anything in a class. Let me elaborate a bit. If I take a class with a teacher that doesn’t care about teaching and gives everyone good grades then that good grade is completely undeserved, whereas if you have a teacher that does care about teaching and makes students work for a good grade (*cough* Tschida *cough*) then that B or C is much more deserved than the student that got an A the easy way. Unless every single last teacher teaches and grades the EXACT same way, which they will never do, grades will ultimately be determined by the teacher’s preference and style. There are so many variables that show what a student’s grade is that ultimately it shows more of what the teacher’s grading style is than anything else.

As you can tell, I have a lot of problems with the education system, so you would think that I wouldn’t want to be a teacher. If you thought that, I’m sorry to say that you are wrong. I feel that I can help teach students and change the education system, but unfortunately there are too many problems and issues that can’t be easily fixed by one young idealistic teacher. Enough about me though, let’s get back to complaining… I mean talking about the problems of education. (*phew* that was a close one*). One major issue that goes hand in hand with grades is of course testing. Now before anyone assumes anything, I am in favor of tests for class, as long as they properly test students on material they were supposed to learn. By this I mean that standardized tests and any other test of that kind should not be used to determine how kids should be placed in classes. I am; however, in favor of tests to show how much students have learned in class, but only if they can really be used to show how much they learned. Multiple choice exams, while easier, are not as helpful when it comes to determining what a student has learned since it’s easy to guess and get an answer right.

It’s things like this that are why I believe that the school system is in need of some major changes. Things like standardized tests and the CAHSEE (if you live in California) are not really useful, except to prove if students are following instructions and “learning” and blah blah blah. These aren’t useful because, once again, THERE IS NO LEARNING HAPPENING! The logic behind the schools is that if students do good on the exams, then it OBVIOUSLY means that kids are learning. (Yeah, I know that I shouldn’t use “good” in place of “well” but who cares. I don’t believe in grammar, but that’s a whole nother discussion.) This makes no sense because if kids are just scoring high scores on standardized exams, but barely passing their classes, then what does that mean? Are standardized tests more important than a grade? If so, why not just give grades based entirely on standardized test scores.

Now here comes my other major issue with schools. There are too many teachers that, as I’ve said, don’t care at all about teaching. Some teachers are like this because they don’t care about teaching, but there are also those that are bad teachers because they may feel that they don’t get enough respect as teachers. I mean public schools don’t get much money and are therefore don’t have the same equipment and books as “rich” schools. The way schools are funded are by property taxes, so the more people pay in property tax the more money the school has to spend on stuff. Now either the federal or state government could pay more money to public schools, then “poorer” schools could be on the same level as the “richer” schools. I realize that I haven’t said much about teachers and respect, but trust me I’m getting there. There are some European countries that pay their teachers based on how their students do in classes, or the pass-fail rate or something like that. That is what we have to do with teachers, treat them with respect and pay them more, more benefits then perhaps more teachers would actually care about teaching or more people would actually want to be a teacher without being criticized about their decisions. (Yeah, I get that a lot and frankly it’s very annoying when people look down at me for my decisions.) Teachers make so much less money than other “professional” jobs, not to mention the amount of respect given to teachers. If you watch the movie Here Comes the Boom, it shows what I mean exactly.

So one major problem I have (yeah I have lots of problems, but I can’t afford a therapist, so I’ll just vent to you guys and gals) is that many people are using iPads or other electronic tablets to teach kids and other young adults. I feel that this is a major problem that should not be used. If you give people iPads in class, they’ll be distracted and they may be stolen and/or missing. Besides if a school can afford 500+ iPads then why not divert some of that money for teachers/faculty or for buying better textbooks and materials. Seriously, it’s not that hard to get better school materials if really want to help the students.

Ok so enough ranting on my part, time to see what you readers (if I have any left at this point) think about education and teachers, and issues like that. What do you think about these issues? How do you think schools should be run? Do you agree with my thoughts?

This has been a Different Opinion. Thank you for your time.