When you were a kid, have you ever wonder why do we go to school ? Most likely parents will tell their children education is for your own good to prepare yourself for your future. Yes no doubt it’s true. However, I used to think to myself, how does the algebra, logarithms, renaissance, world history and the list goes on, has anything to do in helping me with my job ? Why don’t we go direct to specialise field of our interest to reduce the time in school. Then we can serve the society and begins earn a living sooner.
After leaving school for more than a decade, finally I realise the true objective of the sophisticated education system. Yes I admit I’m kind off slow. This has inspired me to post this article highlighting the blindspot of education system.
The education system in most country has at least these stages; pre-school, primary school, secondary/high school and tertiary school. It’s like a marathon run for at least a decade. Pre-school prepare children with the basic skills to life in school. I find this phase is important especially to the children psychology. Kids start to socialize and mingle with people other than own family/guardian.
Subsequently, the primary school feed our brain with foundation knowledge to equip ourselves with the basic ability. We learn the how to read and write so that we can acquire more skills. Then follows by the secondary/high school continuation to inject knowledge to our brain. This is where I find the confusion coming in. Why do I have to remember the logarithmic functions, the dates of the Palaeolithic era, the chemical formula of water and the list goes on. Fortunately, I enjoyed these subject and graduated, though I still don’t understand why we need to go through this. Even some Teachers doesn’t know either. The advise is to obtain good grades to go to good schools and work in good companies.
Finally, the tertiary education which specialise in area of interest and prepare for the workforce seems to be much more useful. At the moment, I doubted if the earlier years in primary and high school shall be shorten by removing unnecessary subjects ? Most of my peers share the same thoughts.
Sadly, after joining the workforce for many years, slowly I discover the true meaning and objectives of the education system. We study mathematics, because it is the basic building blocks of almost everything around us. The formula is the calculation to achieve the architecture we have today. The Fibonacci sequence has been used as technical indicators in the financial stock market. History is something so close to us. It’s the events happen in the past. By learning history, we can use as reference for better decision making. Even entertainment industry create movies by referencing the mankind history. With some fundamental knowledge of science, we can read the contents of a product and safe to consume.
Therefore, I praised the education system by feeding us with all these goodies, however instead of focusing on how to keep improving the system, why don’t we fix the blindspot first ? Educators shall introduce and keep reminding students on the objectives of the subjects. This will create a better learning experience and avoid loosing the students along the way. By knowing the WHY, students will appreciate and absorb better.

Hopefully, this has enlightened you as well 🙂