THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EDUCATION AND LEARNING

It is easy to see education and learning as one and the same, as education offers the opportunity to learn. Or so we have come to believe. I’ve been in education for around fourteen years now and have been intellectually stimulated for three years of that (I’d like to think). It would be amazing to say my love for learning came from school and my teachers but to write that would simply be a lie. In primary school, we loved learning (well at least I did) and we would come to school with the hopes of learning something new that we hadn’t been introduced to yet. This was exciting and to enjoy learning wasn’t something weird or stressful or boring. Until you hit secondary school. This is where my issue lies. Whether you are in public, private or grammar school, we are all subject to the same issues. Education has become a survival of the fittest contest and in all honesty no one signed up for that. Since day one of year seven we are told that exams are the end goal and this leads to all forms of miseducation.

The first thing schools (and the government) are getting wrong in educating their students is, having them believe they are intelligent (or not) based on written, formal assessments. Most people are capable of memorising large quantities of information at one go, and this is what students are doing. We aren’t actually being taught any life skills let along simple biology, but are being taught how to retain enough information to pass an exam. Think about it like this; how many times have you said “I can’t wait for this exam to be over so I can forget everything”. This may seem like a phrase that we use because we can’t wait for our exam to be over, but if you really analyse what is being said, then you will see that if you actually LEARNT instead of MEMORISING the information, you wouldn’t just forget it after the exam, it would be something you would continue to use throughout your lives.  However, how can I expect to really understand titration when I’m just being shown how to answer a question rather than being explained to, what is happening.  This issue is something very prominent in terms of languages being taught at schools. I spent three years of my life preparing for my German GCSE and a year later I cannot put together a basic sentence in German. Not only did I fail to learn the language or even remember the long winded memorised paragraph I wrote for my oral exam, but I’ve come out with a qualification that in all honesty I don’t want anyone to ask me about. BECAUSE I CANNOT SPEAK GERMAN. Languages are worse than other subjects because the majority of teachers don’t actually teach you how to put together a sentence, but they teach generic phrases and words to memorise and vomit back out onto your exam paper. Within three years, I should be fluent in the language, if taught correctly, which would be such a great skill to acquire in my life. Being able to communicate with other people is a key skill and so expanding that to international levels will not only increase your employability but your people skills. Unfortunately, this is an opportunity I’ve missed out on. Hence why I’m speaking out now.

The second issue with the educational system, is that students are left with STEM or the ARTS or HUMANITIES  as their ‘applicable’ life skills. Yes it is amazing that you know when Shakespeare wrote twelfth night and that you can work out the momentum of a cat rolling down a hill. These are great skills for the career paths students are considering. However, knowing the momentum of this cat will not help you learn how credit works. There are necessary life skills we aren’t being taught and I’m not asking for lessons on  ‘HOW TO BALANCE A CHECK’.  But short and simple sessions just explaining everything that will come all at once when we step into adulthood.

Before I round up my extended rant about my distaste for how the government has structured education, I must mention the failure of teachers in their support of their students in the right way. Some teachers can feel as though constant cynicism and criticism (without a trace of praise) is the correct way to motivate their students to work harder. Some believe that adding unbearable pressure to students will help push them. While others are doing the right thing, by praising our efforts and explaining our downfalls and having in faith in the possibility of our progression. To the teachers getting it wrong, I can understand why but they soon need to realise the toll it takes on students and not only their mental health but their physical health. I’m in my final year of sixth form and at least 80% of my year group have cried and 100% of them are sleep deprived to the point some of us feel as if we are delusional ( this may be a slight exaggeration and these statistics are a vague estimate).  My point is, we need to find the right balance between being helpful and just discouraging students.

I enjoy learning, I love gaining new information that I can spout out to people so they can share in my knowledge and I wish the educational system worked that way as well. I want to continue to learn but at the rate the educational system is going I would rather do it alone.

Thanks for reading,

Sope ❤

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