So before I get started, I am going to say this: You might not like what you read here, you might not agree, and I respect that. I hope that we can still be friends after I say this:
(side note: I will mention YOU and WE a lot, that doesn't imply it is YOU directly.)
The path that education is taking is down a long, dark, narrow tube. We have stuffed all our children in this one tube, where they can't succeed and they are getting stuck and giving up. The narrow tube's options consist of them making excellent grades and that they choose educational paths that lead them to careers such as doctors, lawyers or engineers.
Okay, so might I ask who is going to run the farms, the restaurants, the hotels, highway patrol, etc.??
My mama always said or somebody said, "It takes all kinds of people to run the world!"
Why should they all be asked to meet one set of standards?
Why can't they meet the standards they have set?
Why do they have to learn it the way you want them to?
Why can't they just learn and if they get the answer right, who cares how they got it.
They might be so intelligent that they came up with their own formula while figuring out world peace or something. I mean people, really have you seen this video:
well you should, because yes our kids are amazing!! Or at least they can be if we allow them to explore, discover themselves and work on their inner heart. Not limit their options, force them into the pipe, and pray for a outstanding outcome. Now, don't get me wrong, some of them are slacking and need a good whoopin' to get their tails in gear, but trust me, they have the potential, they have just given up due to feeling like a failure.
(note to kids reading this: if you are doing this, stop it NOW! You are better than that.)
Anyway, we are just stressing them out trying to meet the potential of the next door neighbor's kid or the kids across the ocean in Japan. Let them set their own potential, bust out the side of that pipe dream that society has created for them and let them be their own person. God did not make us all the same, because like your mama would say, "it would be a boring place if we were all the same."
We would all be like some Robocop type people, though I have to admit that might be kind of cool, at least my boys would think that is cool so maybe that is not a good example. But since we are all different and not some version of Robocop or WallE then -
How come this theory doesn't apply in education?
We can't all be doctors, because then there would be no nurses. We can't all be lawyers, because then there would be no paralegals. We are not only stressing our kids out, we are stressing out our teachers, schools and ourselves with the pressure to have all children excel at a certain level. Your child might not be a chemical engineer, but your child might be the child that ends world hunger or creates a non-profit organization that assist victims of crime.
Let them be who God intended them to be. Accept their weaknesses and focus on their strengths.
Let our teachers teach, there is a reason they chose this profession and trust me it wasn't for the pay or paperwork!
Stop sweating the small stuff and let them teach!
How is it fair that they be held accountable for a child who is clearly frustrated because they can't meet the expectations set before them so they give up and misbehave?
Why should it be up to the teachers to force subject matter a certain way down their throats?
Let those teachers just do their job!
Let them teach how they see fit in each class.
And I get it some of these kids can handle it and they will be the geniuses who might cure cancer, but won't be able to grind a rotor on a car.
Who is going to do that if we think that all our children need to be geniuses?
Isn't there a saying that says, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." Well, I believe they won't be happy if we continue this way.
They feel like failures because they are trying to compete with the child who excels in school.
They feel like failures when they don't make perfect grades.
They feel like failures when they solve something another way and are told it is wrong.
They feel like failures when they don't go to college.
THEY ARE NOT FAILURES.
We have failed them.
We have forced them into believing that if they don't conform to the pipe dream then they are failing. We all have failed at something and we as parents have to reassure our children daily that they can do anything they set their minds to. Even if it is waiting tables, being a door greeter, an artist or a writer. They should not be ashamed of the job they have chosen. They should be taught how to be hard workers and love the job they are doing. We have pushed them into careers and professions only to complain that the generations of today are poor workers.
Now, it goes without saying that yes an education is important, but we will not all make straight A's and pass every course. I failed Spanish in college 3 times and had to keep withdrawing out of the class before it would affect my GPA of 3.8. It wasn't until my professor finally said to me, "we are going to just have to find another way for you to earn these credits" that and "you are absolutely the worst Spanish student I have ever gotten" (he was a bad example of a teacher.) But I realized I just couldn't pass everything. I turned out fine, we all turned out fine with the education we were given, seriously - we have a generation that frickin' created google, facebook, and the world wide web!
Why do we have to keep fixing everything that is not broken?
Why the pressure to be so smart?
Is that going to get you into heaven?
Is it going to fill your home with maids and butlers?
(well, maybe - but the Olsen twins didn't even graduate before they could afford that.)
Go ahead, you can give it to me in the comments after and that's fine. But I can't see how we are helping our children when all we are doing is making them dress the same, act the same, and now learn the same and be the same.
