Not anymore they're not.
No, from firsthand experience, I can tell you that the educational system is completely and utterly fucked.
For those of you who still think school is set an apple on your teacher's desk, sit down, and learn all day, you can either read on or remain in a state of ignorance towards a failing system we throw billions of dollars at and send our children to every morning.
Have you ever heard of a little thing called standardized testing? It is more or less one of the major factors in the downfall of sophisticated and effective education. Now, instead of teachers teaching students how to solve math problems, analyze literature, and deal with real-life situations, students are learning how to take a test.
Seriously. Most of my classes involve some sort of constant little quizzes that is basically a small segment of the test that I will be taking in a couple of months. I'm currently in a preparatory stage, a pre-test mentality. The teachers are preparing the students to take this test, and do you know why teachers focus so much on a little slip of paper with bubbles on it?
Money.
Doesn't it seem to always boil back down to money? Anyway, the poorer a school does on a test, the less funding they get. A poor logic, if you think about it. Cut off supplies to those who really need it? Smart.
But anyway, that funding is crucial to the schools. So the schools urge their teachers to increase test scores, and by God the teachers almost enslave the students trying to send it through our skulls.
But that's just about all they'll be prepared for. Bye space travel, bye solving complex scientific codes, bye progress! If this continues, there will be no innovation, no intelligence, no intuition, and no progress whatsoever. We will be at a standstill for God knows how long.
And if that's not bad enough, that's not even the beginning of all the problems the educational system has.
Just pulling one problem off the top of my head, there's the whole anti-drug/smoking/drinking campaign.
Out of all the assemblies I had last year, 2 out of 3 of them were in some way related to attempting us to convince not to smoke or drink or do drugs. So, while wasting class time (then again, judging from my other point I guess class time isn't all that important unless test-taunting terrorists come around), they waste thousands of dollars trying to show us these "cool" videos that usually consist of some douchebag wearing a baseball cap backwards sitting on a chair backwards saying "Drugs are bad!"
But all the while, this constant pathetic attempt at trying to keep us from doing drugs or smoking or drinking is generally the largest factor that drives minors to do drugs and smoke and drink.
Yet the school never seems to realize this.
In fact, they just throw more of it at us. Making us sign pledges and wear certain colors and make posters, anything to make them think that because we sign a little sheet and wear red on Anti-Drug Day will keep us from doing anything bad.
I suppose ignorance is bliss.
But even after wasting all this money and time and effort, they throw confusing tactics at us. At my school, they will literally arrest you if they find a Motrin on your person just as if they find heroin. This generalization confuses some students, because we all know that headache pills aren't all that bad, but few of us really understand just how bad heroin is, so if the school treats both the same, then students tend to as well.
Zero-tolerance in work. Pardon me if I don't clap.
It's sad, really. But keep your voice alive. If you notice some stupid policy or rule at your local educational facility, make sure it gets taken care of, otherwise the only ones who really end up paying are the kids.
-Saint Charlie-
Good post. Do yo want go into more depth about how passing a test and ACTUAL learning differs. what is the difference in what the two points emphasize?
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