by Joan Inong

Created on: May 09, 2009

The education system that we have today can be improved. And, like anything that needs improvement, we must explore why the system is flawed and what it means for us to correct those flaws. By recognizing the mistakes that we have made, we can perhaps improve the chances that future generations will have a better education system.

The first gripe that people have about the current education system is that it does not promote individual growth. We see huge amounts of graduates (whether in primary or secondary schools or from college graduates) who do not even know how to think for themselves. The education system today, it has been said, produces robots.

Moreover, our schools are not teaching our students correctly. Aside from all the "difficult" or more advanced subjects, schools do not even take the time to teach students basic facts and simple knowledge. For example, when students are asked why we have seasons, they can only answer that, because the Earth is closer to the Sun in the summer than in the winter, we get hotter days in the summer and colder days in the winter. Little do they know that it has to do with the way the Earth is tilted.

Yet, if our schools cannot teach our children these basic facts, then what are these schools teaching? By addressing this question, we can correct what the education system today ignores.

The schools today are simply regurgitating facts and telling their students to memorize them. There isn't enough involvement in schools. For example, when students are given homework, they are usually given math problems or essay questions that do not relate to real-life situations. So, they will do the math problems or answer the essay questions, but then they will not know their value. That is why a lot of students will hate math and say that it has no application in their life, when math actually surrounds them on a daily basis.

Schools today are only producing people who can think on an academic plane, but not on a "common sense" one. A graduate could solve a calculus problem, but if he cannot for a moment think how his finances should be taken care of, then there is a problem. Experiences are just as important as knowledge, and this fact should be emphasized at every step of the education system.

If we are to change the current educational system at all, we must look for what we see wrong right now. We cannot allow current situations to continue as they are and then expect future generations to do better than us. We should begin by paving the way for them, so that, at the same time, we are bettering our situations and theirs.

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