Good evening,
I am particularly curious as to the opinions of those who are or recently were educators or students, that is in the academic sense, on the structure of education systems as they currently stand- I make this international generalisation because variations in specifics not withstanding it seems that the underlying structure and deeper ideology is rather universal.
What an 'education' may one get, I wonder, in a system that has internally self-corrupted to the point where students must actively change and suppress the ways they think, to fit into such a system so rigidly formulaic that one may lose marks for using the wrong font, or writing ones student number on the wrong side of the page (an extreme example but a genuine one)? Where it seems that exams have ceased to be a mere with which to measure a students progress and become the very reason for it, as though there is no reason to learn anything that will not be asked on a paper? I do understand that there is a necessity to cater to the dominant mode of thought, and do not deny that there is most definitely value to 'education' as it stands and indeed much to be gained from it, but it seems to me- and I can only write from personal experience- that a system that should always have been about promoting curiosity and encouraging breadth and depth of thought has in many respects managed to achieve the opposite, and I find this both highly personally frustrating, and more than a little bit sad.
Admittedly as I am currently a student in yr. 11 my observations are primarily limited to secondary education; I would be very interested to know how tertiary education compares? And more generally, what your opinion is on the matter as a whole, particularly those of you who are either currently students, or educators- and I must of course ask whether you consider this to be an issue at all? If so, is it one that can be improved or a situation in which one must simply make do? I do wonder whether this isn't perhaps just another matter symptomatic of something far more ingrained.
Your thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Quicksilver
I am particularly curious as to the opinions of those who are or recently were educators or students, that is in the academic sense, on the structure of education systems as they currently stand- I make this international generalisation because variations in specifics not withstanding it seems that the underlying structure and deeper ideology is rather universal.
What an 'education' may one get, I wonder, in a system that has internally self-corrupted to the point where students must actively change and suppress the ways they think, to fit into such a system so rigidly formulaic that one may lose marks for using the wrong font, or writing ones student number on the wrong side of the page (an extreme example but a genuine one)? Where it seems that exams have ceased to be a mere with which to measure a students progress and become the very reason for it, as though there is no reason to learn anything that will not be asked on a paper? I do understand that there is a necessity to cater to the dominant mode of thought, and do not deny that there is most definitely value to 'education' as it stands and indeed much to be gained from it, but it seems to me- and I can only write from personal experience- that a system that should always have been about promoting curiosity and encouraging breadth and depth of thought has in many respects managed to achieve the opposite, and I find this both highly personally frustrating, and more than a little bit sad.
Admittedly as I am currently a student in yr. 11 my observations are primarily limited to secondary education; I would be very interested to know how tertiary education compares? And more generally, what your opinion is on the matter as a whole, particularly those of you who are either currently students, or educators- and I must of course ask whether you consider this to be an issue at all? If so, is it one that can be improved or a situation in which one must simply make do? I do wonder whether this isn't perhaps just another matter symptomatic of something far more ingrained.
Your thoughts on the matter would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Quicksilver