SCHOOL SHOULD HAVE TAUGHT ME THIS…
It’s official. In five months I will be graduating. I will join the pool of graduates who ooze out in droves from the numerous higher learning institutions in Kenya. The world being an expert is ready to receive me. If lucky, I will get an internship from one of the innumerable PR firms in the city. Here, I will slave for 3–6 months in the name of “exposure”.I’m yet to find the right exposure for my bills or the black tax that my folks in the village expect me to send monthly. If not I will “tarmac”.This is the endless job search that most graduates have to put up with years after graduating. It is the conventional line which we are expected to toe. For years on end, I will toil to eke a living in this exorbitant city. Nairobi ni shamba la mawe this is a common phrase on the streets of twitter which seems to explain the hardship that we face in Nairobi.
Once in the outside world, my 16 years of schooling will be put to test. With no teachers or parents as a guide, I will be left to wander. Having graduated, I will be expected to harness a profusion of knowledge. The algebra that was constantly hammered in school will prove useless, so will be the chemical formulas I struggled to memorise. The outside world is cruel and no one has time to find X, everyone is busy chasing money, lust or their hearts desires. School, in my opinion, is an overrated and risky investment. One without a defined ROI. Having worked for the last two years, I believe that a number of lessons and skills should have been passed down in school instead of the Potassium permanganate whose chemical formula is still peculiar to yours truly.
School, in my opinion, should have taught me about money. I should have been introduced to the value of time and its correlation to money. In my formative years learning A for Apple was great but understanding the value of savings and the importance of an emergency fund, would have been priceless. A thirty-minute financial class would have changed my life not only because I would have learnt about that which makes the world go round but also its value in my life. In my 16 years of learning with millions down the drain, I would have gotten out a better person, this is in terms of my financial literacy. The richest man in Babylon should be incorporated into the education system for children to understand the 6 laws of wealth and why they are paramount.
The 8–4–4 system which I went through should have touched on mental health. It should have informed me of the chemical imbalance in my body that may cause depression or has the capacity of arousing panic attacks or anxiety. This old and incompetent structure should have awakened my interests and in the same breath explored my talents. As a student who was mostly interested in debate, public speaking as a skill should have been deliberately explored and expounded on. School should have surveyed my creative skills. As a child, I’m told that I was rigorously inclined to track. I was light and sprinted across the field with ease. Mrs Lusaka, don't you think that this should have been expounded on?
Serena and Vanessa Williams are both millionaires without degrees, this si majorly because their dad identified their talent in lawn tennis at a younger age. Instead of nipping it in the bud, he ensured that he trained his girls for he saw a future in them. Today having won 23 grand slams and a net worth of over 200 million Serena Williams is the GOAT of our times. Mrs Lusaka do you still think that sports is a waste of time? The linear thinking which is grappled by scarcity mentality that a child has to go through the system for them to succeed is very much a fallacy. As Einstein once said, education is not the learning of facts but rather the training of the mind to think, the education system in the country should spark though and not bog down students with facts, on this note can we all agree that Dr Ludwig Kraph did not discover Mt Kenya! Thank you.
In his essay Against school, John Taylor Gatto explains the ineptitude that oozes out of teachers and the whole education system in particular. He explains the boredom that is schooling, as students follow the same routine year in year out. School in his opinion and mine is s waste of time for nor only the kids but also the teachers as no meaning full information is disseminated. Schooling cripples the children's minds killing any form of creativity, it puts one in a creative coma. This is mostly attributed to the fact that most children are required to toe the teachers' line and only question what the teacher can respond to. The nature of your schools is such that when a student inquires or seeks the teacher's help, they are required to colour in the line. The kids in school are required to only take in what the school gives, hence killing creativity.
Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary?~John Taylor Gatto.
Having highlighted the shortcomings that come with schooling, it's important for parents to understand that they should be actively involved in their children's schooling. Parents and guardians should explore other forms of schooling like homeschooling instead of the conventional way. Lastly, train your child to stand out from crowds. According to John Taylor, School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology — all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid.
Train the kids to be unique.