To get my argument across. A lot of people will agree with me that the American Education System currently in place is flawed and probably should be revised however impossible it may seem. The current education system is not a determination of how smart you are but on the contrary, it determines nothing in particular. It does however determine certain traits. The problem is, it's hard to distinguish these traits from one another with this current system. The one trait that this education system is aimed at is dedication. The point is that if you are dedicated to anything and you are a somewhat healthy human being, you will receive great grades and probably beat everyone in terms of grade point average.
The misconception here about the education system is that it grades you based on how "smart" you are. Smart is a very broad term that has no specific meaning. Smart refers to someone that excels in one particular field. As long as you excel in that one field, you can be considered smart without needing too much knowledge in the other fields. Intelligence is in basic principle the concept of being very adaptable. Adaptable in the way of being able to easily grasp concepts and to formulate "new" ideas based on previous preconceptions you may have had. This is not what the education system in America is actually grading you on. The American system only focuses on dedication. If you are smart and have no dedication, your grades will reflect badly. If you are not smart and have extreme dedication, your grades will reflect well. The optimum place people should be at is generally smart and more than average dedication. This is where people will get the most from their grades. Dedication will weigh much more heavily on your grade than smarts do. Even though smarts will effect your grade.
Another thing that people don't realize is that while our educational hierarchy preaches dedication, in the process of doing so, it teaches us how to be dumb. The primary example here is that the education system teaches us, "There is one right answer." When you apply this one right answer concept to anything else outside of school, it seems to collapse. As a result, after students leave high school, they still look for this one right answer. Their mind has been dumbed down and now has forgotten the idea of creative thinking and formulating unique thoughts based on previous information. A multiple choice answer always has one answer. This one answer concept almost never applies in real life. When in reality does one actually have to choose between right and wrong. Every single answer to a question has some right parts of it and some wrong parts of it. We just have to choose one and hope that there was more right than wrong. There in lies another problem. What's right and what's wrong, although this is another topic.
Do I believe that we can reform the education system today? No, it would not be possible. The education system works in this respect. While it does not grade us based on our intelligence, it grades us on our dedication. Dedication is what people want in the work place. Society works as an assembly line. People get created (Education), People are put through a trial to test if creation was a success(Grades), based on results, people get moved to different places (Jobs). If you have good grades, you will likely be hired because of this concept of dedication. While most workplaces don't realize it, dedication is what they look for. It's simply, getting people with good grades in our workplace makes it better, therefore if we get more people that have good grades it will work better. While some workplaces don't realize this concept, they are completely tied to the education system that we have today. While there are propositions to change it, such as getting rid of one answer questions in everything and teaching students to think from all viewpoints, it's not going to be likely to change anything. I believe even with the faulty education system, it should not change because it's still a working system. The problem I have with this system is it's name, why call it an education system where you are simply dumbing people down instead of making them smarter?
I can't help but think of the Einstein quote while reading this: "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on his ability to climb a tree, you will spend all your life thinking he is stupid." On a related note, my E.S.P. class last year was shown this video by Mr. Semerdjian, who is very informed on this subject. I highly recommend you, or anybody reading this, watches this video. I would explain it, but the video speaks for itself:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Darren, I think you make a good point in saying that a "one answer" philosophy impedes creative thinking and causes many issues. I also respect your acknowledgement that despite the problems, the education system we have in place shouldn't be changed because it works.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was watching the video Brian posted, my dad came in and informed me of all the facts that were wrong in the video, such as his graph of ADHD prevalence (the percent difference between the east and west coast is only about 4 percent), his comments on Ritalin (Ritalin is a stimulant, not an anesthetic) and the fact that he does not actually suggest a different system to the one that already exists. Yup, my dad loves to make things a bummer.
Though the pressing down of creative thinking can be a problem, I think the biggest problem in our current education system is how it teaches a lack of initiative. The "one answer" response not only applies to multiple choice questions, but also to lifestyle. We are expected to take a certain formula of classes and receive certain grades in order to succeed. Students are expected to follow assignments to the word. I'm sure you all have seen students ask teachers questions about tiny discrepancies that shouldn't really matter, but they become so reliant on guidance, they don't even know how to make these basic decisions of interpretation for themselves.
In the documentary Race to Nowhere, employers discussed the issue of workers not being able to perform even simple task without handed guidance. This can be viewed as a problem both in the creativity realm and the productivity realm.
One great thing about STAC is how we are often forced to take initiative. Because our assignments are so open-ended, and we aren't given step by step guidance, we are forced to make our own decisions. Also, we are given leadership positions on projects where we need to learn how to interact with others to get things done. In regular classes, even when group projects are involved, we don't get much experience in leadership.
If people are taught initiative, they can learn at least a certain degree creativity. People who take initiative have more confidence in their own thoughts and opinions, so they are more able to diverge from the "one answer" mentality.