Wait, what?
by Joseph
Compulsory subjects really annoy me, mostly because I already know what they teach me so it’s a complete waste of time. On top of that, I would love to do Drama, Biology and Modern History in addition to my subjects, but I can’t, because the education system assumes I’m not intelligent enough to understand the mathematical concepts taught to me in grades 8 through 10, as well as to have an acceptable understanding of my first language, and the assumption by my school that I am not intelligent enough to think for myself about the slew of topics that it are acceptable to discuss with young adults, or to have ever read the bible ever or understand anything about any different cultures or world religions.
I feel that compulsory subjects first of all give the impression that an inhuman system devised decades ago knows students as people better than they do, and that they completely fucking restrict learning to a small and carefully chosen range of things. And I think it’s just a little bit fucked in the head that any schooling system or institution should be actively discouraging people to learn.
So are you saying you wanted Mum to go through with homeschooling back in grade six? Oh my gosh Joe you would have been the best homeschooler ever
If you think the system of learning is fucked then just see a manifestation of how is it assessed, thats fucked. They try to work out exactly how smart we are so they can theorise what we deserve to learn. Lest we do anything practical! Is anything real anymore?
As best I understand from crap like NAPLAN and the rest of the onslaught of standardised testing (I’m not aware to what extent this effects private schools, mind), the thinking behind this sort of education is that high school is now solely geared toward producing young adults with the lowest common denominator of employability (which is apparently not a word. Thank you, education!). That is, schools must reach a very basic standard for churning out competent adults, which is understood to be ‘basic math’, ‘basic communication’ and hopefully a couple of life skills.
I think the idea is that once you graduate high school, you’ll have a good enough idea of what you actually want to study, and so you’ll pursue this at your own expense with tertiary education. This is ridiculous for a number of reasons, not least because teachers aren’t rewarded for their talent in embedding knowledge and the capacity and desire for education in young minds, nor because students with their own talents and interests in some subjects end up with a lower quality education because bringing the uninterested and disadvantaged students up to a bare minimum is all that matters.
So I’m not going to say this system works, because I doubt it does. But I’m not particularly opposed to ensuring more students have reached some decent level of education, just that the bar is often set too low and is no quick fix for a field so chronically underfunded and poorly supported.
Huh, I really do take forever to say nothing. I didn’t even bitch about private schooling, woo! :D
So we’re talking about English and Maths in Queensland. The problem isn’t that they’re compulsory. The problem is this:
When you make a subject compulsory, every fucking parent and kid thinks they have say in how the subject is taught and assessed. Fair enough? Perhaps. But inevitably kids say, “This subject is compulsory. Therefore, it should be easy enough to pass for anyone who spends an hour studying the night before each assessment.”
Sure, if we make English un-compulsory, then we can respond to disgruntled kids with, “Yeah? Well, don’t do English then.” But the real problem isn’t that English is compulsory. It’s that it’s been dumbed down to eternity.
I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think you _could_ love English and Maths if you went to school thirty years ago. You know, when people still learned things in school.
At first I ended my comment with, “Basically, I agree with Mark,” but I don’t know if that’s what he meant. What do you think, people? Let’s turn this into a real discussion! :o
No, you hit the nail on the head. I could enjoy school a whole lot more if they taught me things I didn’t learn 5 years ago.
You could just wait it out? You’ve only got a year left, and if what you’re supposed to be learning is insultingly easy, then you’re still off to a decent start to life after school. If you’re starved for good, meaty learnings, then there are other means! This mightn’t be the best time to learn at school, but it’s by far the best time to feast on the internet’s hive mind of… data.
Twenty minutes on youtube taught me how to knit. :D