Every year as Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes of his: “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
Those two characteristics — intelligence and character — are they really the focus of the education system in America? I don’t think they are.
Nearly the entirety of education is based on one thing — memorization.
Everything boils down to test scores in the current landscape of education. Students are presented with information, asked to learn it and then asked to regurgitate that information for a test. One of the most troubling aspects of education is forcing students to all think and operate the same way.
The best example I can give for this is in math classes. When students are asked to solve problems either for homework or a test, they are asked to show their work. And their work has to be shown in the exact way it was taught to them.
I always had a huge problem with this because I’ve always been really good with numbers and would do a lot of the math needed in my head. I would get the correct answers, but since I would do it a different way and had trouble showing my work at times, I would lose points. It was extremely frustrating for me because I knew I was doing what was asked of me — solve the problem — but since I thought in a different way, I was penalized. That doesn’t promote intelligence or character. It squashes it.
In the way that the education system is set up, not a whole lot of learning actually takes place. It starts with standardized testing, which begins in elementary school and is an endless cycle.
Students, especially in college, stay up all night attempting to memorize as much information as possible to be able to fill up as much space in a blue book as possible. Typically, the way it works is the more correct information students get on the page, the more points they earn toward their grade. The problem with that is students rarely retain any of that information.
That doesn’t expand on intelligence. That creates caffeine and drug addictions. The use of Adderall at colleges is very widespread. I would say at least half of the people I came across while in college regularly used Adderall to stay up late and remain focused on their school work.
As evidenced in previous articles published in The Columbian-Progress, Mississippi has lowered its standards to allow more high school students to receive a diploma.
The education system, in many ways, is robbing students of the opportunity to become more intelligent by penalizing students who think differently, glorifying standardized tests and rewarding students with diplomas who haven’t earned them.
Regarding character, there is a large divide between the lower and upper levels of education. From kindergarten through high school, students are rewarded in various ways for their behavior. Good behavior, in most cases, is considered as students being as quiet as possible and following strict instructions.
That largely stems from the education system that is commonly practiced throughout the country being developed during the industrial revolution. Corporations wanted employees to stay quiet, remain on their own specific task and do the same thing over and over again. But that isn’t how the current job market is set up. New ideas are typically welcomed in the work place, and companies are always looking for ways to improve the way they do things. Yet the education system is largely stuck in a previous era.
The majority of people learn best through hands-on experience. So why doesn’t the education system focus on promoting such experiences on a day-to-day basis? It would take a lot of changes, but the current system is already broken in a lot of ways. Change is necessary for progress. n
Joshua Campbell is sports editor of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com.
