The educational system

This post is the one I was most excited to write. The educational system is one of my greatest peeves . I would like to kick off this post with a youtube video that one of my Criminology professors, Kate, showed us last semester:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

This video outlines many of the problems surrounding education extremely well. In particular, you'll notice that Ken addresses how the educational system sucks the creativity out of us (starts at 07:45). It's here that he says one of my favourite quotes: "There's one answer: it's at the back" (at 10:06). We briefly addressed divergent thinking in class, and the whole time I had been thinking of this video. However, because I am shy, I could never bring myself to speak. Luckily, I now have this opportunity to say it.

This all fits in quite nicely with some of the issues that Denis brought up. I have known for several years that I was not learning anything in university. In my family, sometimes, when certain topics arise, my parents might turn to me and ask: "So, mister psychologist, what do you have to say about this?". 95% of the time, I can't come up with an answer. I might have a few vague notions floating around in my mind, but I can never recall the specific terminology, nor can I conjure up the right words to define them. And, even if I did, the answer probably wouldn't satisfy them.

The main problem, as we have stated many times, is that we are essentially taught how to take tests, rather than the material we are supposed to be learning. One of the reasons why I do so well in school with minimal effort is that I have a good memory. This memory of mine allows me to retain just enough information just long enough to pour it onto the test paper, much like filling a really large (and heavy) bucket with water, and pouring it out all at once because you didn't quite have the strength to pour it gently.

I am pleased to say that Denis did not awaken me, for I have been "awake" for several years now. In high school, I was an underachiever, because I simply did not care. My parents had offered to get me a math tutor, since I was failing math (I even managed to get the lowest average one semester). I decided not to, because I knew that, at best, I could only increase my average by a few points (our grades and averages were out of 20), but it probably wouldn't be enough to make me pass. Therefore, I chose not to enhance my learning, because it wasn't worth the effort. At the end of the line, I would not be given that number I needed to be deemed "good" enough to be able to pass. Luckily, I just barely managed to get my Bachelor, and I am now happily acing university.

The above example is another problem with the system. We students care little about learning; we only want good grades. Essentially, learning has become a competition to see who can learn faster than the rest. Given enough time, anyone could understand and learn just about anything. However, we are only given a few months to cram immense amounts of information, and a few paltry hours (if that) to spit it back out.

How bad is it that I waited until the last minute to study for my motivation final because I couldn't find the motivation to study sooner?

There is plenty more that I could say, but I will leave at this for the moment. The video captured my sentiments quite well, though it didn't really address the issue of grades directly.