A Tutor’s Take On The Education System

Some say the educational system has not changed for a century and is overdue for an overhaul. Others say the system we have now is tried and true; there is no need for a new way to approach educating students. Personally, I err on the side of the former statement.

With the emergence of the internet and its acceptance into mainstream culture, I believe our educational system needs to evolve as humans enter in an age of information. The current model used to educate students was created to standardize education and make it available to everyone. This was done by grouping the students by age and choosing which concepts were taught to each group based on their age. Additionally, the students were likely part of a farming community and the schools that taught them needed to cater towards this need. Given there are some communities where this is still the case, most students live in areas that no longer rely on farming as the largest source of employment.

The current model for teaching students begins the day early with a lecture. These lectures may last an hour or two where an instructor introduces concepts to students. Following the lectures, the instructor assigns homework for the students to practice outside of class and on their own. Then, they get tested on their knowledge and assessed on whether they retained the information and are graded heavily based on the scores of the tests. I see two problems with this: students begin to over-value tests and these same tests become the only pathway for success.

My solution is to create an atmosphere that focuses on the learning aspect of education; an atmosphere that does not weigh tests heavily and is tailored to the student’s learning styles. The educational system that I would create would range from technical skills to executive skills to the world of academia. As a student progresses further in life, they should have the ability to choose the path that suits them most. Not everyone can be an engineer or a doctor or a computer scientist, so why try to make everyone conform to those standards?

-Zechariah Tademy