(Siren)
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school" - Albert Einstein
You know, when one of the most intelligent
people to ever live on the planet
says something like this,
Then perhaps there is something horribly, horribly wrong
with the basics of education.
(Music plays)
School,
we all know it!
We spent a significant chunk of our lives
gradually ascending through the ranks
while hopefully picking up basic knowledge like
the alphabet, simple maths, and how to read.
Unfortunately, this idea is a lot more simple on paper
than it is to apply to the real world.
You know, to real humans
who all learn differently
and who are all individuals.
And here is where the essence of the problem of school in general lies:
the emphasis and obsession with academic ability through the use of rigorous testing,
reporting. More rigorous testing more reporting, and topped off with a tad
more rigorous testing and reporting, does nothing but prove how school is designed
around how it looks on paper.
I never personally had any real trouble in primary school, but I do specifically
remember infatuating myself with scores, grades and levels.
I wanted to have the highest level. Not because it was important to me to do well,
no primary school kid cares about that, but more because I just wanted a higher
score than my friends and colleagues. Like it was a game:
a leaderboard for judging and comparing my worth with everyone else's.
Of course I wasn't quite that self-aware and I was nine years old, or even thought
about it at all really,
but I still did it. The point is, school is not about learning for knowledge or intelligence,
it's about preparing and memorizing a bunch of useless facts for moronically
specific and closed-minded test, so we can dictate, predict and set stupid
targets for the sake of the school's name, and to appease the governing bodies
that settle the ludicrous rules for the poor teachers to enforce. In the UK, we
start school at four years old.
The mentality is that the earlier you start, the more you can cram into their
little brains to speed up the learning process.
This is probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Do you remember what you cared about when you were four?
Me neither.
But it certainly wasn't how to read a clock with Roman numerals on it.
Of course so many kids are put off the idea of school.
We tried to teach children things they're not developmentally capable of doing.
What is the fucking point of teaching seven and eight years about the possessive
apostrophe or how to column subtract?
It's nothing but unnecessary stress for both the students and the
teachers, who have no choice but to enforce it. Speaking of the teachers, they
don't half have one of the most difficult and clusterfucked jobs in existence.
First off, they don't only have to work with virtually no resources or budget to
help them, but one teacher is expected to support and provide for upwards of 30
students for the course of one year. Not to mention the positive slant they have no
choice but to put on everything, which in turn unfairly doesn't apply to them as
well.
So an endless amount of teachers are stressed beyond belief. This even applies
if the kid is a fucking stupid idiot who doesn't care.
"Sorry Preston, you failed the test but don't worry, don't worry.
But please don't worry, you're super kind and not overweight!
you'll do better next time." Can you imagine having to write a positive
report about those kids who are the biggest shitheads in the world?
It's actually pretty backwards the way the troubled kids get more support in
the end, as in when they disrupt the class, cause commotion, or just generally
piss people off
they then get all the energy throwing their way just for the sake of shutting
them up, and your normal, thoughful, quiet, perfect student who listens and
does what you ask of them, takes a side seat to the fuckwit who won't stop
making fart noises with their mouth.
The urge for the teacher to say something like "Hey, listen, you little
fuck.
Can you do us all a favor and shut your mouth and pay attention please ?" Must be
unbelievable.
It's always super fair when the asshole kids get rewarded just for not being an
asshole, when all the non-asshole kids have to actually put effort and work
into being noticed. The middling kids who don't fit into any of the extremes and
are being invisible, and that sucks.
Do you remember how pathetic and muted everything potentially dangerous was
when the school was in charge?
"Hey kids, don't you even think about doing anything fun. Like climbing that
awesome looking tree over there, or even having a run on the grass because you
might fall over and your parents will sue us and we have no money as it is."
It's like we spent the first 10 years of their lives training and to be prissy
wimps,
then when they get to secondary school the entire script has flipped on its
head and everyone and everything is violent and twattish to you, as you get
a glimpse of the real world is like. I really love the first 16 years of your
life completely dictate the rest of it. You know, the years when you're the most
stupid and naive and don't care about anything.
Now, none of this is to say that school isn't important because it is
Kiteman: NYEEEH
I didn't go to school and look how I turned out! IHE: That isn't helpful to me at
all.
I just think the way we go about it is moronic and backwards and ultimately
completely unhelpful to a large portion of the kids who go. When one in five
adults can't even read or write,
doesn't that prove that the system has kind of fucked them just because they
might not respond to the Victorian idiotic way of teaching the basics to
kids?
There is a reason Steiner and Montessori schools are sought after and work.
I'm not knowledgeable enough myself to suggest ways to improve it, but there are
plenty of people out there who are. But if all of this is so transparent and
blatant to someone such as myself, then isn't that evidence enough that the
system needs some pretty drastic changes to make it not completely stupid?
You know what, education system? You let me down, you let the school down,
but worst of all, you let yourself down.
(Music plays)
So those are my filtered thoughts on the large complicated subject that is
schooling. Little bit more serious than my usual videos.
But it's actually about something important, so who cares?
So what do you think about
school? I know education is very different from country to country,
we all have our strengths and weaknesses and whatnot. So how was it for you? I'm
genuinely curious, tell me in the comments below. And as always, thanks for
watching all comments and ratings are very much appreciated!
Make sure you check out my second channel Jar Media for more laid-back
content driven by you,
the community. Anyway, I'll see you next time. Bye.
(FART NOISES)