Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I came across a video. It was in the form of a poem. The content of this video was about how the educational systems are failing students in the United States. It got me thinking and I started to reflect on my education experience. One of the points that stuck out to me the most was that teachers, far too often, are getting the blame for their students being unsuccessful. I'm not free of blame for this. In fact, it wasn't until recently that I started really looking at what really was to blame for me not understanding the content my teachers were teaching me. It was the laws that were enforced during my time going through elementary and middle school. Namely, the No Child Left Behind Act.
The video is set in a courtroom. The title, I Just Sued the School System. I found it on Facebook under a different title first, then on Youtube with the title above. At one point, he shows the jury, mostly made of kids of all ages and a few teachers, pictures of comparisons of things from then and now. The first set of pictures was a cell phone and a phone from 150 years ago. The next set was a car from today than a 'car' (horse and carriage/buggy) from 150 years ago. The last set of pictures was of a modern day classroom and a classroom from 150 years ago. There was no change. I learned something at this point. I learned the reason why classrooms were made. They weren't made to get people to learn things about animals, science, math, history or English. They were made to teach people how to work in factories. Students sat in straight rows because that is what a factory assembly line is like. The had bells to simulate the end and beginning of shifts. Everything about a school was to simulate the working environments people would find in a factory, but nothing has changed in 150 years.
There are so many studies that say children all learn differently. The school system develops ways to change the way things get taught to students, but they separate the students who have disabilities, learning or otherwise, away from the students who understand things more easily. This prevents those students from learning how to interact with these students and show them that even their differences are important. It prevents these other students from learning how to interact with the students with differences. In Finland and some other countries in Europe, students are spending less time in classrooms, getting assigned to go outside and explore for homework and being taught to expand their creativity instead of suppressing it. To top it all off, Business Insider has even called it the best Education System in the world! Why isn't the United States seeing and trying to learn from the Finland system?
The only way things will get better for students in school is to start looking out for the next generation. Start teaching kids that they are different and that their differences are what make them important. Start teaching kids to be creative. Start teaching teens how to LIVE. Maybe this video was filled with untruths, but, it at least stimulated me to THINK.
My parting thought, what do you think? Has the school system in the United States failed students? Do you feel prepared to face the real world? I know that it is scary. I am afraid of facing it because my job has been obtaining an education for the past eighteen years. Maybe you feel differently. What do think?
