After living in South Korea for nearly six years now, I am convinced that what children need is less education, not more. Education does not necessarily mean learning. It is often the opposite if it closes your mind to ideas and possibilities. Education kills creativity. The South Korean system has perfected it. The entire system is based on multiple choice, A B C D E tests. Everything fits neatly into a bubble that you fill in. Classes are utterly boring. The teacher lectures about the text book and the students fall asleep. Learning is not the purpose. The only purpose is to get a high score on a test. Ever since I graduated college, I've studies and learned more enthusiastically by myself than at any time that I was ever in school.
At times, school convinced me that I was stupid (as it does to many children), because I did poorly on some test or homework assignment that somebody decided was important for me to do. Did getting poor scores in Algebra 2 and Trigonometry mean I was an idiot? No. It just meant that I couldn't comprehend some boring textbook sitting in a class with 25 other kids, as if sitting in a classroom at 9 in the morning studying something boring is the optimal way to learn.
And why do kids have to study the subjects that schools decided? Was it really necessary for me to study The Cantebury Tales? Why wasn't I learning how to create a web page? That would be pretty useful to me. How about making economics part of the core curriculum? Teach kids about credit and loans and savings and what happens when you mess up on that stuff? No? Cutting a pig fetus up is more important? Cause that's still the only animal I've ever cut up so I guess I didn't need to learn that.
At times, school convinced me that I was stupid (as it does to many children), because I did poorly on some test or homework assignment that somebody decided was important for me to do. Did getting poor scores in Algebra 2 and Trigonometry mean I was an idiot? No. It just meant that I couldn't comprehend some boring textbook sitting in a class with 25 other kids, as if sitting in a classroom at 9 in the morning studying something boring is the optimal way to learn.
And why do kids have to study the subjects that schools decided? Was it really necessary for me to study The Cantebury Tales? Why wasn't I learning how to create a web page? That would be pretty useful to me. How about making economics part of the core curriculum? Teach kids about credit and loans and savings and what happens when you mess up on that stuff? No? Cutting a pig fetus up is more important? Cause that's still the only animal I've ever cut up so I guess I didn't need to learn that.
