Will Schools Ever Change?

I just realized that I always start my articles with something like “I was at so and so place having a conversation with a friend and … drum roll… an idea hit and me and I ran home to write about it.”

Well, sorry! But this is one of those again!?

A few nights ago, we got into a debate about how we raise our children compared to how our parents raised us and we had pros and cons and a plethora of opinions. Then we got into schooling and how schooling should be compared to how it was and how it is (today).

Side note, these thoughts are not targeting (or attacking) any school or teacher, these are my own thoughts and observations in my own verbal breakdown.

I believe the problem with schools is that they don’t teach about “success”, and the mental process needed to be successful in life. Schools (and universities) teach kids everything else; how to become doctors, engineers, lawyers, programmers, accountants etc. but nothing about how to be successful in life!

Schooling does not touch on the process that helps kids develop the principles of success; and no… this has nothing to do with good grades. Schools teach kids how to memorize stuff, test them on them, and kids recall what they’ve learned, and then they’re given a grade.

In the current schooling system, they don’t want to teach kids how to be successful because (I believe) they just want to pump out good employees that do what they’re told. If you look at schooling today, it is the opposite of what it takes to be successful in real life; “don’t make a mistake”, “work by yourself”, “don’t cooperate”, “do it on your own”, and… ya this is one is my favorite: “there is only one right answer to a problem” … NO, hell no! There are tons of right answers to a problem.

Kids come out of school scared to death of making a mistake. They do everything on their own, they don’t cooperate, don’t have synergy, don’t do brainstorming, and they’re always looking for that “only one” right answer. I admit some schools are changing this approach, but not fast enough and not the majority of them!

I believe kids come out of school paralyzed. I think current schooling is unfitting and it kills a kid’s spirit of learning. Kids go into school all excited about learning and how great it would be… and then the teacher says sit down, shut up, don’t talk, we don’t care what you’re interested in, and do as you’re told because we have a schedule to keep and boxes to check!

Yes, kids need to learn discipline, but is sitting them in rows and lines – like assembly line workers – the way to do it?

Just a side note, the education system we know today was developed during the industrial revolution when there was a?need for universal schooling. It was designed to teach future factory workers to be punctual, compliant, and controlled. Sitting kids in a classroom 7 or so hours a day with a teacher was good training for that. How’s that for food for thought?!!!

Our phones have changed. Our TVs have changed. Our cars have changed… so for something that was developed some 200+ years ago, don’t you think it’s time?

Well folks, this was my Verbal Breakdown, till the next one, keep it safe, keep it real, and keep it simple.

?Ralph

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not to the author's employer, organization, committee, or other group or individual.