Education

A discussion on Education.

An interesting question was being discussed in an internet forum I frequent: Should every child be forced to learn chess?

The article that inspired the discussion:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13140772

My response to the question asked was this:

I think periodic aptitude tests should be done throughout a child's development for a variety of reasons. One is to research whether or not there are some things different children are just better at than others, and perhaps use that to be more focus-oriented on a child's education. Unfortunately, education is so jumbled that it'd likely be difficult to overhaul education in such a way(particularly in the United States.) Perhaps not even difficult, but people just don't want to take the time to do it.

The most important years of a child's education IMO is during the earliest years, and I think exploring various types of thinking is important. Creative, logic, strategy, competition, etc. If you can do that you can figure out what the child should explore through the later years of schooling.

A continuation of the opinion explored in the initial post:

I also think there should be more of a focus on competitive activites in schools outside of sports, as not every child is athletically gifted. It gives children who aren't another way in which to show their skills, and opens up scholarship opportunities for children who might not be great football players, but show great potential for critical and creative thinking(though their test scores and grades may not show it. )

I think our society is too focused on physical competition, and not focused enough on other forms of competition(like chess.) There is an untapped audience in that I think, one that should definitely be explored. Not everyone is interested in athletics as entertainment. I don't know how many of you will read what I'm saying and take it seriously, but as society progresses we're moving into a time when jobs are disappearing and children are largely being led to believe that the only way you can be successful is by being a star of some kind. And there is an obvious reason for this.

People don't discuss the achievements of the thinking man, they only see the achievement of the actor, the football player or some other kind of athlete, the superstar. These people are so glamourized that they've eclipsed the focus on the thinking man. Children don't want to learn math, or english, or how to play chess. They want to learn how to be Lebron James, or Tom Brady, or Lil Wayne. And these people aren't the many, they're the few. And because of these dreams, they don't see all the other endless possibilities the world has to offer. So they're left working at McDonalds, or as a manual laborer(until those jobs disappear-- it's gonna happen) or AlarmWATCH!

More on how I feel education needs to change.

For one, before a child actually begins school they should all be tested as to how far along in their education they already are. Not all children start at the same point, many are subject to so many influences it's hard to tell where exactly they are in their mental growth. There should be more one-on-one counseling and help in the early stages of a child's development than at any other point IMO. If you do this it allows you to actually monitor their progress. The idea that all children should be taught at the same pace and level is a dream, and it's simply never going to happen unless you fine tune their progress through elementary schools as much as possible.

Secondly, every year aptitude tests should be given throughout elementary school, and possibly junior high school. These are tests to see what they excel in, what they're naturally good at and what areas need a little bit more focus. It can also help to see in which sector of society they would be the most help in.

By the way, these tests aren't all written. You can't truly test a child's progress unless you have them apply what they are learning. The worst part of our education system is these standardized tests. These do nothing but show how poorly our education system performs, and across the nation it doesn't. Kids are being sent to middle and high school with no clue as to what exactly it is they want to do in life. By high school they should at least have a clue, and have a road to getting there. But largely they don't, I know that I didn't. I didn't even really know what I was good at. I knew that I could read well, that I could type well, I even did math well(despite not enjoying it), I knew that I liked computers and video games and pro wrestling and all kinds of other things. But how can I apply that?

I don't know how common this problem really is, but I look around at most of my friends and the people I grew up with and a vast majority are NOT doing what they ever wanted to do. If this local connection is so clear, I can only imagine what it's like nation wide. This is why we need more focus-oriented education. Not just on particular subjects, but on the children themselves. If you are able to figure out what children like and what they're good at, perhaps at least report these findings to their parents so someone can guide them down a path.

At the current middle school level I would break up schools into types. Kind of how many colleges are oriented towards various career paths, I think this needs to be brought to the high school and middle school level. Include general education courses in the curriculum, but it's unnecessary to make them the sole focus throughout school(unless that subject is related to the school's orientation.) To do this it's likely that school systems would need to be eradicated, or expanded. I don't see why there can't be a looser structure on regulation to give individual schools and teachers more control over what they teach, and exactly how they teach it(that's probably why they wanted to become a teacher in the first place.)

When students are unable to see the application of the skills they are taught, then at what point do they see the reason they are learning? When many students leave high school they never again use many of the skills they learned in high school unless it's in a higher form of education. So perhaps taking more time in schools for students to see these skills be applied, and by applying the skills themselves, will allow them to have more of an idea as to what good it is. And heighten their interests in learning more.

These are all very rough ideas and questions, and if I felt they'd be taken seriously I might be more inclined to elaborate. However, it's a start. I want to see a response, a real response to this and I want to see people talking about the future. I feel education is the most overlooked sector in our society, yet it is also the most important. We breed a sad few number of true leaders in our society, and it's causing America's greatness to be overshadowed and surpassed. It shouldn't be this way, and we have ways to change it before it becomes a problem spiraling more and more out of control. It starts, however, with the children.