MY PROBLEM WITH ORGANIZED SCHOOLING

 

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school,”
– Albert Einstein

I have nothing against the acquisition of knowledge as I am a greedy consumer of knowledge. But on the contrary, I do have a serious problem with organized schooling with stipulated curriculum that is hell-bent on judging diverse and multiplicity of talents with pen to paper examination (or most recently computer based test).

Assuming the society hadn’t earlier stigmatized the un-identification of an individual with a school, the best form of gaining knowledge and self development to me is the informal form of education. This form of education has nothing to do with the stereotyping and homogenizing of knowledge. This form of education has its arms wide spread to embrace any knowledge that comes its way.

I see the general concept of formal education which is solely built on the foundation of the ritual of judging legion of students with one means which is the celebrated examination as an insult to ones intelligence. I am totally grieved with the entire ideology of examinations. My reason for frowning
at this act that I term blasphemous to the sensibilities of students is this: Imagine we all wake up one morning and the entire sporting games adopt the rule of football as a generally acceptable rule and regulation for diverse games. Think of how silly the tennis board game will be with lines men. Imagine how red cards will be issued to players for picking the tennis eggs from the board with their hand instead of legs. Think of the track games with the offside rule or ice hockey players putting on shorts. Stupid right?

Frankly speaking, schooling stifles talents; it dries up the milk of creativity, most especially when you are doing one silly course just to join the hallowed bandwagon of ‘graduates’. It roughens the smoothness of solitude and ‘me times’. Those times you sit down and listen to your sub conscious instruct you. How is possible when you’re often thrown off balance by the assignment of lecturer A or when you’re battling to complete the note of lecturer Q.

Again, even if you have been disagreeing with me since you set your eyes on this piece, I hope you do not disagree with this paragraph. It isn’t a new thing! We can all attest to the fact that most subjects that are being forced down the throat of students have absolutely nothing to do with the course they are studying. Those subjects now serve as an agent of distraction to the students and deafen them from hearing their inner self speak.

Please help me! What does an English student or law student need mathematics for? Please tell me now o before I lose my temper!

Calculating grammar errors and to divide it with the grammar rules and plus it to the rule of concord? Or the multiplication of the judge’s ruling simultaneously with the constitution leading to the calculation of the subtraction and addition of the judge’s misjudgments?

You see how the sensibilities of students who are mathematically handicapped have been insulted? After countless times of looking into your mathematics textbook, the result comes out and you see an ‘F’ in the column for mathematics. You begin to doubt yourself, you feel like discontinuing studies because of your ineptitude in mathematics! I was denied admission into ‘LAW’ in 2011 because I failed mathematics! They withheld my admission letter into an art oriented course because I flunked mathematics in my SSCE exams.

What if we are given subjects that are in line with our areas of specialization? What if our abilities are tested before we head for school? What if we wake up to the reality that our destinies aren’t tied to that certificate? Because ‘what will be will be’ ‘what will not be will never be even if the wall of your bedroom is plastered with your certificates’

Examination which is the instruments used by schools to tell you what you worth and how daft you are isn’t a just parameter. There is more to knowledge. There is more to intelligence. It is not a just parameter in measuring of students abilities. Examination tests us ‘academically’ but does not prepare us for the biggest test in life.

In conclusion, I shake my head when I see students who rejoice after their final exams. Final exams aren’t final because it is the beginning of the test that you weren’t taught how to pass in school which is the greatest test of all time SURVIVAL.

OSUCHUKWU MARK ANTHONY