Learning to Love-Hate School

One of the many issues on which I waver every now and then is the K-12 educational system in this country. In the past, I have always maintained that it is an excellent system that generally encourages students to develop a love for learning more so than in Asia. Of course, having grown up in India, my experiences are limited to that country. There, the pressure to memorize core knowledge is so strong that loving learning is actually looked upon as a negative among school age children. The last time I was there, I actually had a cousin tell me that she was genuinely worried because her daughter loved going to school. She wasn't joking. I myself have often heard "you're going to school to learn, not have fun." The prevailing wisdom is that if you're enjoying it, you're probably not working as hard as you should be. In the U.S., students are encouraged to explore and learn creatively with entertaining and interesting exercises such that my kids all enjoyed going to school. Given that, I was never surprised that US students did not fare well in international tests. Those tests favor the regurgitation of acquired knowledge. I have always maintained that the U.S. continues to excel on the world stage despite the apparently "broken" educational system is that when it matters (when appropriately incentivized), U.S.-educated people are able to learn what is needed to get the job done. On the other hand, those educated in Asia are not in as good of a position to improvise and go beyond their memorized knowledge. Of course, the immigrant melting pot has something to do with it, but no one has been able to adequately explain why, if the educational system is so bad and our kids are so poorly educated in math and science, why some of the best engineers and greatest scientists in the world are Americans. One fascinating theory which makes a lot of sense to me is the "Soft America-Hard America" theory which I'll cover in more detail in a future post if I remember ( or someone reminds me).

Now that my son is approaching high school age, I find myself constantly worried about whether he is learning enough. Suddenly I'm not so sure of my theories that things will "work out in the end" and he will learn what he needs to learn when the time comes. Amazing how perspectives can change so much as you move through life.