That is what high school student and author of the book One Size Does Not Fit All, Nikhil Goyal, recently posted on his Facebook timeline. What followed were 99 comments. Many from peers deeply invested in and trained by the system to believe you need school to get an education. They represent those who have accepted and/or know nothing else but this new and narrow system that our corporate reformers and politicians have created for us.
But the reality is not so bleak. Nikhil is not the only one who feels this way. A growing number of young people have awoken to the fact that you don't need to go to school to get an education and, sadly, sometimes school actually gets in the way of learning.
More and more of these young people are taking a stand and taking the stage to share another reality. At the bottom of this post is one video, "Why I hate school but love education" that has been making the rounds lately. But these young men are not alone. There is a growing undercurrent of young people who are mad as hell and they don't want to take it anymore. Instead of complying, they are paving the way to freedom for the children of our future by standing up and speaking out. They are writing books, writing articles, making videos, doing TED Talks, and starting movements to demand the freedom to follow more than one path to success.
Below is another powerful and insightful video from Tele'jon Quinn, another young man who loves learning yet is stuck in what he refers to as a 12-step brainwash camp.
And here's the one that has been making the rounds lately by Suli Breaks with more than a million hits.
Our students are waking up to the fact that this is wrong. It is up to innovative educators everywhere to help these young people be heard and do what we can to enable them to choose their own paths to success.
What can you do now?
- Follow them:
- Share and discuss these videos with your students.
- Support students who want to share their voice and ideas.
- When they do, help to amplify their ideas by spreading their message using social media like Twitter and Facebook.
- Have your students make their own video in a way that touches those like them. Below is an example of that and when your video can inspire something like this, you know you have a message that cuts across boundaries.
The same statement has been formed on the tip of my brain for quite a while. Humans are born with a drive to learn. Without learning, the faster, stronger, more agressive creatures would have wiped us off the earth. Our existing school system was designed to provide a workforce for the industrial revolution, the goals of which were some limited math and language skills and compliance. Those jobs no longer exist. Why do we continue to operate in this manner?
ReplyDeleteWe need to completely repurpose our entire educational system. Children need to identify and learn to use the innate abilities that they have been endowed with. Children need to learn how to learn. Students need a guide to show the path to learning.
It is no longer sufficient to shovel information into the student's head and have them dig around for it to regurgitate it on a test. The world we live in changes too rapidly for this approach to work. The material being presented is likely already obsolete.
I agree!! Well as you can see from my video!! But definitely change must come!! Big up Tele'jon!! Nice piece!!
ReplyDeleteSuli just posted that someone has put Chinese subtitles to his video. I emailed it to two people I'm FB friends with in China so they could share it with their friends, and gave Suli their email address and FB pages, too. The problems with schooling are worldwide. But the protests will reach everywhere and unite us :-)
ReplyDeleteChildren learn to hate school from the first day they enter Kindergarten. Boys, boys of color and children with disabilities including ADHD and others, are punished, kept from recess, given detention, and "pushed out" more with suspension than white, non-disabled children. There is no freedom in school. Kids at some schools are not allowed to talk during lunch anymore. They have to walk in a straight line. My kindergartner got in trouble for skipping. Don't kindergartners skip? My other son lost recess for playing football, against the rules. Don't kids in juvenile detention play football? Our school system sucks. We teach kids to hate school and our Country's dropout rates prove it. Three teachers told my child within the last two weeks he would not have recess. One was for accepting a snack from another child at lunch. "We are no longer allowed to share food". Our school system is in crisis. Studies show children who receive suspensions end up in prison more than those who don't, question is were the suspensions justified? I honestly believe the rage our children have that causes school shootings comes from hating the institution we call school so much, which is why we did not see these shootings occur many years ago, even though bullying was quite prevalent even then. Jordan's Advocate.com
ReplyDeleteStrongly agree; why I have to learn something while I'm not interested in it, at least for now!
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