Education is a process without an end but it’s only when we fail that we actually begin to learn. The systems in place have become less of a vessel for understanding and more of an institution for inertia. But how do we know when we have actually learned something? A teacher should be the ultimate facilitator to answer this question, but they have inadequate support, their hands are tied, their creativity crippled and are overwhelmed with responsibilities that are completely out of their control…the fault is not always theirs. What should have been an autonomous profession for creativity has changed for most into a chore in captivity. What’s left is outcome based learning; where the indicator for learning in most schools, has become somewhat of a glorified contest of Simon says. Students participate in a race to regurgitate predominantly useless and arbitrary information for an even more useless series of standardize tests. An indoctrination of imitation, so they can become a copy of a copy; mindlessly reciting everything, instead of retaining something and its meaning. Perhaps learning should be focused more on how to learn for the sake of living instead of what to learn for the sake of testing.
