The thing about systems….
As a young child I used to spend my weekends at my grandparents’ house. Every Friday I would excitedly pack a couple of changes of clothes and my video game system.
One day I asked myself “which of these cables could I live without?” since I was quite the absentminded child. I was sure sooner or later I would forget one. After considering each one I realized that I couldn’t spare any of them. The moment one of them was missing my N64 was just a very expensive brick.
Systems are wonderful things that allow us to bend nature to our will. They can be anything from machines that move heat against a temperature gradient (air conditioner/refrigerators) to self-propeled vehicles that can move tons of material (cars/trucks/18-wheelers) and they can even be systems of humans cooperating (just about every corporation ever). They are, however, inherently fragile. When one part breaks it sends shockwaves through the whole, injuring and sometimes incapacitating it, and one well placed injury can fully destroy it.
The Damaged Part
Systems exist for the purpose of making nature behave in ways it normally would not. In a sense, nature rebels against this purpose. Consider an extremely simple circuit consisting of a copper wire connected to a battery. First of all the battery itself is actually a pretty complicated thing that does not really happen spontaneously in nature. Then consider that the wire must be insulated to avoid shorts, and to protect the copper from reacting with air which will corrode it over time. In other words, systems, regardless of simplicity, must be built on parts that all do their job, and all work together towards whatever purpose the system was designed to fulfill. If any part is ineffective or absent the system either falls apart or slowly wears and tears itself out of existence.
This is where the education system fell apart:
The ostensible purpose of the education system is to, as the name implies, educate. However, that is not how the system is designed. The real function for which schools are designed is to be a convenient daycare for young people which is extremely convenient for the people running the daycare. Obviously, marketing themselves as such would be a public relations disaster so they opt for a sort of “education” that involves throwing information at students and then hoping something will stick. To make the information “stickier” they then foist the student with artificially constructed tests and an equally artificial letter grade which in many ways determines the young person’s value within the education system.
To summarize: young children and teenagers are expected to sit still for the equivalent of a full time job while they have information that does not interest them thrown at them without any option to decline and this information is seemingly so impractical that rather than put the students in real life situations where these skills would come in handy an artificial test must be constructed by the teacher to see whether the students actually learned and this test (which is not standard) will evaluate a student’s success in mastering the material based on an arbitrary point system that connects to an arbitrary standardized system (GPA) that assigns a numerical value to their performance which is then claimed to be predictive as to whether or not the student will be successful in life.
The Other Problem
While the last few issues listed in the previous section are more flashy there is one more thing of note. People are vastly different in their talents and jobs vary just as much within the same company. Someone talented at human resources, for example, should not be trained the same as someone talented for engineering. The company that hires both these individuals will also not want them trained the same because they will perform entirely different jobs. Given this, why do we accept school’s cookie cutter approach?
Thrive Within the System
Hopefully, you can agree with me that the system is broken. It benefits the bureaucrats that run schools and other education programs while utterly failing to teach children essential life skills, not to mention filling teachers with dread. What I am saying is nothing new, many former teachers have rebelled and struck out on their own. The problem is, however, that to no one’s surprise, the people who benefit from the system are the ones controlling it. As long as the education system is profitable, it will not change, and the catch is that every taxpayer feeds this system because they are held at gunpoint to pay for it.
While we are not helpless, we must also be realistic, our mission at Effective Education is to push for a reformed education system, but that will take a decade in the best of cases. The only option available right now is to thrive within the system. This is why our tutoring service exists. Our strategy is built on a great deal of experience. Currently we are locked to math and science but actively expanding to other subject matter. We also offer translation services (English and Spanish) and proofreading service where an actual human will proofread your work and explain why changes should be made and why certain changes would be better even if the first choice was technically correct. In other words, our purpose is to both improve your child’s GPA and help them actually learn.
Compensatory strain
In Why School Failed I described that sitting for long periods shortens the hip flexors and leads to back pain. Why does it lead to back pain? The tight hip flexor pulls forward so the lower back has to pull harder to straighten you out. This causes unecessary strain which I call “compensatory strain.” In other words a system does not always instantly fall apart the moment something breaks but it can chug along at ever decreasing efficiency and heightened wear and tear.
Modern education is unfortunately exactly like that. Kids still go to school and they still are exposed to new material. However, as the school system has become more rigid, and as on paper results have become more valuable than real results the modern school system essentially allows kids to coast by without making any real effort. Some schools have gone so far as implementing minimum grade policies where a student can do incredibly poorly and then have their grade bumped.
These policies have, thankfully, been challenged. They do, however, suggest the compensatory strain to which I am referring. Colleges are fairing no better. Where once a high school graduate could be expected to possess the basic skills of math, grammar, and reading now we find students needing remedial English. If you want chills down your spine look up standardized test essay samples and keep a box of tissues handy.
The result: Students are more “educated” (as understood by amount of knowledge to which they are exposed) but far less learned (as understood by understanding and retention rates). A lot of time spent in school to no avail.
The solution
Actually teaching them.
Yes, it actually is that simple. Humans enjoy learning, that is why we play as children. When you see a young child excitedly say they invented a new game all their friends volunteer as students. When you buy toys for your kid they are more often than not plastic recreations of real tools. From kitchen sets to workshop tools and rideable plastic cars: the toys of the child are risk free versions of the survival tools of adults.
It is small wonder then, that the same book when read for pleasure is infinitely superior than when read for a class. Humans love learning, there is nothing in the world we enjoy more…until you sit us down in an uncomfortable plastic chair, tell us to shut up and pay attention, and spit the information at us.
Teaching is as much a bonding experience as it is an intellectual exercise. The teacher and student(s) must be collaborating on a project. This is why tutoring is so effective and why putting a ten year old in a class of 20 people where he is but one nameless individual is alarmingly ineffective.
At this time, I can only offer the service of tutoring as a band-aid fix to the few students I can reach. However, in order to relieve the strain the broken system must be repaired. If you wish to join me you can start here.