Opinion: How our educational system is failing us!

Is our school education system actually succeeding in teaching or is it all about passing? Is the educational system sucking out our children’s creativity and confidence?

Children are messy and they love it. They love to write stories and get drenched painting, drawing and creating things, they thrive in inventing characters and acting but why is it that we don’t all carry these qualities with us through adulthood? Is called “growing up” or is it taken away from us by an educational system that creates tests for us to fail and puts children in ‘lower groups’ because they don’t fit the education or governments idea of ‘bright’.

‘The Business Insider’ had an article in 2013 where it states that “Employers need innovative minds, but this talent is increasing hard to come by, because people are discouraged to think outside the box throughout their lives.” This article talks about the one issue no one seems to acknowledge which is that schools help shape children into adults so they can pursue there dreams and talent.

In 2012 NPR had an interview with a man named Robinson who spoke about current education. He made so many valid points one of which was “making mistakes and taking chances is the only way we can come up with new ideas.” He also said:

“Kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. They’re not frightened of being wrong… What we do know is if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original. By the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity… And we run companies like this… And now we’re running national education system where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is we’re educating people out of their creative capacity. Human communities depend upon the diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability.”

There is too much dwelling on education and school but none of it really exists in the real world today. People come out of school totally unprepared for the real world.

Sources say that the education system is destroying children’s capacity to think “outside the box” and steer children and teenagers away from what they enjoy because “you would never get a real job doing that.” Talented student thoughts and talents aren’t valued or acknowledged because it doesn’t fit in with compulsory classes such as maths, science etc. It’s suggested that students aren’t given the option to explore their areas of interest deeply because they are forced to follow and focused all there energy and time on these compulsory areas.

There are findings that follow a report by the Governments National Skills Task Force which concludes that seven million British adults were functionally illiterate and were unable to cope with everyday tasks. The Guardian has a survey which proves 67% of employers believe that schools were not equipping young people with vital world skills such as team work, communication and time keeping.

Employers also expressed there frustration that young people of all abilities are finding it tough to cope in the early stages of work because they have been stuffed in a class room with textbooks and tests instead of allowing them to gain some experience which they can apply to the outside world. The education system is a lot more focused on academic achievements with pressure on achieving degrees and A’s.