(Assignment #2) Education System Needs an Evolution

      
     The following sentence is one of the phrases in our school motto. ‘Let us not choose a career in thoughts of personal advance but choose a career in thoughts of talents and aptitudes.’  Then, the students should first find their talents and aptitudes, and in this point they need the help of the education system. The education should be able to help the students excavate their hidden talents and develop them. Then, is the current education system fully doing its job? I say, no. The current education system cannot encourage the infinite possibilities of the children.

     The most essential reason the present education fails is that the education tries to build students’ lives in a way the adults would consider successful. Adults think that a successful one would study academic subjects, go to college, be a doctor or a lawyer or a professor, and earn lots of money! However, children never think this way. According to a survey held on few hundred 5-years-old to 12-years-old children in New York, the ten most popular occupations include fireman, policeman, author, pop star, athlete, doctor, astronaut, dancer, and Spiderman. I was surprised that Spiderman was included, since I never have imagined being a Spiderman as a job! The survey clearly shows that the dreams of the children are very original and diverse. In addition, they do not consider wealth as a significant element of happiness. However, as they get older, most of them start to dream like the adults. They give up their dreams of Spiderman and study hard to be doctors and lawyers and professors. They are inculcated to dream like adults through education! Then, they become adults, educate the children, and inculcate the same dream to the next generation.

Hierarchy of subjects is one of the examples of the inculcation to dream like adults.  Hierarchy of subjects exists in the education everywhere today. Math and language are at the top, humanities are at the next, and art is at the bottom. Students are naturally inculcated that academic subjects are more important to be successful than art. Teaching that all legitimate trades are equally honorable in ethics class is no use at all.

Some would say that the ones who improved the society used to be academic rather than artistic, so academic subjects are more important than art to students. However, it is a very antiquated idea. The idea was true at the past. In fact, according to Ked Robinson, the current education was designed in the 19^th century, when the industrial revolution started and the society had an economic urge to an intellectual model. Therefore, the paradigm of education hasn’t changed a lot since then. The current education wants a type of people who might have been successful in the 19^th century! However, society has changed radically. The society needs diverse kinds of people, and gives fair respect and compensation to the artists, as they also contribute hugely to the society. Therefore, the hierarchy of subjects is meaningless. The education system should undergo evolution, as the society did.

Excess emphasis on going to college also verifies the inculcation to dream like adults.  According to SBS news, 79% of people went to college in 2010 in Korea. It is the highest rate in OECD countries. College is, of course, a great institution to receive more specialized and profound education. However, many students are forced to go to college by the ‘adult-like dreams’, not knowing if they should go to college to develop their talents. Therefore, lots of people find what they are learning in college is meaningless. Some would continue to work on what they majored in, and would live an unhappy life, not showing brilliant results. Others might choose careers totally irrelevant to their majors, wasting the tremendous money and time they spent in college. For example, my father’s friend majored in computer engineering, but now he works as a luggage porter in Canada. Not because he failed to find a job in computer engineering, but because he discovered that luggage porter was a great career for him to have much spare time with his families. Forcing the children dogmatically to go to college would confine them from finding their aptitudes and talents. Moreover, it would dilute the children’s dreams, and would hinder them from contributing to the society and enjoying their lives in their best. 

     Therefore, a totally new form of education system is needed. Ked Robinson mentioned that the system should educate children in a personalized way instead of educating in batches, grouping the children by the ‘date of manufacture’. I also think that personalized education is the best way to develop the talents of the students. He also claimed that education should undergo revolution, not evolution. However, I feel that the education system should evolve in a long term, and eventually be a totally different system. A new challenge in education system should always be precisely and cautiously examined because experiments and gambling are never allowed in education. Therefore, a change in education should undergo a process of trial and error, until all the institutions adjust to the change. In addition, since the problems of the current education are closely related to the stereotypes and contradictions of the society, they cannot be solved in a short term. Revolution would only produce chaos.

To sum up, the current education system inculcates the adults’ antiquated thoughts about a successful life to the students, which attach importance to the academic subjects and occupations, college, and money. Hierarchy of subjects and the undue stress on college entrance prove the inculcation. Therefore, the education system should undergo a long-term evolution aimed at personalized education which can encourage the infinite capacities of the children.