There was some issue with the system sticking us into a box and expecting us to think out of the box. I think I once read a book about a child who had never been outside the small ten feet by ten feet room that he's been in ever since birth. (It was a weird book. Don't ask.) Basically he was so frightened and unused to the outside world that he could barely function. Back in the small room, everything outside was like a dream. Like, not real. So yes, the education expects us to function in a world that we have never experienced. That's a problem.
Um yes, but fixing that problem takes a lot of resources and time and whatnot. Imagine ten dudes shifting a twenty floor building by hand. Red tape, manpower, etc, and the system isn't failing THAT badly anyway, we've still got the rare creative sort popping up here and there.
Another issue was the 'grouping by age' thing. Class of 2010, etc. We watched a video where that was called the manufacture date. This is a real problem, actually. You stick a bunch of people together, assuming that just because they're the same age, they... Learn the same way? The same pace?
In all my years in Asia, I've never known of anyone who's skipped grades. Sure, there are accelerated programmes, but those are for the elite. Like, people on an entirely different level. Those people whom you only hear about. I don't know anyone who knows anyone who's skipped a grade. I don't even think the school allows it. I don't think so, at least... I mean, there's probably this long and arduous and complicated process, and that's mostly for skipping the entire secondary school and going straight to university or something. Most people probably aren't clever enough.
But there's got to be different paces, right? I for one am bored to death in class. I spend most of that time blinking blankly at the whiteboard or sneakily doing something unrelated to class on my iPad. But for maths and science I'm sometimes stumped. (Okay, not really, I just don't want to put in the effort. It hurts my head.) I know people who just don't get languages, and I know people who fail so utterly at maths that... There are no words.
So it should be logical to sort them by ability... Nope. Again, it's just so much easier this way. The majority of same-age people are also at the same maturity level. (I said the majority, dammit, not all of them.) No one's going to a shift a twenty floor building by hand just to accommodate the, what, thirty percent?? (idk it's not a very small percentage, but it's definitely less than half) of those who can be better than their age group.
Also this is Asia, there's this weird pride thing going on. If we group it by ability, then those who are older but are less capable in a particular aspect will feel embarrassed. Maybe ashamed. (Okay so not only Asia.) I'm talking decrease of self-worth. Increase of suicide rate maybe. I mean, haven't you read articles about people the same age as you achieving great things, and you look at yourself, in your pajamas... Ahem. I mean, you feel a little bitter, don't you?
Also different learning styles. That's the third issue, apparently, and I think this is the issue that's the most important. So we're talking learning alone, learning in a small group, and learning in a large group, we're talking audio, visual, hands-on. Some methods just don't work for some people. Imagine a teacher talking to you about sine and cosine and tangents (that's maths) ... It just doesn't work without a diagram.
I sigh. Anyway, I am done talking about education systems. It makes me depressed and there aren't any ways to improve the system quickly.
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