EDUCATION

PROOF OF EDUCATION

I hate how our society has gotten to a point where education is basically a piece of paper from an institution, which might have very little to do with the realities of a job you would get with that proof of education that little certificate. 

On the flipside, you might not be allowed to do things you’ve learned to do on your own or while working if you don’t have an education to back it up.

My parents take care of mentally and physically handicapped adults, they’ve been doing this for some 30 years. Now there have been adjustments to laws, saying only people with certain qualifications can do some specific things that my parents have been doing all this time and definitely can handle. 

Now their workplace has to hire new employees who have just graduated and have never done the stuff “they know” in real life. This seems illogical to me.

Mom and dad could go to workshops and courses to get a note saying “this person actually knows how to count pills” or whatever to be legally able to do it again. This costs money.

You can buy everything and some things you thought you had you have to pay for anyway.

INSTITUTIONS

The education you get in institutions is not the sort of effortless, enjoyable learning humans are capable of. Reading a book about a topic you’re into, hearing about new amazing scientific theories, watching a tv chef make a simple dessert and doing the same on your own.

Institutionalized education is just testing that you know how to study and pass exams. 

When I was little I liked school. I was in a school of 25 students, because I lived in a small village and that’s as many children were in the village. We had 2 teachers, one for 7 and 8 year olds, one for 9 to 12. They were good at teaching, listening to us kids, improvising. They were motivating and motivated. Some days we went on biking trips, if it snowed we had a snow sculpting contest. It wasn’t too strict all of the time.

When I was 12 I went to a school with 400 students and a teacher or two for each subject. One class had 30 students, which was impossibly many for me to get along with. Teachers were even more stressed, too busy to teach well. They had to follow strict teaching plans because we had set dates for tests and obviously we had to know the stuff before we were tested.

In this busy, strict, hostile environment of awkward, unconfident teenagers with troublesome coping mechanisms and teachers who struggled to have any authority I had to forget about learning in a fun, enjoyable way.

 I learned to Do My Homework, Study For Tests and to Keep A Low Profile so teachers wouldn’t get angry at me specifically. If you stood out by not doing your homework, not sitting still, questioning your teachers’ world views or just maybe having the wrong kind of face, there were teachers who aimed their stress induced anger at you and started bullying you in subtle ways.

On my 1st week in this big school we had Finnish class and the teacher was talking about how to write an essay. It reminded me of a cool thing I had read online and I wanted to share it. I raised my hand and asked for a permission to speak and told about some language related cool trivia. A completely normal and encouraged thing to do in my old school with my teacher who was a laid back guy.

This new teacher just looked me all baffled and judging. “That’s not on the curriculum.” And continued explaining how to write essays. 

That moment specifically was when my enthusiasm to learn (and help others learn) at school was killed for many years. 

And this sort of natural willingness to teach was replaced by hating tedious group assignments with other unmotivated kids. 

It’s not wise to make a strict teacher/student division, put people only connected by their similar age in a building against their will to study things they have no interest in.

This is a sort of age segregation. One of my better teachers apologizingly said the main function of schools is to keep underage people busy and out of sight. This function is way more important than teaching.

Having to go to school is justified by “you won’t get to [a higher level school] if you don’t pass your exams!”. Higher level schools are justified with “You’ll never get a good job if you don’t finish school!”. 

This has become a very bad excuse, since having a great education no longer guarantees you a job. In Finland graduating from gymnasium used to be a great achievement. These days the stereotypical job for a gymnasium graduate is a cashier at a corner store.

The system should be more efficient, allowing, and encourage kids to go learn about stuff they’re really into. People my age and younger are learning so much on their own on the internet. 14 year old digital art masters, 16-year-olds making computer games on their own. 

There’s so much information and skill outside of the education system.