An issue I have with the education system

[Parththakkar12]

One of my problems with the education system is that most of your schoolwork is done by yourself, for your own grades. There's very little collaboration between students. This came up for me as I was doing some shadow work and I came across the belief 'I have to work alone to make my dreams come true'. Our education system foments this belief pretty firmly!

Ideas on solutions to this problem in the system?

Edited January 14, 2020 by Parththakkar12

[DreamScape]

It is true, I think, that a lot of work needs to be done alone. For personal development, picking up skills, etc. Although, it is true that collaboration is important too. Collaboration creates video games, movies, etc. 

Our society is focused on the self, which you have said. To put it in better light: I think it is good because it inspires YOU to work on skills and expertise, nobody else can really do that for you. 

Obviously, there is room for improvement. But there always is. 

[Zega]

Which education system? American, Chinese, Canadian? 

[Parththakkar12]

The most general and prevalent one! Mine was the Indian education system, but it's similar in America/Canada as far as I can tell. Aren't all of them similar? (Of course you can come up with an exception, but you know what I'm talking about)

[Zega]

1 hour ago, Parththakkar12 said:

The most general and prevalent one! Mine was the Indian education system, but it's similar in America/Canada as far as I can tell. Aren't all of them similar? (Of course you can come up with an exception, but you know what I'm talking about)

Some education systems don't have homework while others have their students in class for 12 hours a day. It's similar across the board in some sense, but they vary quite a bit. 

[Elham]

Many countries build their educational system individualistic. If you want to see the best collaborative educational system check Japan's.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Elham

[Ero]

@Parththakkar12 Interesting that this is the problem you experience. I for example have a problem with the memory orientation of the education system and standardising the tests. Thanks for sharing. It really depends where do you live. Systemic change is a very slow and painful process, but you can for sure be apart of it. 

[Annoynymous]

@Parththakkar12  collaboration simply can not happen to some education systems which prioritizes competition more than collaboration. In my country, this sort of system is very common in spite of being toxic in many ways. When high school students are just working on their grades as a mean to get validation from parents and society,  they often end up being jealous and envious towards their fellow classmates. It's not their fault specially when the education system itself promotes this toxicity by designing the system such a way. By being a part of this system, students often forgets being empathic and ends up often hating each other.

On the other hand,  collaborative education systems helps a student more to excel. It is more healthy and humane. It teaches one to be an empath rather than becoming a narcissistic jealous hateful competitor. 

[Apparition of Jack]

Most education systems around the world are basically the complete opposite of what they should be in terms of creating healthy, conscious people. I would say that easily 90-95% of what you learn in school is lost effort, and in fact can set yourself up for failure in the future as you try to adjust your school conditioning with realities that don’t match them.

If education was optimal, it would include things like being taught yoga/meditation, proper nutrition, how to set up a business, critical thinking, self-actualisation, how to channel your creativity, and so on. Most of the stuff we learn about maths, history, etc is mostly pointless save for the few students who end up going to specialise in these subjects, and even then these topics are straightforward enough that if you’re serious about learning them then a healthy young adult can pick them up quickly at higher education. 
 

Like, who here can say that they have genuinely retained and benefited from the majority of what they learnt at school? Sure basic writing and math skills (like grammar and multiplication) are important, but you’ve basically mastered these by the time you’re a teenager anyway. I’d say the most benefit that people derive from the current education system is simply how to socialise and get along with other people, but that would happen anyway if you put a bunch of kids together no matter what the content they’re learning is. Also the way in which most topics of taught is complete nonsense either - rote learning from books basically causes you to forget all information. (Seriously, I learnt more French in just a few months of private study than I did in 10 years of French lessons at school because the process was actually engaging and hands-on, and wasn’t just repeating phrases from a book.) Kids have to be engaged and encouraged to learn in their own ways, not assessed by arbitrary tests that teach you very little other than how to play the game of making limited facts sound good to the correct people.)

In a hundred years time we’re going to look back at the way we teach kids today the same way we currently look back on how medieval people practiced medicine.

[Annoynymous]

@Apparition of Jack i agree with your point.

I have completed graduation recently, now again i have to go through basic maths and English grammar which were taught at high school. I did my major in social science, so now i have to relearn those things. This is a example how our system promotes going backwards and ineffective. Seriously, my country's education system does a poor job at teaching us basic survival skills.