I hate going to school when I was a kid.
Most of us went through a traditional school. A traditional school, means a building with classrooms and within the classrooms are desks with students and a teacher. A teacher or in some cases the students transfer to another classroom for each of the class. I went through with the former until high school. A teacher would enter our room, write on the board, ask questions, we would recite, take quizzes and take exams whether at the end of each semester or at specific periods of our student life. After each semester the cycle goes on and on until graduation.
Our parents and their parents , almost gone all through that. It seemed that as you move back in time the teachers are stricter. I experienced my parent’s iron fists when it comes to teaching and ensuring that I study for each exam. No TV during weekdays and make sure I get high grades. For example, if the passing for the exam is 70% out of 100% of the questions, I should get 88%! My mom actually said that! It is like there is another set of standards that must be met beyond the country’s accepted curriculum. Grade comes first! Getting the medals and the honors, are the pinnacle of success for every student or in my case for my mother! This does promote that the grades are more important than learning!
When I had my child, I swore that I would lighten up. I do not want them to be like me who ended up hating to study and for them to feel that it is a punishment. As I was researching for different schools, I went to the “best” traditional schools and checked out their facilities and their methods. I also went to the new schools, which has been around just for a few years. This is when I discovered progressive schools.
Progressive because they are introducing a more customized education for the child,. Some of the schools do not even have grades! This concept is foreign to me however it is interesting, If you look at traditional schools, you may compare it to an assembly line. Mass education. Get as many students taught at you can for a defined period. Progressive schools still has a class but it is noticeably smaller. This is to add more focus on the student. There are no tests per say. Students would not know that a task being assigned to them is the actual test. The subjects at times may not be defined. Classes like languages such as English for example and their mother tongue may be held at the same time to teach the student how to identify objects or construct the same idea into different languages.
We have come a long way from what we are used to. I may have enjoyed my time as a student if I were a product of this educational system. For parents out there, I encourage to take a look at these schools. It is high time we put learning as priority over grades.