Why Our Education System Does Not Work

It took me around thirty seconds of being a part of this country’s education system to become disillusioned. I had looked forward to school as a place where I would learn but quickly realised that my optimism been misplaced.

On my first day Mum took me to school, and we were greeted by the teacher. The woman said hello, and held out her hands, fingers spread. She asked if I could count her fingers. I looked at her in surprise, mentally reminding myself not to give obvious answer; they wouldn’t ask such easy questions at school!

I remembered that two of the “fingers” I saw in front of me were actually thumbs, so gave my answer; “eight.”

I was sure I had avoided her little trick, but she informed me in an intensely patronising tone there were ten, and just to prove it, counted to ten – really slowly. Of course I put her right, but she just laughed and then changed the subject (as adults always do when children are cleverer than them).

That was the moment when I realised this woman was never going to teach me anything.

Children do not enter the school system at the same level. However young we are when we start school, we all have differing levels of intelligence and ability, and different experiences. Yet schools ignore children who differ from their expectations.

I spent at least the first three years of school learning absolutely nothing. I read to the class to save the teacher a job.

Even at a basic primary school level, the system fails.

The first and most obvious consequence of this failure is that children do not learn at the pace of which they are capable. If a child is reading at three, two years ahead of the normal age, why is the standard school response to ignore this child until everyone else catches up?

Another, related and potentially more serious problem is that of motivation. Imagine being made to sit, every day for three years listening to other people being taught things you already know, and being tested on this. Imagine being made to read books you put away as being childish half your lifetime ago .It is draining, de-motivating, and extremely boring. When, eventually, the time comes when you do need to concentrate, to apply yourself to learning, and to make some effort, it is a shock. The later in life this happens, the harder it is, and it is very hard to re-learn how to make that kind of effort.