The trouble with schools is that they claim to be for the students! If they didn't, then there would be no problems in them not doing the right thing by the students - but the trouble is, that they claim to be for the children.
The most useful things I can imagine myself getting out school are learning how to read, write and add - but I didn't, I learnt those at home. And friends, I had friends, but a lot of us didn't and others still felt bullied. Apart from these, school should have helped me find a job - and it probably did. But I think I would have been better equipped to do my job if I had skipped school for a better alternative.
There are two kinds of skills that I would have liked to have learnt at a school: the first being the skill to deal with minds - mine and those people around me; and the second would be to get exposure to, and learning skills of, what can be conveniently called, economic value. I remember the day my brother taught me how the ray of light travels thru different kinds of lenses, the day he taught me how to play badminton, the day my geography teacher asked me to close my eyes and travel to a different land. It makes perfect sense to learn from a person, than a library - the quality of experience is considerably better and the learning, I am sure it can be demonstrated, is much better. The trouble is that learning is not what the schools are all about.
The second skill that I ask for: to learn to deal with my mind when it is agitated, excited, thrilled, sad, angry, distracted, scared, is something that is hardly even acknowledged, let alone taught at school. To deal with another who interacts with me, and might be in some kind of an emotional turmoil or intellectual confusion, is a skill I wish someone had bothered talking to me about. Gratitude is equated to saying thank you; empathy is saying congratulations or sorry.. all words, and if you manage to grasp anything behind them, I think it is more that you managed to survive the system than anything else. That schools have bullies is a failing that I, personally, can't fathom - schools is where we develop our future! If having to choose between the two devils - I think I can deal with people being illiterate, if they can truly know where they stand in life and their purpose.
What really makes me particularly resentful of my schools (in spite of the fact, that as far as schools go, mine was alright) is the cost of them - they took from me about 14/15 years of my life and the ONLY time when all I was expected to do was keep myself safe, learn, and grow healthy!
The most useful things I can imagine myself getting out school are learning how to read, write and add - but I didn't, I learnt those at home. And friends, I had friends, but a lot of us didn't and others still felt bullied. Apart from these, school should have helped me find a job - and it probably did. But I think I would have been better equipped to do my job if I had skipped school for a better alternative.
There are two kinds of skills that I would have liked to have learnt at a school: the first being the skill to deal with minds - mine and those people around me; and the second would be to get exposure to, and learning skills of, what can be conveniently called, economic value. I remember the day my brother taught me how the ray of light travels thru different kinds of lenses, the day he taught me how to play badminton, the day my geography teacher asked me to close my eyes and travel to a different land. It makes perfect sense to learn from a person, than a library - the quality of experience is considerably better and the learning, I am sure it can be demonstrated, is much better. The trouble is that learning is not what the schools are all about.
The second skill that I ask for: to learn to deal with my mind when it is agitated, excited, thrilled, sad, angry, distracted, scared, is something that is hardly even acknowledged, let alone taught at school. To deal with another who interacts with me, and might be in some kind of an emotional turmoil or intellectual confusion, is a skill I wish someone had bothered talking to me about. Gratitude is equated to saying thank you; empathy is saying congratulations or sorry.. all words, and if you manage to grasp anything behind them, I think it is more that you managed to survive the system than anything else. That schools have bullies is a failing that I, personally, can't fathom - schools is where we develop our future! If having to choose between the two devils - I think I can deal with people being illiterate, if they can truly know where they stand in life and their purpose.
What really makes me particularly resentful of my schools (in spite of the fact, that as far as schools go, mine was alright) is the cost of them - they took from me about 14/15 years of my life and the ONLY time when all I was expected to do was keep myself safe, learn, and grow healthy!
