Sorry for 2x the non-existent posting. I’ve been filled with work, Thanksgiving break is coming up, rehearsals for my play have been stressful, CKI work is through the roof, exams are on their way, and my throat is sore.
Blah!
The following post is more of a bitter ranting than a thought-out and through post (I guess that’s okay because the subtitle of this blog is “Rants of a Little Asian Girl”). Recently, I’ve become very bitter about having to settle for either depressingly mediocre “intellectual conversation.” The few who I actually talk to consistently remind me that people who are capable of good political, psychological, philosophical and social discussions are far and few. I like to think optimistically about the students in my college, or the people I meet, but when I run into a situation where an op-ed in my school newspaper claims our health care plan is only 100 billion dollars (it’s been months since the estimated price was that low), I cry for how lazy the students and so-called intellects of today are.
That is not to say intelligent people don’t exist.
Currently Reading: As always, nothing.
Currently Eating: Cheez-its (mmm…)
Currently Drinking: Mountain Dew (double mmm…)
While I was in my American Politics class this week, the professor had us read over some essays (take home exams) that were due in class. The essay concentrated on the relationship between economic and social policy within the United States, something which I have taken a particular interest to. And, being that we either don’t have class, or have a boring lecture that is usually irrelevant to the topic at hand, I was initially excited about hearing something different.
Instead, I was treated (sarcastic) to an array of poorly written essays that did not answer the question. These essays failed to acknowledge the relationship between the two types of policies and were more textbook summaries of key phrases than anything else. This technique (if one could ever call it thus) was most clearly seen when students wrote about economic policy, a subject that few students understood, let alone analyzed.
It is times like these where I cry for the American education system, a system that promotes factual regurgitation and encouraged memorization over analysis. What’s the point in receiving an education if a child is incapable of applying it or fully “understanding” it? It’s like eating food and spitting it out rather than swallowing it. Yes, the food may taste great, but it fails in its purpose of providing nutrients to the body. Similarly, the education system can be easily standardized and replicated with this regurgitation learning technique, but few students actually develop an understanding of the subject. Instead, students just take in the information, throw it back up in the form of a paper or a multiple choice examination, and then forget about it.
I admit, even I have fell into the “I’ll just memorize this and not fully understand it and just throw it back out at the exam because I’m not required to actually analyze anything” system. My hard science classes were predominantly “chew and spit” exams where we had to memorize facts, formulas and calculations, and I dreaded whenever I had to attend a science class. This extended to college, where my worst grades are in my mandatory physical/natural science classes. And, yes, while I am at fault for my poor grades — for if I fully understood physics rather than memorized things for the purpose of passing an exam, I’m sure I would have done better — much of the interest for these subjects must be created by teachers and the curriculum. It is the teacher that introduces many of these subjects for the first time to students all over America.
How can a student become interested in a subject (any subject) if the teacher and the curriculum doesn’t encourage general understanding? And how can a child be interested and curious in a subject if they can not understand it, let alone analyze it?
Yes, the system may be easy, but the cost of choosing such an inefficient teaching system is a poor education system. It hardly encourages learning, and results in a botched generation of students (if you can even call them that) who go to college simply to get better jobs who are incapable of analysis, higher level thinking or intellectual conversation.
Lol I’m sorry you don’t like having intelligent discussions with me 😥
The sorry-ass state of the educational system can’t be seen any more than in your standard math class. At least most of the sciences have the labs so you can learn by doing, which is better than the rote-bullshit they pull in every math class I’ve ever had.
Hell, my current professor went on to say that the only way you can learn math is to just keep doing problems!
I’m really sorry you never got into Physics, since it’s one of my favorite subjects ever (oooooh relativity and quantum…), but the greatest (and hardest) class I’ve ever taken was probably Organic Chemistry. Sure we had to memorize some basic functions (there are, after all, some things in this universe taht do just have to be memorized) but we got to learn about *why* they happened… and it was fascinating!
Hell, my 6th grade teacher taught be proportionality using a really cool bike demonstration. Of course, Dr. Duque was one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had XD
To be fair, though, the American system is drifting away from Rote much faster than most other nations. That isn’t to say that we can’t do better, of course, just that it isn’t all bad. Besides, people like you seem to come out of the system just fine 😉
You seem tired/irritated. I did finally see that twilight spoof on youtube. You seem to need a laugh. If you love or hate the series, you should check this review for new moon. Its short and hilarious. http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/bum-reviews/13853-ep032