School vs. Education

"You need to understand that the world is changing and if you don't stay with it, the world will decide it doesn't need you anymore."

I saw this video a few years ago but just stumbled upon it recently and it made me see my schooling differently. Education is very important; it gives you the skills you need to find a job, socialize with people, and overall have a successful life. Traditional school has always been a great way to get this education, and it has been working for hundreds of years since it was begun by the Byzantine empire thousands of years ago. However, as Dan Brown points out in his video, it just isn't working anymore the way it used to.

There are three steps in a typical class that are repeated over and over throughout the year. Listen, study, test. You start with a class in which the teacher gives some sort of presentation about a topic, and if you're a good student you'll probably take as many notes as possible. You then go home that night and study those notes to try to remember as many facts as possible. Then you go into class the next day and you're given a test to see how many things you were able to cram into your brain the night before (or five minutes before, if you're a less avid student). This test grade impacts your quarter grade, which impacts your semester grade, which impacts your GPA, which impacts your college application, which impacts your quality of higher education, which impacts your credentials for a job, which essentially is your ticket to a happy and successful life. That's a lot of pressure to just remember what an editing symbol means or the atomic mass of Carbon.

Although it provides a lot of strain and pressure on students, this system has been effective in making kids more intellectual. However, as we grow in this age of information, most of the facts we're cramming into our brain can be looked up in a matter of seconds. Information is so easily attainable it almost seems worthless to remember it all, and the idea of our careers being decided on the basis of "google-able" facts really seems outlandish.

Clearly the system needs to be changed. Teachers are supposed to be experts in the field they teach in, and most of them are. They just need to be able to apply their knowledge in a way that prepares a student for life, not just for a test.