2010-11-30, 03:26 AM
I'll have to agree with this person.
Basically, school is a factory for creating robots that are good at doing things in a certain way, to a certain degree, and at a certain time. Just take a look at the idea of "batches" of students, and you can already see the production-line mindset. In this year, you learn this. In the next, you learn a more complicated form of this. The next, some idea that revolutionizes the way you have done it the previous years. And students are forced, at least until college, to be at a certain level at the certain age, regardless whether they're ready or not. Even what I'm writing right now is defined by school standards. Grammar and punctuation are just parts of what we, in a sense, have been brainwashed to require.
What does that get you in the end? A nice, shiny degree that says "I was the best conformist to the system." Will that land you a job? Who knows? Are there people who don't bother going through the school system and end up richer than you? Hell yeah. The worst part is, after all those years slaving through curriculum after curriculum, you end up getting a whole load of stuff that won't be useful to you in real life, ever. Neurologists don't need a second language. Entrepreneurs don't need calculus, or even a lot of high school math. The long, laborious could have been shortened by actually getting to the stuff you need. Then you could spend the freed time on something fun or useful.
I'd say there's at least one good byproduct of the school system, and Loose said it. The people you meet in school are some of the best and worst you could meet. I love the social aspect of school. The dullness of school is numbed down by talking during class, making jokes, etc. Unfortunately, this does not help those who are antisocial and who(m?) would rather get through school and get on to their career. Again, the school system benefits only a certain group of people. And the benefit is really just coming in the form of a distraction from how boring school is.
All in all, the school system has a long way to go. The factory of schooling needs to reform, and soon. School needs to work for students, instead of the other way around.
Basically, school is a factory for creating robots that are good at doing things in a certain way, to a certain degree, and at a certain time. Just take a look at the idea of "batches" of students, and you can already see the production-line mindset. In this year, you learn this. In the next, you learn a more complicated form of this. The next, some idea that revolutionizes the way you have done it the previous years. And students are forced, at least until college, to be at a certain level at the certain age, regardless whether they're ready or not. Even what I'm writing right now is defined by school standards. Grammar and punctuation are just parts of what we, in a sense, have been brainwashed to require.
What does that get you in the end? A nice, shiny degree that says "I was the best conformist to the system." Will that land you a job? Who knows? Are there people who don't bother going through the school system and end up richer than you? Hell yeah. The worst part is, after all those years slaving through curriculum after curriculum, you end up getting a whole load of stuff that won't be useful to you in real life, ever. Neurologists don't need a second language. Entrepreneurs don't need calculus, or even a lot of high school math. The long, laborious could have been shortened by actually getting to the stuff you need. Then you could spend the freed time on something fun or useful.
I'd say there's at least one good byproduct of the school system, and Loose said it. The people you meet in school are some of the best and worst you could meet. I love the social aspect of school. The dullness of school is numbed down by talking during class, making jokes, etc. Unfortunately, this does not help those who are antisocial and who(m?) would rather get through school and get on to their career. Again, the school system benefits only a certain group of people. And the benefit is really just coming in the form of a distraction from how boring school is.
All in all, the school system has a long way to go. The factory of schooling needs to reform, and soon. School needs to work for students, instead of the other way around.