zarguhl said:
I can't believe that the most fundamental problems have been utterly ignored.
Let's try to address your fundamental issues, then.
How about that you are required to spend a fixed term in school, rather than working on an accomplishment basis? Like a prison sentence, rather than an educational system. 13 years in school to learn about 3 months worth of actual useful data!
The fixed term is an age thing. Basically, the reason for the length is that, aside from the material you have to work through (not to mention that the difficulty and complexity gets scaled up as you go along, plus time spent on vacation, plus time lost to reteaching what you've forgotten during vacations, and so on) there's just the fact that school is kind of like society's training wheels. There's a big difference in the maturity (in general) and learning ability of a 12 year old and a 15 year old.
How about the fact that subjects like economics, law and politics are barely taught at all, and when they are the data is utterly slanted and often fundamentally flawed? How about the lack of practical application taught throughout school, and the fact that by making school compulsory for so long, students are trained into not applying what they learn, but just studying for tests, so when they are finally out of school they are no longer capable of actually producing real work in real life?
I don't know about your school system, but when I was in school we learned economics in our senior year of high school, and our country's constitution in freshman year. Politics is difficult to teach, because no matter what you teach, somebody's parents are going to be upset. Plus, politics can change pretty quickly and from experience, it's really difficult to make last-minute changes to the curriculum. That said, in 7th grade (Philippine schools go from Grade 1-6, with some higher-end schools offering Grade 7, and then 4 years of high school) we had to memorize the names of the heads of every branch of government (Department of Education, Department of Transportation and Communication, etc.)
How about the fact that the vast majority of the population are functionally illiterate and don't even know it?
No good answer, other than "we're working on it". In an ideal world, every person would be educated and given the opportunity to live up to their potential. It's something all teachers want, and something that (I believe) governments want for their people. That being said, there are other things that get in the way: even assuming that education itself is free, you still have to get your kid to and from school, the kids still have to eat, and then there's materials (not necessarily books: even day to day things like pencils and intermediate pad). And aside from all that, there are some parents who just don't care. Where I live, there are some parents who don't bother sending their kids to school, they just spend all day drinking and smoking while their kids beg in the streets for the money that funds their parents' drinking and smoking.
What about the fact that teachers talk about "knowing how to study" or being "a good student" and so on, but can't even define what study is, or what its purpose is, or that there is no course in first year teaching you how to BE a student in the first place? Teaching why you are in school, what you can achieve in school and HOW to go about it?
If you are learning, then you are a student. Depending on your school, the exact meaning of a "good student" varies, but in general it's "follows rules", "gets good grades", and "occasionally does something that honor the school". And it's difficult to devote time to "knowing how to study". People are varied, and especially since Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory became popular in educational circles, there's the realization that teaching people how to study is like herding cats. Some people do fine with rote memorization, but others need to have music, or need to move around. Fact is, if you're trying to get good grades, you'll eventually find something that works for you.
Where is the study of logic and data evaluation? You are taught to trust the materials you are given and believe them! The FIRST thing that should be taught is that you need to evaluate every bit of data you are given as to whether it is true and applicable in the real world! How is a student meant to operate in a field they are learning in, if they don't even have the faculty of evaluation and determinism on the subject?!
Logic is taught in higher levels for a specific reason: until a certain age, it's difficult for a child's mind to understand anything abstract. You can't teach a kid about, say, the law of conservation of energy, because it's not something they can directly observe. It's why childrens' books need pictures: imaginative though they may be, children aren't able to interpret the abstract.
Also, on the matter of data evaluation, it's a 21st century skill. Some schools are only just starting to implement it, and as more schools focus on being "skills based" and not "knowledge based" like they are now, you're going to see a lot of schools teaching things like research and metacognition and self-evaluation.
The modern system of schooling (I wouldn't dignify it by calling it "education") is not just poor, or less effective than it could be. It is the worst of all possible systems, with no purpose other than to hasten the degradation of civilization.
Fun fact: Education is way better now than it was a hundred years ago. Most schools try to shy away from corporal punishment and rote memorization, and are going towards a more holistic, bottom-up model. The educational system I trained to work in focused on making a complete person, and not just drilling knowledge into kids. I assume that you didn't enjoy your own schooling, and for that, I apologize on behalf of all the teachers in the world. But calling the education system "the worst of all possible systems" is just outright wrong.
