Why I hate school, but love education

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkPoJV5R-gc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

check out this spoken word and leave some feed back...Im curous to see reactions since we are a site of all ages....of course I'm young and Ive said what this young man said before, Ive felt what hes felt, I am who he mentions the last 30 seconds of this clip. . but Im very curious to see more points of view :)

Interesting listening, and I can say I know a bit about this topic.

Essentially, I think he is both right and wrong.

He is right that a lot of the time what we learn in school isn't going to be applied in the 'real world' - the job we want mightn't need knowledge of 90% of what we learn in school. It can be hard to motivate oneself to learn these things then, obviously we learn best the things we have an interest in. Every kid is different and that is where teachers and schools have to try and cater for all different learners in the best way they can. Sometimes, teachers and schools fail. It is tough when you may have 30 kids in a classroom, many who have different abilities, learning styles, needs, home support, some might have no interest in being there, etc. But differentiation is important.

Education should teach people to be independent learners. Education today is (should be) founded on the basis of constructivism: that children construct their own knowledge rather than just read it fro a book or believe what they are told. This fades though the older children become as school becomes more exam focused. Most of the time, the life skills learnt in school are more important than the actual information learned. Maths is often used as a subject that is labelled irrelevant, but problem-solving skills are transferable in all walks of life, whether you are an astronaut landing a shuttle on the moon or a plumber called out to a building with leaking pipes. You don't need theorems but you need to know how to think rationally and logically and this is what can be forgotten about subjects such as maths. It is what school should teach us to do.

Also they say exam results don't define people. They don't. And people shouldn't determine their self-worth by exam results. But people shouldn't fool themselves that they aren't important either. They are often essential stepping stones: for many jobs and college courses you need decent exam results. Sure there are the obvious examples of success stories who left school early: e.g. Richard Branson but these are a rare breed, and I bet they worked damn hard when they did leave school in order to be successful. A large part of exams is also examining if you are willing to work hard for what you want to achieve. Sometimes you just have to buckle down, do the work to learn whats required to get the right result. That too is an important life skill.

Ill be back to add more

Sorry I didnt get back to you Colm, but I appreciate your lengthy reply.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I would never say cut down all the subjects. You are right when it comes to problem solving math equations, though I hated them haha. However, when high school comes, algebra, geometry, its all a waste. I wish High School allowed us to pick our classes. They did to an extent, we got to pick extra classes aside from the basics. Same with college, its like you HAVE to take a math, science, english, etc.

I wish school was more focused on idvidual strengths. Perhaps more children would care, would want to succeed in something because theyd see good results finally.

I definitely agree with what you were saying about exam results. The score shouldnt define you especially if you tried your 100% best. It is about proving you'd work hard. However its sad, some kids just struggle with a subject so much and that one score prevents them from passing, or from getting in a good college.

Like the kid says in this youtube clip, kids often remember stuff 5 minutes after the teacher says "times up" does that mean if I remembered 5 minutes earlier I could get a better job? better college?...kids are under such pressure. But then again thats where what you say comes in Colm. The real world, youll have to deal with being under pressure. So I get it.

This is what Ive concluded though. My dad died 2 weeks ago. During these two weeks, me (a 22 yr old), my brother (a 28 yr old) had to deal with a ton of stuff we didnt understand. Mortgage , house insurance, life insurance, estate sales, bank accounts we didnt know my dad had. I wish there was a class in school that required subjects like that. Require us to learn about the real world because THAT is what we'll truly need knowledge on. I'm learning a lot about housing and banks and cars since my dads passed, I wish I knew before this though so I could understand it more. I'd substitute a science class for that.

I just feel like there is so much uselessness in school. Youre right in what it teaches us as far as problem solving, prepping us to prove we want to work hard, but it stinks they dont substitute some of those subjects to stuff we'd actually deal with in our later 20's.

I love them both equally ::
quitting school and hating education!!