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Major reform needed for education system

It is clear that our education system is more unfair and harmful than promising and advantageous.From a young age we are forced to learn in a specific way according to what the government thinks children should know. We are pushed to study many different subjects, and we have no idea why. I used to believe the diverse study of subjects would help students understand the diversity of the world and prepare them to choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives.However, the system does not do this. Studying subjects like math or history does not tell you what you can do with those subjects in the real world. High schoolers do not have any idea what the actual job of a civil engineer is if they were only to read the title in a list of career options.The learning process is different for everyone, but when we go to school, we are told to go against that natural fact. Not everyone learns at the same pace, and the process also depends on the subject. Some students learn faster in math but slower in history. “The Theory of Multiple Intelligences” by Dr. Howard Gardner explains this matter by listing eight different types of intelligence and how there can be eight different learning processes. However, we are often confined to learn in a way that is not the most beneficial for us.The principal problem is the measure of intelligence by memorization; meaning students are told to memorize a series of facts followed by a test which will measure how much they have retained. The value given to that grade does not help the student. Rather, it is just pressure, stress and after the test the student won’t remember most of the information.Peter Gray, professor of psychology at Boston College, argues the importance of letting children go their own paces and focus on learning in the way they want to. These ideas are important to highlight because they would allow a more natural and efficient learning process, considering that intelligence is more than just memorization, and works differently for each person. The original goal of the education system during the Industrial Revolution was to educate people to follow orders while killing creativity to create ideal workers for factories. The education system must be adapted to the 21st century we live in.It is not just the education system but the whole society that should be reformed in this manner. The perception and appreciation of school must change. A diploma does not guarantee you a job, but society pushes you to consider yourself less than if you don’t have one, even when the same quality of education can be found online. Learning by yourself does not make you less valuable or qualified. It actually makes you part of the world that we now live in. It gives you the independence and personal capacity of leading and organizing yourself and your work time, which are vital skills for the globalized job market.

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