School Blues

Good afternoon,my dear readers.
It's Aoife here again for my first blog of the school year.

Back to School;
This weeks theme is back to school, which I'm sure everyone has something to say about, so here's my piece.
I love learning and being challenged to approach things for different perspectives but that doesn't mean I love school. In fact, sometimes I thinks it exactly the opposite. In school we learn to beat the exam and how to pass tests by cramming as much knowledge into our heads in the five minutes before the exam as possible. But that is not what school should be about, school should be a place where learning is encouraged and curiosity is rewarded rather than a place where you are punished for not having the correct jacket or forgetting to bring in a piece of homework which you did complete. In my opinion schools are too focused on results and so actually learning for learning's sake gets pushed to the wayside.
Exams and test all focus on accessing your ability to parrot what others have said without actually accessing your understanding and ability to apply that knowledge to the world around you. The exam system teaches us not to think for ourselves but to simple reiterate the same old spiel of why we think that Romeo is our favourite character in Romeo and Juliet, when really we think Romeo is a self-obsessed fool who wouldn't know what sense is if it smacked him in the face with his own story.

Sorry but sometimes school just feels like a cage meant to strangle all creativity and imagination until all that's left is a hollow husk of half understood theories and phrases. Sometimes I wonder what it is that the Education System is trying to teach us but as far I can see, it certainly isn't independent thought and the dive to gain a better understanding of the world.

Also I think the whole idea of school is too set in it's way of teaching and accessing potential. There are so many gifted people in this world who struggle with school simple because they see things in a different light. Some people struggle with all the learning involved in school and feel foolish for it but it is just that they excel in area's that aren't measured by tests. For instance, a kid who is totally gifted with technology of any kind, who could explain the mechanics of a V8 engine by the time he was eight gets letters home because his grades in English, Spanish and Irish are terrible. It doesn't mean that he is a fool or that he doesn't work hard, it's just that he can't parrot back what the teacher tells him. For me, this is one of the biggest failings of the Education system- in that it can't understand or except those who can not follow it's rules.

I could go on all day about this but I'm pretty busy doing all this pointless homework so I better wrap this up.

For all it's faults and failings, there are some things I like about school. I love to learn and understand new things, I love meeting with my friends, I love the teachers that love to teach and are very good at it and lastly I love the fact that I have access to education and the possibilities that it brings.

I think that about wraps things up.
I'll see you next week unless I die of Education overdose before then,
See ya,
Aoife

P.S: I'll go the punishment tonight once I buy some eggs. I tell you how it goes in next weeks post.
It should be......interesting( definitely), memorable (probably) and tasty (hopefully)