Yup, late again. Who knew?
Two blogs ago, I discussed my personal angst with certain teachers in my high school. I didn't necessarily intend to follow up the subject again, but it has struck me that as of yet, I have not made you all suffer that aged-old, yet timeless argument with what is taught in schools.
(To put it simply, the "Why do I need to know this?" rant.)
Two blogs ago, I discussed my personal angst with certain teachers in my high school. I didn't necessarily intend to follow up the subject again, but it has struck me that as of yet, I have not made you all suffer that aged-old, yet timeless argument with what is taught in schools.
(To put it simply, the "Why do I need to know this?" rant.)
First though, a quick recap of the Scottish education system, for those not in-the-know and/or American:
Step 1: Suffer 7 years of primary school, where you can run about, be ridiculous, never have to worry about a late homework deadline, and generally have the most fun you will ever have as a kid. Friendships form, kids fall out, push and shove each other, pretend to understand what love is, and just act like...well, there is no way to describe it, like children should.
Step 2: Endure anything between 4 and 6 years of high school where you'll learn to do everything you never knew you needed, decide at aged 14 what you wanna do for the rest of yoru life, and suffer teenage drama, fallouts, general hell, homework loads that make you want to raise the building to the ground, and generally destroy all the memories of the happy schooldays of yore (see above)
Within step 2, there are several substeps:
Substep 1: Spend the first two years sucking up to the teachers, trying to get good grades, and an even better name so you get in a decent class for the the coming years. At the end of this time span, pick eight subjects you will study for the next two years.
Substep 2: Sit a standard two year course, in which you learn the groundwork of eight seperate subjects, previously picked. At the end of this timespan, sit eight exams. Congratulations, you can now call yourself a hobo. Pick five of these subjects to study next year.
Substep 3: Sit a one year, intensive course, designed to chew up your brain and make you forget everything you did in the previous two years. It is intended to be much harder, and therefore you actually need to study for once. At the end of the year, sit 5 exams. Now that you're effectively destroyed for all time, pick three of these subjects to study a further year.
Substep 4: Unless your name is Christopher Iskander, drop everything and run. At the end of the year, sit exams in these three subjects. The wish you hadn't, because you've forgotten your own name.
Step 3: Go to university, Get job. Profit. Die.
So, let's see, that looks all well and good.
Am I the only one seeing a problem with this?
Allow me to exploit these problems, starting...now.
Step 1: So effectively, from the ages of 5 to 12, I'm expected to act like a child. Okay, so you learn your ABCs, how to read and write, how to count and do some basic mathematics,but I could learn any of that from books my parents bought me. Surely, if we're about to go to High School, where it's supposedly much more challenging, they should be doing their best to prepare us, by dropping us in at the deep end. It's because of the lackluster attitude to homework in primary school that I don't have the study skills required in high school. They should have been drilled into me then, so I didn't have to learn a whole new method of learning. Bullshit.
Step 2: I'm just gunna put this all under the one title. Okay. I'm meant to know exactly what profession I'm going into, what I'm going to study, and what grades I'll need to do so, at aged 13. Bullshit. Leading on from my last point though, I don't know how to study because it's never been taught to me. So when it came to high school, and I had another oppurtunity to learn how to work, it was pulled from me again.
The first two years are a complete farce. Anyone who's gone thorugh it understands, but for those that haven't, it's a lot of being talked at, not a lot of writing, and not a lot of homework. Again, life is supposed to be harder now, why isn't it? Are they deliberately fucking with us? I think they are, cos even 3rd and 4th year are a joke. More homework, and occasional note taking. Piece of easy-as-pie learning.
Then Higher arrives (5th Year) and rapes you.
Remember high school was meant to be harder? This is that plus more.
And I've not been trained to handle the studying, the revising, the homework, the note-taking. They expect me to instantly know what to do, and to get on with it. Okay, they'll work through the course, but how can I revise for my finals if I don't know how?
And for that reason, I'm out.
Step 3: Everything after that is fairly straight forward really. Lots of getting drunk, I've been told. Looking forward to that.
But through this all, I still have a keen love of learning. I love to learn, to become more knowledgable about things, to allow my mind to grow. So to those who whine about why we're taught the things we are, shut up. It's you that always end up in McDonalds, or pushing trollies in Asda, because you never took pride in learning, or cared. Have fun working McJobs.
Because if you're going to argue then at least try to understand what you're talking about.
Step 1: Suffer 7 years of primary school, where you can run about, be ridiculous, never have to worry about a late homework deadline, and generally have the most fun you will ever have as a kid. Friendships form, kids fall out, push and shove each other, pretend to understand what love is, and just act like...well, there is no way to describe it, like children should.
Step 2: Endure anything between 4 and 6 years of high school where you'll learn to do everything you never knew you needed, decide at aged 14 what you wanna do for the rest of yoru life, and suffer teenage drama, fallouts, general hell, homework loads that make you want to raise the building to the ground, and generally destroy all the memories of the happy schooldays of yore (see above)
Within step 2, there are several substeps:
Substep 1: Spend the first two years sucking up to the teachers, trying to get good grades, and an even better name so you get in a decent class for the the coming years. At the end of this time span, pick eight subjects you will study for the next two years.
Substep 2: Sit a standard two year course, in which you learn the groundwork of eight seperate subjects, previously picked. At the end of this timespan, sit eight exams. Congratulations, you can now call yourself a hobo. Pick five of these subjects to study next year.
Substep 3: Sit a one year, intensive course, designed to chew up your brain and make you forget everything you did in the previous two years. It is intended to be much harder, and therefore you actually need to study for once. At the end of the year, sit 5 exams. Now that you're effectively destroyed for all time, pick three of these subjects to study a further year.
Substep 4: Unless your name is Christopher Iskander, drop everything and run. At the end of the year, sit exams in these three subjects. The wish you hadn't, because you've forgotten your own name.
Step 3: Go to university, Get job. Profit. Die.
So, let's see, that looks all well and good.
Am I the only one seeing a problem with this?
Allow me to exploit these problems, starting...now.
Step 1: So effectively, from the ages of 5 to 12, I'm expected to act like a child. Okay, so you learn your ABCs, how to read and write, how to count and do some basic mathematics,but I could learn any of that from books my parents bought me. Surely, if we're about to go to High School, where it's supposedly much more challenging, they should be doing their best to prepare us, by dropping us in at the deep end. It's because of the lackluster attitude to homework in primary school that I don't have the study skills required in high school. They should have been drilled into me then, so I didn't have to learn a whole new method of learning. Bullshit.
Step 2: I'm just gunna put this all under the one title. Okay. I'm meant to know exactly what profession I'm going into, what I'm going to study, and what grades I'll need to do so, at aged 13. Bullshit. Leading on from my last point though, I don't know how to study because it's never been taught to me. So when it came to high school, and I had another oppurtunity to learn how to work, it was pulled from me again.
The first two years are a complete farce. Anyone who's gone thorugh it understands, but for those that haven't, it's a lot of being talked at, not a lot of writing, and not a lot of homework. Again, life is supposed to be harder now, why isn't it? Are they deliberately fucking with us? I think they are, cos even 3rd and 4th year are a joke. More homework, and occasional note taking. Piece of easy-as-pie learning.
Then Higher arrives (5th Year) and rapes you.
Remember high school was meant to be harder? This is that plus more.
And I've not been trained to handle the studying, the revising, the homework, the note-taking. They expect me to instantly know what to do, and to get on with it. Okay, they'll work through the course, but how can I revise for my finals if I don't know how?
And for that reason, I'm out.
Step 3: Everything after that is fairly straight forward really. Lots of getting drunk, I've been told. Looking forward to that.
But through this all, I still have a keen love of learning. I love to learn, to become more knowledgable about things, to allow my mind to grow. So to those who whine about why we're taught the things we are, shut up. It's you that always end up in McDonalds, or pushing trollies in Asda, because you never took pride in learning, or cared. Have fun working McJobs.
Because if you're going to argue then at least try to understand what you're talking about.
I agree and I'm sure I've talked to you before about it and what I experienced in my Primary school and even high school. I literally did more work in Primary 4 than S4 in high school. Obviously the work wasnt more difficult, but there was homework every single day, tests all the time. Hard work for at the time 10 year olds.
ReplyDeleteWhich in my opinion was TOO much. I think somewhere between what it is like here and what is it like there would be perfect. Because here, there's so little work and responsibily everyone's lazy and don't care about school, have no manners, just generally suck. But in my country, many people just can't take all the work (maybe not in primary school, but in high school) and just pretty much refuse to do it, and end up in the same place as those lazy people who don't care about school here.
But the point is, primary school here is a joke. I had to read about 5 or 6 books a year, and they weren;t books for little kids. They were thick adult books about war and such. We obviously never studied it in depth, like you would do in Higher English, but the work, and reading those books and stuff help young people develop important learning skills, which are missing in this country. And there never was an exam at the end of the year, but you got a grade, which was a mean of all the grades you got thoughaout the year. And you got grades for homework, and on your certificate it said what your behaviour was like all year. And I think that was good, as you couldn't just start working 2 weks before the end of the year, which is the case here, but you had to work well throughout the year, which again helped to develop important skills and habits. Obviously, I'm still talking about Primary school, so the work wasn't that difficult. But still.
Sorry about the rant, I just don't like the system here. haha
If your name is Christopher Iskander, the chances are you are a pretty awesome guy. Those are my views.
ReplyDeleteBut yeh I believe that the education is seriously flawed in this country. Primary School is pretty much a joke, I did happen to work during it, but still the work load was nothing. I do remember other people just coasting through Primary 7, due to crappy teachers.
High School is one of the worst and yet the best things you can experience. I believe through the 4-6 years, not educationally, but personally you learn a lot, you suffer a lot and you just generally can't be arsed a lot. It sucks how High School happens just as everyone is going through puberty and stuff. I never went through it, I just woke up a butch man, but still add it all together with everyone and it is a massive drama bitch-fest. Bad, bad times.
Educationally I believe that looking back on 5th year, unless you study pretty much every day, you don't have a huge chance of getting all As, unless you are just naturally brainy I suppose. It is one of the worst years ever in my opinion. It would have been much better suited if Standard Grade was just cut down and all Highers were over two years, it is a bit of a joke that you have to sit two years of a course that is pretty easy. At the time it isn't, but it is seriously a gift. And in the end it doesn't even mean anything. That is truly bogus!
To the good things about High School. I truly believe the crap you have to go through can be seen as a good thing in some ways. Your personality is shaped from all the boring crap you go through. Some people do end up as boring crap people in the end, but still, I have personally learnt a lot during the 6 years and by the end of it you do look back with nostalgia. And towards the end of your High School career everyone gets a bit more barable. Not you though Cailean, you blow hard!
He does blow hard!
ReplyDelete