Resonance

Tag: education

  • Is It Even Necessary to Go to School in Our World Today? (II)

    Education has no end but school does. When school is done, that’s when reality hits. You begin to wonder why the reality of school has been made so different from the real world. That’s why we all question the relevance of what we are being taught and how it is going to help us in any way in future. Should we, though?

    Information & Instruction


    There are two things that makes school so great without we realizing; instruction and information. School builds a structure within us. Yes, there are a billion books you can read on the internet without attending school and a billion things we can get to know. However, in school you are tasked to finish 32425 assignments in very limited amount of time you wouldn’t have prescribed for yourself. Thus, school is building a structure within you. In architecture school, you could be given a thousand redoes on a task you don’t even want to do. What it builds within you is a resilience for life. It is on this structure that our formation for going about tasks is built.

    Structure vs Creativity


    Growing up, it is the ideas you are thought that shapes how you think. Our early school teachers either teach us what to think or how to think for ourselves. Yet, most school systems are stuck with teaching students what to think. School is just about learning only what the teacher taught, memorizing and vomiting it on the exam sheet to show how “smart” you are. Students have been trained to swallow the teacher’s vomit so much that students are stranded with lecturers who leave too much room for ingenuity. Even students of universities want to be spoon-fed, and that is a worry.

    Exams is not Needful?


    The best law student is not the best lawyer. This is enough reason to change how school assesses students. Is examination even necessary? To me, it isn’t. Examination favors the fool. You can simply be good at writing exams and passing tests without learning anything. This is why many creative students don’t really perform well in school. Students with the best results are mostly teacher’s pets, memorization experts and are pretty much concerned about marks. In the real world, you are not assessed based on marks. This can leave such teacher-pleasing people a little bit frustrated in real life. There is no grand final exam in the actual world. Once you are done with a load of work, another one is piled up on you. Life will always give you new problems as you solve the old ones. If there is any assessment at all, it should add to the existing body of knowledge rather than be a regurgitation of existing literature.

    Too Much Theory

    Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast“.
    Theory is needful. Without theory, humans will just be like most animals; each coming in to life to discover things outside of their instinctive nature without prior knowledge of previous lives’ discoveries. Theory enables us to catch up with and come at par with all what previous generations have discovered since existence. Therefore, we don’t start afresh. Theories are developed based on one’s experiences. Once we learn all of such theories, we needn’t need to a thousand lives but simply build up on such theories within our own lifetime for the next generation. Isaac Newton once said, If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. Thus, it is not the abundance of theories in school that is the problem. It is the un-application of it. Once we cannot apply it in our own little way, and the basis for us learning is because “it will come in the exams”, we have failed as intellectuals. Are we in school to produce similar answers in exams or we are in school to make a difference in life?

    Let’s not deceive ourselves that school is not needful. You can have all the information in the world available to you via the Internet but the question is, will you even make time for them outside of school? School has failed in

    • making such information relevant to our societal needs in various fields
    • making the information the basis (not the replacement) for our own creativity and ingenuity

    Nonetheless, school provides us with education and we ought to be grateful for that. Or I’m just saying this so that this write-up ends on a good note? Trust me, if a lecturer tasked me to write this for marks, it would have been copy-and-paste and quillbot. Do you agree with me? Please leave a comment or two.

  • Is It Even Necessary to Go to School in Our World Today?

    There is always new medical research that helps us live longer, a brand new technology that changes our lifestyle, and a new software app more interesting than our schooling system. Perhaps, it’s because the school system has barely changed. Let me not bore you with the details of the early formal schools but trust me, there is barely any drastic changes within those four walls of the classroom. The schooling system is slowly catching up with modern-day technology, let’s admit. However, the relevance of the things we are taught – and more importantly, not taught – is where the actual problem is. Oh, this is up for debate!

    School is Not so Bad, Trust Me

    Count all the friends you have. 80% of them, you met in school. Your acquaintances? Same percentage. School has always been the foundation for our lives. Being together with people in the same age group who are figuring out their lives like you are. Sounds interesting. Your values, perceptions, attitudes, lifestyle, interpersonal relations, opinions. These are things you pick up from school. Children go to school so early in their lives that whatever “foundation” that was laid at home can be made or unmade in school.

    Forget about everything for a second. This system of school is responsible for 80% of your life; food habits, social skills, vocal expression, some of your greatest memories, even your most embarrassing moments. Enjoy your first 20+ years in school well. Don’t wait till you’re working a 9 to 5 routine to acknowledge how dynamic school was. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

    School

    Life is Mathematics

    One of the ways people bash school is weaning that they never used y=mx+c – or any other mathematical formula for that matter – in real life. Why is school teaching you calculus and not how to do your taxes? Well, first of all, who said we don’t use mathematical formulae in our everyday lives? Did you cross the road yesterday? Your mind subconsciously did all the necessary calculations. Have you climbed the stairs, kicked a ball into a net, dodged something thrown at you, guessed the time you would be able to reach your destination or put food in your mouth? See, all these were calculations your brains made. It just didn’t “show working”.

    Isaac Newton said it better, “every problem – and for that matter, every solution – is mathematical in nature”. In other words, everything can be mathematically expressed. A formula can be derived for everything. Google it, there is a mathematical equation for gravity, motion, love, even music. You never knew you had a brain till you learnt about it in school. Mind you, you wouldn’t have ever known you had one because you can’t see your brain and be alive at the same time. What’s the point? School taught you what you knew without knowing you knew. Must have been interesting for your brain to understand what a brain is and what it does.

    the Real Essence

    Even though you’re not going to apply half of the things you learn directly in your life, trust me, you’ll apply them indirectly all the time. Especially the ones that stick with you. All knowledge – applicable or non-applicable – is important. School has expanded our brains in ways no other societal body could have. In school, we are exposed to more opportunities and aspects. Eventually, we discover what we really resonate with and understand the most. Though we may rather choose to go into a field that earns us more income instead of a field we love – another dilemma of life – it was a school that exposed us to them all.

    So the question now is, why do we need to bash school? The theory is too much? The stress is overwhelming? It’s too much hard work, which is meant to be an archaic concept? Let’s talk more about this next weekend. Do you agree or not? Let’s hear what you think in the comments section.