The Flaws of Our Education Systems
By: Connor Wang
Tags: Education Reform, Education

For many students, this isn’t hard to imagine. In fact, this is the average day for a student from middle school to university. They live their lives in an endless cycle of school, homework, sleep, repeat, and it severely affects mental health and their well-being.

Photo: Jewsin Thomas on Unsplash

How much time do we spend at school?

Not including extracurriculars and after school programs, American children spend one-sixth of their yearly waking hours at school. This means around 17% of a year is spent sitting at a desk, taking notes, and reading from textbooks. This percentage doesn’t include time outside of school spent doing homework or studying for tests.

Why do we have school?

Practice social skills

Educate ourselves about the world and its problems

Learn subjects that can benefit us for future jobs and opportunities

Now, I want you to look at these reasons and ask if it’s worth spending 17% of a year sitting in school, and even more time doing homework and assignments. I’m not saying that school is useless, but I want you to reevaluate your thinking on how much time you spend at school, and whether or not it’s worth that much of the little time you have on this planet.

What, exactly, is wrong with our school systems?

First of all, the things we’re learning in school. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but they could be improved. We learn math, history, science, language — and yes, it is important we know how to communicate, learn our past mistakes, and that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but what about other things? Students are forced to learn these subjects so we can “get a good high school” and “prestigious university degrees,” but what if your dream isn’t part of the societal expectation? School suffocates creativity and originality. It’s stick to the set rubric, or fail. Many teachers don’t understand the way a student’s mind works; nobody wants to learn science if they plan on pursuing an art career. School should let students choose the paths they want to follow, which lets students learn the things they want to

“The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.” - Steve Jobs

Second: the time school consumes. As I mentioned before, one-sixth of a student’s yearly waking hours are spent at school. This limits time for family, friends, extracurriculars, and other paths students may want to pursue. School doesn’t guide children to achieve better time management either — basically, they’re setting you up to fail.

Third: It may not seem obvious, but many adolescent depression cases are linked to pressure from school and parents to perform well. At school, it’s a constant cycle of learning, homework, study, homework, test. This repeats all throughout the year and can take a toll on a student’s mental health.

Success without school

For hundreds of years, we’ve been taught that you need to go to school and get an education to live a successful life. Is this really true?

Some of our world’s greatest leaders and visionaries — Albert Einstein, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, James Park, Richard Branson — have become wildly successful despite dropping out of high school and university. These are all names you’ve heard; they’re multi-billionaires, inventing and creating things that we use every day. Many of them struggled in school; they had dyslexia, ADHD, failed tests, were held in for detention. How were they able to become so successful?

We all know the story of Albert Einstein — in his elementary years, he couldn’t remember the years of the month. His teachers told him he wouldn’t amount to anything. Yet he went and became one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever known. He did this through perseverance, grit, curiosity, and the courage to take an unconventional path — things school doesn’t emphasize enough. It’s not enough to have a cheesy poster telling you “don’t give up! Always work hard!” I can tell you from personal experience this does nothing. You truly have to care about something to work day and night on it, to put in 100% of your effort, and school doesn’t provide that motivation for the vast majority of students.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. - Albert Einstein

What does success in school even mean?

School, as I said before, limits creativity and individuality. The only reason why we learn the things we do is that they’re easy to grade, and that’s the hard truth. Teachers assign textbook work and rubrics so they can easily categorize students; if you get As you can be a doctor. If you get Ds and Fs, you’ll be a garbage collector.

In addition, to do well in school, all you have to do is have good memorization. That’s it. For students who do poorly in school, it’s not because they’re dumb or stupid. It’s because they learn in a different way, a way school is not equipped to support. And it’s a problem because these students are viewed as lesser than students who can live with the system. I’m not saying students who do well in school can’t do anything in the real world — you definitely can and you most likely will, but I’m saying school doesn’t support all types of students.

It depends on what you want to do when you’re older, but think of this: knowledge can always be gained from the Internet. There are videos, articles, reports — information everywhere, and all you need is a figure it out mindset. Utilizing the Internet can give you a chance to learn the things you want to, at your own pace, without school forcing it down your throat.

People believe that diplomas and esteemed universities will get them good jobs — and that can be true. However, in our time and age, employers are beginning to look for people who have drive and passion over those with fancy pieces of paper. Employers would rather hire a passionate, friendly, kind person with some knowledge in the field than an absolute genius with no social interaction because learning things like math and science are easy to do nowadays.

To homework, or not to homework?

Homework is a complex thing. Yes, in theory, it makes sense that if you practice your skills more and more, you will become better at what you’re doing. In this case, not exactly. Students already spend 6 hours a day sitting at a desk learning about math and language and science. Do they really need extra hours at home? Their brains are still growing and developing. After being crammed with information all day, your brain needs time to relax and calm down. It’s been proven that people work better with consistent breaks throughout the day. Humans aren’t made to work themselves to the bone almost every single day, and even less so students.

Students also have lives outside of school. They may participate in extracurricular activities, or enjoy hanging out with friends and family. By adding mandatory homework to the equation, it takes away from what students want to be doing.

My Personal Experience

Now, I’m writing this as an 8th grader, so I guarantee things will be different from a high schooler or university student’s perspective, but here we go.

I take on a lot of things outside of school, which makes it even harder to balance my school schedule with everything else. After joining a program called The Knowledge Society (TKS), I’ve realized the subjects I’m learning in school won’t really benefit me in the future. If I wanted to live an average life without standing out at all, school would be the perfect place for me. I could motor through life, being a normal person. Get a job, have a family, retire. If that’s the lifestyle you want, then go ahead, I’m not stopping nor judging you. But for people who don’t want this kind of life, like me, school suffocates and makes it so much harder for them to achieve it. Unfortunately, our social standards frown upon those who don’t go with the flow and take different paths. People feel boxed in, unable to expand and do what they want. We should be more accepting and open-minded to unconventional paths because people who are brave enough to pave their own way are the people who change the world.