Metauser

Thoughts/complaints about school

April 12, 2007 Posted by mitch | school | 0 Comments

I've been in and out of smaller tech like schools since graduating from High School back in 2000. The reason for my preference towards them is that I'm not interested in a lot of BS. Why is it that employers only want people with degree's? I can understand that some fields of study definitely require formal education and I wouldn't want a Doctor or Surgeon with only a year or two under their belt studying basic anatomy. I don't buy that jobs are more technical now than they were 30 years ago. Yes they use more technology now, but technology is usually adopted as the populace adjusts and becomes comfortable with it. I'm not against Education in general, in fact I love learning new things, and wish I could just take classes on various topics all the time. However, I fear the reason is a result of how the Baby Boomers view todays next generation(which I am apart of).

Doing any type of comparing our school systems to that of any other country's, I don't believe is really sinking in. I would like to argue that the biggest reason for needing even more education after High School is because of the lack of actual learning happening before and during High School. From my understanding, the problems with the public school system is more a result of society, and the lack of importance put on education. This results in a huge lack of caring for the children going through school. Making the teachers in public education, have to balance between being a baby sitter and education at the same time. My experiences through High School were.... uneventful. I dreaded every day, as I knew that most of the work being given to me, was not really for educating me about a subject, but merely a pacifier. Some of the subjects I was really interested in, but it always bothered me how fast the teachers moved through the chapters. My disdain was compounded by the constant battery of tests and quizzes that distracted me from actually learning the subject, and forced a mindset of just remembering the information long enough to take them. One of my favorite classes, and one I actually remember, was my 8th grade History class. With a teacher that actually made history come alive. His teaching style usually involved him telling stories about the American Revolution and other American History like they happened to a friend of his, or like it was his own story. It made what was written in the book much more interesting, and easier to remember.

What would have made school more likely to mean more, would be real world examples and experience. Apprenticeships come to mind. What ever happened to those? An apprenticeship with a PC builder, or small business, or even lost of guest speakers and tours of larger businesses with information on how their IT infrastructure is done. And after those trips, discussing in class making sure everyone understood the technologies in use by the places that were visited. Those first 12 years of school and especially High School is supposed to help prepare people for LIFE not push them to need more Education for life and career. Its supposed to be the introduction for the basics of life, how to earn money, balance a checkbook (tho, checkbooks should be obsolete in a few years), paying taxes, etc... Explaining the theory of relativity and pondering the purposes for life are not something fit for someone in High School(as it goes well beyond their world view at that time). I would even make the argument that anything past algebra 1 need not be required in high schools... still offer the more advanced courses, but not require them. And by all means, as part of the generals for colleges across the country, start with algebra 1 or 2. I think that exposing teenagers to this broad range of information as a way of making them well grounded try to help them figure out what life is about is the wrong way to approach the situation. Help them understand life, by bringing them into it and making them apart of it.

As a summary, what I'm trying to relay is that today, graduating from High School means little more than being a checkpoint before moving on to college. As such, there is little motivation to learn anything while in High School. Which is only adding to the baby sitter appearance. These are just my observations however, since I have not done much research to backup my points. But I do believe that kids would do better if High School was more focused on life rather than theory and arithmetic. That should be left to the colleges, where the subjects could be given a more just and in-depth look.