Write now it’s nearly 12:00 AM and I’m pissed. Pissed at this education system, no this entire system we all live in. I’m currently studying for an AP Art History test which I think at face value is worse than it seems. I’m a CS major stressing about what the Great Stupa at Sanchi is and what material the The Funeral Banner of Lady Dai was made of. BUT EVERYTHING IS WRONG IN THAT SENTENCE.
Firstly the major. When I tell people that sentence of a CS major studying art history, they first ask why? As if it’s a reflex that I are unable to fathom why a CS major would ever study art history. I mean it’s a fair question, I had it myself when I took the class (which was honestly for weightage), but the more time I’ve spent learning the more I’ve loved it. But this reaction is true for so much more than art history. When I tell people I write poetry, I see a similar if not worse reaction. The faces of individuals when they learn I do is so interesting, there’s a sudden shock and dismay. Yet when my more humanities aligned friends mention their interest in these topics none of these emotions emerge from facial expressions. It’s almost expected. WHY? Where have we lost the basic understanding that it is fun to learn? Why have we segregated what we CAN learn based on some of our interests? I am a CS major who ponders philosophy and writes poetry. I am a CS major who likes physics and spends his days typing away on his Mac. I am more than a CS major. The freedom to learn anything is one that needs to become the norm in society, in fact, it should be the expectation. Learn because you can, not because you should.
Now the next part of that sentence, stress. Honestly, I’m not sure this is a solvable problem. Testing, while it often literally takes the fun out of learning, may be necessary to motivate populations to learn. Yet actually this underlines a more fundamental fallacy with the current education system. Students NEED a reason to learn. Testing is needed because nothing would push students to learn otherwise. But what about curiosity? What happened to that? Do people no longer have questions about how the world around us works? In my ideal society, people would just foster their curiosity into a passion. Spend time exploring and understanding freely without the burden of acing a test.
It just feels like learning has become so monotonous—and people are unfazed by this. Something needs to change. Or maybe it’s my environment. Something needs to change.