Stifling Creativity and Failing Students
The current education system is terrible for the students who take an interest in modern, relevant subjects like computing. I am a teenage software engineer who has been writing software for the past 5 years or so (since I was around 11), and have just finished high school.
I am an A-grade student, who performs consistently in most of the subjects that I take. However, I strongly dislike the education system in its current state and think it could be greatly improved.
The education system stifles students’ creativity and promotes conformity. This does nothing but damage the great potential that is present in a decreasing amount of students nowadays. I have a great example of this: A friend of mine is interested in journalism, and hopes to become a journalist when she is older. My school gave her some advice in order to achieve this: “You will need to study English Language, Politics and Sociology in college at A-level and then continue to study journalism in University”.
I have multiple issues with that example:
* Why does she need to become a journalist “when she is older”? Why can’t she start a blog, get writing and become heard immediately? She hasn’t been taught to start early - she has been taught to plan for her future career in education. This, in my opinion, is a laughable matter.
* Apparently, she needs to study all of these complex subjects in order to become a journalist? Let’s just take a look at the definition of a journalist - “a person who writes for newspapers or magazines or prepares news to be broadcast on radio or television.” Where does it say you have to study these subjects? Nowhere. Once again, the current education system is complicating things.
These are just some of the issues that I have with the education system in its current state.
I also believe the education system fails students at their convenience. I, an A-grade student, was suspended in my third year of high school for having a minor disagreement with another member of my class. I stress the fact that this was a minor disagreement - no punches, no physical contact. Both of us involved in the disagreement agree that the punishment was excessive. Not only do I believe this punishment was excessive, but I also believe that it was unnecessary. What did I get out of that suspension? I’ll tell you:
* I learnt that schools would rather throw one of their pupils out of their school for a minor offence, than be seen doing nothing but HELPING students.
* I began to despise the education system more than I already did.
* I learnt that the education system thinks it has its own judicial system. I was never given the opportunity to speak to someone on the Board of Governors - I wasn’t even given the opportunity to speak to the head-teacher!
To be completely honest with you, I’d prefer myself being suspended than someone who is completely reliant on the education system, someone who would collapse if they thought the education system has no future for them.
I have one more story about my time in high school education to share with you:
I was sat in my registration class when I was called up to the offices by my head of year. When I walked into the office, there was the whole Senior Management Team (SMT) sat around the table, along with my head of year. They wanted to speak to me about what they called “hacking”. I sure did laugh when they said that, which probably didn’t help.
They wanted to speak to me about how I accessed a secure drive on our school’s network. Did I do any damage? No. I left a text file on the drive, titled “Secure? Meh” with my name inside. Instead of asking me to work with the schools IT manager to fix the security issues that surely should have been their priority, they told me that if I did anything like this again, I could be permanently excluded from school.
Once again, the education system is stifling creativity. I was creative enough to find a way to breach their security, and instead of praising me, they threatened to punish me.
These are the main issues that I have with the education system in its current form. I believe there are many ways that the system could be improved to promote creativity, which would result in a much more supportive education system!
I appreciate you reading this somewhat long-winded article, and I’d love you to leave some feedback or maybe a response blog post!
Thanks again,
Joshua Lee Tucker
