Thoughts on Education

I thought I would start with a post concerning the current state of education in a general sense. As far as my judgement on this matter is reliable one thing is for certain; school systems very rarely promote curiosity. I noticed this crushing pressure myself in school and definitely resented it. I suppose that the tight schedules and the intent to cram as much information into an individual’s mental repository as is possible pushes curiosity to the sidelines. The next thing that seems to be discouraged in cases of the academic subjects is complete understanding.

An example would be being presented something in mathematics without proof and by extension a lack of appreciation for the capacity of proof. As a result a student may view mathematics as a vast expanse of formulas with various applications and not see the rich interconnectedness between all mathematical expressions and ideas. This deficiency could again be attributed to the lack of available time for all these things to be presented in the classroom. Now even if this was the case I can still say that on the part of those giving this education this is a poor job.

People often leave school with lots of information (possibly little information) but no understanding and therefore no way of extending and applying the knowledge except in a very cosmetic and parrot like fashion which is often how it was taught to them. Thus people having these deficiencies will be less than adept at solving problems outside the bounds of the standard form of problems encountered at school but within the scope of their knowledge.

Society does not receive a great deal of benefit from people with this lack of ability and yet the system isn't changed for the better. The ability to think independently and deeply should be cultivated and sustained unlike the current rote and robotic procedures teaching currently entails. But this beast feeds itself on what it produces; people that go on to become teachers have had their curiosity stamped out and so cannot promote it and maintain it in their students and so the circle continues. There are exceptions to this but then the educational system comes in, with it’s defined curricula inducing rote learning which maintains the problem. I may be wrong however; maybe people really are inherently lacking in curiosity and general interest for things.