There are a lot of great things about school like learning new topics, the basics of literacy, math, science and even the arts. However, the way school is systemized is damaging our health both physically and mentally and fundamentally making us dumb. There is a growing feeling today that something is wrong with our system of education. But what is it? Well, we send our children to school to prepare them for the real world, which is changing very fast. But our school haven't changed much for hundreds of years. Here are some problems with our current education system.
Industrial age values
We educate children by batches and govern their lives by ringing bells. All day long, students do nothing but follow instructions; sit down, take out your books, turn to page 40, solve problem number 3, stop talking and many more. At school, you're rewarded for doing exactly what you're told. These are industrial age values that were really important for factory workers. But in today's world, how far can you get by simply following instructions? The modern world values people who can be creative, who can communicate their ideas, and collaborate with others. But our children don't get a chance to develop such skills in a system which is based on industrial age values.
Lack of autonomy
At school, our children experience a complete lack of autonomy and control. Every minute of a child's life is tightly controlled by the system. The system is sending a dangerous message to our children, that they are not in charge of their own lives. Experts believe autonomy is incredibly important for children. It's no wonder that our children are bored and demotivated by school.
Inauthentic learning
Most of the learning that happens in schools today is not authentic, because it relies on memorization and rote learning. The system defines a generic set of knowledge that all children must know. And then, every few months, we measure how much has been retained by administering exams. We know that such learning is not authentic because most of it is gone the day after the exam. Learning can be much deeper and more authentic. It can be so much more than just memorization and retention.
Lecturing
In the current system, children are lectured for more than five hours a day. Sal Khan from Khan Academy calls lecturing " a fundamentally dehumanizing experience". In any given classroom, different students are at different levels of understanding. Now, whatever the teacher does, there are bound to be students who are either bored because they're ahead or confused because they're behind. Because of the internet and digital media, our children have at their fingertips all the information in the world. But for fear of losing control, the system is not leveraging these incredible resources.
No room for passion
We have an extremely standardized system, where each child must learn the same thing, at the same time, in the same way as everyone else. This doesn't respect the basic fact of being human, that each of us is unique and different in our own way. We all have different passions and interests. And the key to fulfillment in life is to find your passion. But, do the schools of today help our children find and develop their passion? The system doesn't seem to care. We have no measure for how much talent, how much potential goes unrecognized in the current system.
Our system of education which evolved in the industrial age, has become outdated and ineffective. If we want to prepare our children for the modern world, if we want learning to be effective and engaging, then there's no doubt that we need to fundamentally change our system of education.