Say you have a yardstick in hand. What you
do with it?
See, the problem is, there are too many
people with yardsticks. They try to measure our value in every subject- mathematics,
language, and physical education- and they do not stop at just that. They measure
whose talent is more valuable. It appears in every country’s education system.
Like Ken Robinson said, every single country put mathematics and language arts
at the highest level. Next is humanities, and the last place is always the
arts. It even varies inside of arts, too; they put arts and music over drama
and dancing. It seems that there is a manual notifying subjects’ significance
from the highest to the lowest, same for all countries. They almost brainwash
us to think studying math is more important than dancing. Why don’t they just
value the kids’ talent for they are?
What Ken Robinson said truly made me
sympathize: “The whole purpose of public educations throughout the world is to
produce university professors. “ I mean, it is TOTALLY RIGHT! Who succeeds, who
does everything they should, who gets all the points, and who the winner is…
Those are all factors of university professors, not ‘happy men.’ Aren’t there any
other way to success? They put us all into same classroom, same curriculum, and
same standard. They just cut the variety of our future down and line us all up
in just one, like a factory. Why do they even teach us about artists, then?
Mathematics is certainly not a feature of an artist; yet those good at math get
to have a better chance of being a successful artist than those not.
So I want to talk about that contradiction.
Ken Robinson says hierarchy of subjects is based on the usefulness of the
subjects for work. That is certainly a problem. But I have some other thoughts,
too. The more grave trouble with this sentence is that we have already decided the
subjects useful for work. In other words, the list of subjects most relevant to
the least relevant has already formed in our minds. That is a very serious matter. As long as that
list exists, our education system will not change. Slightly, maybe, but never
fundamentally. It will never be enough for the ‘revolution in education’ Ken
Robinson speaks of.
By this point of the flaw, I think it is
clear what is crucial to our educational revolution: innovation of our attitude.
In other words, if we continue selecting fine artists, athletes, designers, etc.
based on math and language, the students and educators have no choice but
follow the trend. Of course, we should study for learning itself as well, but
the world is not like that. People tend to follow the easiest, fastest path,
not knowing it is the shortcut to unhappiness. I think this would take a long
time to fix, so let’s start with changing the trend; the most urgent problem
here is to guarantee a job for the people specialized in the career, not people
with a famous university graduation, and give education appropriate for that.
For example, France provides career training for those who has natural aptitude
and interest in it since young. Well, there will be a few problems existing, such
as change in mind or getting bored, but hey, don’t you think this is cool? It’s
almost like getting to have a preview of what we are here for: from what we can
get the internal satisfaction.
What I want to say is this: let the kids enjoy
things they learn, or, learn things they enjoy. All kids have talent; they all have
the potential to be a ‘genius,’ only they missed the opportunity. Come on! If
we really care for our society and its future, we must help the kids learn the
future to be a happy one. Keep on telling them ‘You must study this if you want
to get job!’ and they will not. We must encourage the kids to develop their
talent and be happy with it. It is not an easy task, of course. There are tons
of preceding tasks, works, and labor. However, I believe we are able to accomplish
the educational revolution in any time. After all, education is something
everyone has interest in; they know the significance of the stuff. We shall not
use our little yardsticks to measure our kids hastily. Let them decide value
for themselves.
