Education

In class a teacher said this to all of us, "The reason for this quiz is I want to check your understanding of your readings. Hopefully you have been reading to learn, not to just find the answers to the questions." What a joke. I have been programmed sense grade school that I read things to find the answers. I even check the questions before reading whatever the assignment is so I know what I am looking for. Because a lot of time if I read something and don't know what I am looking for, I'll miss the "golden nuggets" the teacher has deemed worthy of points. 

This is sad to say, but, I don't go to school to learn, I go to do assignments and take tests. A few of my classes that I took last semester I can't remember anything from them. And mom doesn't pay for school, I do. I can remember hearing, "Now pay attention, you will apply this in your life more than one way." Well, that's useful. I remember that I needed to remember something, but I don't remember what I was supposed to remember. And if I go two semesters back, I think I can remember one quote from one of my six teachers. "It's easy to say you'll do the right thing. But, when they start adding zeros on their offer, the right thing starts becoming a lot harder to do." If I'm offered twenty bucks I'm quite willing to do plenty of things. 

I feel like the tests I take don't show my learning abilities, it shows my ability to remember the answers. And then when I'm out of that class, that information is just about as useless as Bing or Yahoo. I pay college tuition and pay for the books my teachers think will generate good quiz questions just to get a grade. And all of that just to get a piece of paper that says, "He paid his fees and remembered the right information for his tests. You should hire him." And then there are a bunch of other kids out there like me who graduated with that exact same piece of paper and "quality" of education trying to get the same job. 

I have nothing against learning. I love learning. It answers so many questions to my life and seems to make it so much richer. Because things around me have a reason to being there and a story as to how they got there. I do have a problem with the way I'm learning though and the price I pay just to get a grade. (I wish I could say I pay to get an A but I'm not that smart and I don't want anyone to take that statement as a sexual innuendo.) The thing is though, do I have a solution to how the education system works? Ha, no. The only unique ideas I have is how to get the answers to the many, many tests I have taken.