Hey friend, lovely to see you again!
So it's been a while (about 4 months actually... oops) since I've posted anything but I have been distracted by play rehearsals and coursework and ugh. I'm really sorry!
Anyway I am going to try and post every week from now on, starting with this one where I complain about school. I'm so original ;)
Here we go:
It is stupid that school is forced upon us and, no matter what we do, there is no way to get out if it. I don't understand why this is because as much as I love learning I would rather not spend approximately 35 hours a week stuck in a place where I get judged for everything I do. I have low self-esteem as it is and teachers telling me that I'm not achieving what I'm supposed to be is not helping because I really do try my best (despite the fact that I tend to say I don't care) so when I'm told that my best is not good enough it just knocks me down even more. School is just a soul destroying, judgmental hell hole as far as I'm concerned so I think that it should be a person's choice whether or not they try to endure it.
As well as this, school teaches us things that I can guarantee the majority of us are never going to use or need again throughout the rest of our lives. For example, when on earth am I ever going to need algebra or trigonometry? How about the symbolic equation of photosynthesis? And when am I ever going to need to analyse the language techniques of a book? As far as I'm concerned reading is for fun so it's not as if I'm going to finish a good book and think 'Hmmm... I'm going to write an essay on how the metaphors in chapter 2 showed that Bill was looking for a girlfriend' That is never going to happen! (Also, when people over-analyse things it really frustrates me. Like: "NO THAT DOES NOT SHOW THAT SHE IS ANGRY, IT SHOWS THAT THE CURTAINS ARE RED!" Anyway...).
Admittedly some of these things may come in handy for certain jobs, but otherwise they have no use. I believe that we should only learn what we choose to learn and we should not be forced into learning - and stressing over - things that do not matter to us.
And another thing: are exams really necessary? Our school careers lead up to the big exams like GCSE's and A Levels etc, but is there really a point in them? I'm not sure who came up with the idea of these exams but I feel that they didn't really understand what they were saying. We have to spend God knows how many years being taught stuff and writing essays and drawing diagrams and all of that, but then after all that time we have an hour (ish) to answer questions on everything that it took us so long to learn and we're still expected to do well. There are many things wrong with this. First off: the work we did leading up to the exams does not matter anymore so there was really no use in doing it in the first place. Second: if it took that long to teach us the information, why are we expected to remember it all at once? Oh yeah, sure, we're meant to revise so we can cram all of the answers into our brains. The issue with this is that revision takes time but our time is spent at school, doing homework, actually taking a break because we have lives (kinda) or seeing to other responsibilities.
Another issue is that NOT EVERYONE IS GOOD WITH EXAMS! Everyone is different and we are told to embrace our differences, so then why are we all still being judged (which is an issue in itself) by the same criteria? There's a quote that I can't quite remember, nor can I recall who it's from, but it's got something to do with judging a fish by it's tree climbing skills would make it look stupid (I really can't remember) which is exactly how exams are. A person may do very well during class but may crumble under the pressure of exams. A person may do well writing an essay on the Henry VIII during lesson but when it gets to the exam their mind goes blank and they confuse all of the facts with James I. Exams are not everyone's cup of tea and may not be an accurate representation of how intelligent someone is. When you think about it, exams are mainly based around the capability to remember things, not knowledge. I could add many more issues with exams but I shall leave it there for now.
One more issue I have with school is that teachers do not seem to realise that their subject is not the only subject we have. An example of this is when my English teacher gave us a week to read a book and answer questions/make notes on it, then got pissed at those of us who hadn't done it. I love to read but it just so happened that my other teachers gave me shit tons of homework over that week and, when you add in the clubs that I attend, I just didn't have the time to finish it. Teachers need to start communicating with each other about when they are setting homework or kids are gonna end up so stressed that they cry every night because they just CAN'T anymore. Or maybe that's just me, but my point still stands.
And another thing, I'm not sure whether this is just my school but we have what is called 'assessment fortnight'. This is where we have assessments in every subject and they are spread over 2 weeks. They do this so that we don't have all of our assessments at one time, but it still doesn't work. We are told to revise in order to do well so we try to spend as much time as possible doing this over the 2 weeks, however the subjects in which we have not yet started our assessments still give us homework to do, meaning that we have to take time out of revising to do homework - and vise versa - which is not ideal. This system is not well thought out at all.
Furthermore, I am genuinely confused as to the importance of End Of Topic Tests (usually done at the end of each term). If you ask a teacher (in my school anyway) they'll tell you that it's to assess what you've learnt and how far you've progressed over the period of time. I'm sorry, but why can't they just look at our books to work that out? We're given essays and assessments and case studies etc to do during the topic which we work hard to complete and do well on, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.
Moreover, students should have the freedom to say no to things they are not comfortable with. In other words: nothing should be obligatory. For example, I have issues with talking to and in front of people as it makes me panic and I get incredibly nervous. However my school doesn't seem to care and likes to randomly go "you must do a presentation on this" or "you must do a speech" which is immensely frustrating as I have notified all of my teachers of my fear yet this still happens. Sometimes I manage to find a way out of doing it but, more often than not, I am forced to do the task. I know that I'm not the only one who has trouble with this, and I know that other people have things that they're not comfortable doing, so why should we be forced to do such things? I understand that stepping out of your comfort zone can be a positive experience in some cases, however there are times when it can be a very negative - or even traumatic - experience and I know I am not alone in saying that people should be allowed to say no to doing these things.
And scene!
Wow that was a long one. I actually wrote that as a series of message drafts on my phone at like 2am back in November haha. That explains why it's so crappy.
Goodbye friend,
Rachael xx
"Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it." Veronica Roth, Divergent.
