Once again, I’m posting to vent out my frustration regarding the dumbness of today’s society and the education system.
It really burns me up to see how everyone thinks that having As in exams and getting a degree is the litmus test to someone’s intelligence. Take it from me, it doesn’t take a genius to score 17 As in SPM or to get 1st class in a degree. Heck, getting a Ph.D. isn’t all that it’s crack up to be.
I’ll admit, getting 17 As is kinda special and all credit to those who manage it, it takes a lot of hard work. However, I wonder what has the student gave up to be able to get so much As. Between setting the national record for most number of As scored in SPM and getting 9 Bs with actively involved in club and outdoor activities, I’d take the latter.
As I’ve described in my post on Priority, there are many other types of intelligence other than the 2 that schools concentrate on. And even on those, these days all it takes is a really good memory and the right tuition to score in the tests. With tuitions, teachers, schools, society so obsessed with As and education success, we’ve lost sight of what truly matters.
Schools are meant to impart enough education on students so that they can become upright citizens in society and contribute to it. Spotting exam questions and spoon-feeding syllables down the students throats don’t achieve this purpose.
Many students (on their parent’s prodding) ignore some school subjects and activities simply because they won’t be tested on those in the major exams. I believe they are wrong and misguided. Art may not be tested but it’s an important subject because it helps students develop their creativity and learn to express themselves. Moral isn’t simple about memorizing a set of moral ethics but putting it to heart and practicing those ethics. In other words, those who ace the Moral test should be those who truly show good characters, not those who manage to remember the ethics and spew it all out on a piece of paper.
Mathematics is a study based on logic. Students are meant to use their brain and apply logic to solve those maths problems. Unfortunately, many are taking the shortcut of simply memorizing formulas and regurgitating it out when needed. This alone shows how society has become blind to the true purpose of education and are too engrossed with the idea of gaining bragging rights by having a piece of paper that says you have more facts that you’ve forgotten in the 24 hours after a test.
When students can pick up a book or some notes a couple of weeks before an examination, memorize all the facts there and score As, there’s clearly something very wrong with the system. All we’re teaching the youth of tomorrow is strategies on how to work less and deceive others. I pity them. They went to school expecting an education, instead they learn how to lie and cheat and become clones of everyone else.
Once again, I say I’m blessed to have the luxury of doing well though it doesn’t matter much to me what the certificate says. I am able to look at my results and be satisfied with what I get because no one has pressurized me to do better at something I clearly can’t do. Of course, it’s easier in hindsight (and having left the system) to condemn it and say that I don’t care but honestly speaking, it’s the truth. I, myself stop worrying about getting the right results since 2000. On that topic, I’m actually unsatisfied with my degree not because of the grade, but because I didn’t earn it. I’m happier with a C that I’ve worked hard for than an A that took me little to no effort.
My most burning ambition is to create a system, whereby everyone is recognized for their intelligence and their skills and no one is pressurized to be good at everything. We were never meant to succeed at everything.
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