As you probably know, the spring semester just started. I am taking 19 units, and have a student leadership position, and have a job. You could say I am busy. My crazy schedule is nothing new, I like to be busy. Which is why I hate to take extra time when studying.
During the first week of the semester I was sitting in class listening to my professor talk about the syllabus, when my professor said, “Today’s teachers are teaching to test, not to actually have their students learn.” Then he continued to discuss the syllabus until he reached a stopping point. The next class when he began his lecture, my professor said something that I have heard over and over, “Teachers will be blamed for everything, even when it’s not their fault.” I left class trying to reconcile this statement with what he said the first day of class. If teachers are blamed for everything, even if they aren’t actually to blame, then is it really their fault that their students learn to dump information on exams, and not to actually understand?
That’s the thing, students are just as much to blame as the teacher. All too often I find myself sitting in class thinking, “What’s the point of this class if there’s no test to grade me?” and “Who cares if I understand the reading, as long as I do the assignment?”. If I truly want to be the best I can be, I must stop trying to learn the information to dump it during an exam, and start learning to understand. Take biology, for instance, I took the intro class last spring, and received a 98% in the class. Ask me today what I learned, and all I can tell you is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Is that going to help me in life? No. What would have helped me is learning what happens in my body so that I can help teach it later in life. I find that I am more and more just going to class to “get the A,” than I am to understand.
I also found that I like the classes that allow me to discuss what we are learning way more than the classes in which the professors spit information at me and expect me to understand what they are saying. The discussions let me ask questions, and truly engage the information so I understand it. I know it’s not all the professor’s fault, though. I refuse to blame them because, while I may not have much extra time, with what I little time I have, I could organize discussion groups, or study with people who will explain the concepts to me, or even just read my books more thoroughly.
It breaks my heart to think about the children sitting in elementary classes trying to figure out why the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, and what it does, but just can’t understanding. The next generation, which will be taught by us, is sitting in classes so frustrated they don't understand the concept the teacher is lecturing, that they decide to just memorize the information long enough to do an information dump on the exam. These kids are the future of our country. I know, I just used a cliche that has lost almost all of its meaning. But think for a second, one of the children sitting in circle time listening to children’s books right now will be president one day, of of them might find the cure for cancer. Each one has the potential to be amazing, but if they learn to just dump the information they are taught on a page and then forget, who will cure cancer? Who will be the president? Who will change the world? How much more could our generation have changed the world if we didn’t learn for the information dump? That being said, how much passion do we want to foster in the youth of our nation? They look up to us, they see what we do, and imitate it. If we learn to dump the information, so will they. If we learn to truly understand, we will set a precedent for the next generation. It’s time to stop learning for the test, and start learning to understand.
