Misappropriation of Learning
Copyright © 2011 N.W.LEES
May 9, 2011
Misappropriation of Learning
In modern society panels of experts and age old customs have established a unique system of educating youth from the youngest 5 year old all the way through the highly “educated” high school and college graduates. Though schools are set up in a way to be inoffensive and cater to every student, it is curious how one predetermined line-up of teaching somehow manages to be perfectly suited for every student that comes through the doors of a house of learning. Though there probably isn’t much inaccurate or unimportant work that is taught within a public school, much of what a student learns is ultimately frivolous and irrelevant to what that child might practically need to know in their life. During the journey from kindergarten through 12th grade a young mind is sculpted and filled with customs, formulas, theories, cultures, and methods that are at that time deemed to be imperative to their success, but how much do they actually need to know?
It is obviously important that children are taught basic ideals such as simple arithmetic, reading, and writing, but is that vector calculus or trig III class ever given that man any help in his job as a fireman? Usually it would not be. Not to say that those skills are invaluable, mathematicians or carpenters might use that formula learned during fourth period every day, yet their job is specifically suited to use that kind of mathematics. This misconception does not only stem from a misappropriation of classroom time from placement in that Trig III class alone, but also results from the forgetful nature of human beings. While that equation about quadrant four on the third page of that packet in 11th grade may never be used, that guy sitting next to, who grew up to be a construction worker might, but who is to say he will even remember it? Classroom learning is filled with impractical knowledge that is ultimately irrelevant, or is completely relevant later yet was completely forgotten. Almost everything that will need to be learned for a future career (other than reading, writing and addition) will be learned in a first week of training, from a coworker across the hall, or in college. This quandary not only begs the question why did you waste your Junior year in Trig III, but why did the school even offer you the option of taking it in the first place? Cursory learning of advanced concepts in Public learning institutions are superfluous and, ultimately, do not instill the pupil with what is promised. Learning is done simply for the sake of learning.
This paints contemporary education negatively; however, it is due to be argued that by taking Advanced Placement Physics time is not wasted, the value of the class is not in the curriculum but in the ability to absorb it. Earning a good mark in an progressive high school course on introductory debate skills will not by any means show that law firm you plan on applying to down the road that you are any good at being a lawyer, but rather that you have the interest, determination, and will-power to go through taking the steps to be one in the first place. High School education is not done in order to learn much of anything that will be important to you; High School education is done to tell Harvard Law and that law firm you are going to apply to that you care. By this realization it could be said that it doesn’t really matter what you decide to challenge yourself with in your Sophomore year, what matters is how well you do in whatever you decide on taking and that you care enough to sign up for it at all. Although, If this were to be admitted, it would cause an immediate crash of the security that students, parents, teachers, and administrators cling to so desperately; the order would fail. If learners interested in being doctors suddenly started taking advanced archaeology and sociology classes to prove their will power and determination they would never be hired, they would look like fools who are divorced from reality, but why does it matter? There are two courses of action that educational supervisors could take based on this observation: realize that class content is irrelevant and allow for widespread learning of all irrelevant subject material, or buckle down and teach the future adults of tomorrow what they need to know.
This leads to an altogether new dilemma in itself. If teachers are expected to instruct their pupils on subjects that are applicable to them, what exactly is applicable to them? The most efficient way of teaching tomorrow’s lawyers, carpenters, doctors, and firemen is to teach them how to be the best lawyer, carpenter, doctor, or fireman they can be. In order to maximize a child’s time in the educational system they should be evaluated and placed in classes not only based on their performance within other classes, but on what they want to do with the education they are about to receive. It does not make sense for a future lawyer with an IQ off the charts to be sitting in class next to a future carpenter with remarkable hand eye coordination while learning about drawing and painting, a class that will benefit neither of them, does it? By streamlining the educational system it allows for both future doctors and future fork-lift operators to learn what they need to learn, have it thoroughly drilled into their heads, and get into the workforce where they can truly apply it. Modern schooling is centered on the widespread circulation of various pieces of explicit knowledge while efficient teaching should be based on the instruction of focused, important tacit knowledge.
The act of implementing a system such of this would have obvious benefits, such as maximizing tax money spent on education and allowing people to enter the workforce sooner, but there are numerous other problems involved as well. Students are limited in learning by the confines of their age, in other words, you cannot start teaching 3rd graders calculus simply because they want to be mathematicians; they wouldn’t know what the heck you are getting on about. In this way, maybe it could be said that the process of learning superfluous knowledge is really in place for this very reason: to “waste” time. A 7th grade child knows that she wants to be a physicist just about as much as she knows how to be one. Perhaps teaching that future physicist beginning musical theory in 7th grade is not done to show that she can learn musical theory, or to waste her time on it, but to fill up the years with cursory knowledge of musical theology until she can be accepted as a physicist in college and high school. How a child is educated is very much a grey area in regards to maximizing time within the educational system, but what is clearly apparent is that there is no one way to successfully go about doing so. Even though the modern means of instructing youth is greatly comprised of frivolous concepts that will never be used that does not mean that there is not a purpose for teaching them. Leading a Trigonometry III class might be pointless within itself, but as an indication of will-power, as a filler of holes within a class schedules, it could be of the upmost importance.
-NWL May 2011
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