I just read this very interesting article by Karen De Coster about education and the kind of people it produces. It is especially relevant for those of you who have selected a college major without really knowing why you selected it or who are now making your final decisions about which college to attend.
What are you learning at school? Most of you are going through a process that will result in your earning a diploma of one type or another at the end of grade 12. You will be told that you have 'graduated' and are now ready for the next level, whatever that is. Probably more school and more diplomas. But what have you learned? Can you tell me?
What skills are you acquiring right now that will still be of use to you in twenty years, even ten? Probably not much. This is the big secret of education. Teachers teaching things they are not that interested in to students who don't really learn it. In fact teachers don't really teach anything, students teach all of it to themselves. In most educational settings teaches are taskmasters making sure that the correct or approved topics are memorized and given back in an acceptable format, usually an exam. Today they use the term 'facilitator' of knowledge, where teachers create the right type of environment for learning to take place.
If you want an eye-opening analysis of what types of students are being produced today you can read another article by Charles Murray. By the time you finish high school you will, supposedly, be primed to enter the career training ground, otherwise known as college. When this is done you will be set to move on to your career, like parts on the assembly line. But what type of person will you be? What will your interests be? Will you continue to try to learn for its own value, or will that have been crushed out of you by nearly two decades of education. Remember, education does not equal learning.
If you are reading this then it is too late for your high school years. You only have one shot left, that is college. Are you looking at colleges because they will improve you as a person, or because they appear on an 'acceptable' rankings list? Visit Colleges That Change Lives for an example of the former. For the latter, you can visit just about everywhere else.
When colleges visit us, do you ask them about majors and entrance requirements or do you ask them about students life and satisfaction. Are you more concerned with your potential degree or your intellectual development? Do you want the paper or the knowledge?
Think about it.
What are you learning at school? Most of you are going through a process that will result in your earning a diploma of one type or another at the end of grade 12. You will be told that you have 'graduated' and are now ready for the next level, whatever that is. Probably more school and more diplomas. But what have you learned? Can you tell me?
What skills are you acquiring right now that will still be of use to you in twenty years, even ten? Probably not much. This is the big secret of education. Teachers teaching things they are not that interested in to students who don't really learn it. In fact teachers don't really teach anything, students teach all of it to themselves. In most educational settings teaches are taskmasters making sure that the correct or approved topics are memorized and given back in an acceptable format, usually an exam. Today they use the term 'facilitator' of knowledge, where teachers create the right type of environment for learning to take place.
If you want an eye-opening analysis of what types of students are being produced today you can read another article by Charles Murray. By the time you finish high school you will, supposedly, be primed to enter the career training ground, otherwise known as college. When this is done you will be set to move on to your career, like parts on the assembly line. But what type of person will you be? What will your interests be? Will you continue to try to learn for its own value, or will that have been crushed out of you by nearly two decades of education. Remember, education does not equal learning.
If you are reading this then it is too late for your high school years. You only have one shot left, that is college. Are you looking at colleges because they will improve you as a person, or because they appear on an 'acceptable' rankings list? Visit Colleges That Change Lives for an example of the former. For the latter, you can visit just about everywhere else.
When colleges visit us, do you ask them about majors and entrance requirements or do you ask them about students life and satisfaction. Are you more concerned with your potential degree or your intellectual development? Do you want the paper or the knowledge?
Think about it.
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