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Friday, June 27, 2008
1:35 AM
Is formal education overvalued?
Formal education is certainly highly valued, especially in an Asian country such as
Why do I say that? To take the example of Singapore, children are reminded constantly from young to study hard, not to gain knowledge, but to get a ”good” job in the future. Certainly, many childhood years are spent doing endless assignments and studying for countless exams, both of which are prominent features of formal education.
I quote from the article why school is bad for kids that “education is a lifelong process… the problem comes with the misconception that learning begins just after the first bell rings and stops after graduation,” and “the point of education is not to teach what to think but how to think.” I agree completely with the author. For most students, the sole purpose of education seems to be to attain good grades to graduate. The thought of the real purpose of education has probably never crossed their minds; it is to “train and develop people in knowledge, skills, mind and character in a structured and certified programme.” In order to achieve that goal of good grades, students hone their skills in memorising, “he learns countless ways to con the teacher into thinking he knows something he doesn’t; he learns to bluff himself.” That is where the education system fails, and precisely why I think formal education is overvalued, for it is definitely not an adequate way to educate youngsters.
Education seems to exist only in schools, even though this is not the case. Education does not merely mean the knowledge we acquire in school, but what we learn from our interactions with others, our daily experiences. Simply said, an education is learning something, whatever it may be. Even though formal education provides us with the “hardware” information, most of the time it fails to let us understand the “software”. Through formal education, we are pumped with information- most of which students will promptly agree has nothing to do with “real life”. Moreover, many students memorise facts and figures without real understanding of the concepts taught. They may be able to proudly recite mind-boggling lists of formulas, facts and figures. However, faced with a real life situation, it will not remotely be of any use. Then, formal education would have failed to fulfil its goal.
The criticisms of formal education is what contributes to its overvalue. Formal education encourages conformity, and a “one size fits all” mentality. Parents, of all people, would agree that all children are different, with different abilities, interests and way of learning. Yet, most parents would agree that formal education is the only way for their sons and daughters to succeed in the future, even at the expense of their creativity and interest in learning. This is mainly due to the over emphasis on formal education in the society, where formal education seems the only rote to learning.
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