They Put Me in A Box

You've probably heard of the statistics such as never be the first one to hand in your test, skip hard questions and get back to them at the end of the test, do not cram before your test. These are all things that we've heard to do in order to test well in school. However, we forget that not everyone is the same. knowing all these facts I always made sure to hand in my test last, I skipped all the hard questions and would come back to them, and I made sure I had enough time to study for each exam and every test I got back I did either average or poorly on every test until I reached university. I learned a few things about myself:

1) I do best on tests that I have a last-minute study session on because everything is fresh in my brain and once, I see the test I can do it without second guessing myself on every question.

2) The tests I do best on I've been the first or second person to hand it because I do not second guess my answers and change them to the incorrect one.

3) If I skip the hard questions by the end of the exam my brain is fried and I randomly choose an answer, whereas I tackle the problem once I come to it, I am able to focus and get a good grade on it.

So, then I started to think about my education at a deeper level. I did better in university than high school because of the way the course material was delivered, and I was interested in what I was learning, even the courses that were needed in order to graduate it because I had options to take courses that were interesting. This brought me to an epiphany. Not all students study the same, not all students are meant to be put in a box with other kids. I couldn't do well in high school because all the tests were multiple choice and were built to trick you it was always between one and the other answer especially reading comprehensive was built in a dumb way, where it was not about whether or not you understood what was happening in the short story. There are multiple interpretations to anything that was creative and you cannot just choose one answer. I remember sitting there looking at my end of term report card in the 12th grade thinking, i wish i had the opportunity to say why I think the answer what it is, Afterall that is what you do in math class it was all about showing your work and in English you had pick an answer and write an essay. The essay portion I had no problem with; with reading comprehensive I sat there not knowing what answer to choose.

Everyone learns differently, some students do really well learn online, others do better in the classroom, school never teaches you how to learn. I was so frustrated with school because I never learned how to learn, I was taught to just get the answers right, no one showed you study methods. I learned that it takes time for me to absorb information, that taking notes from the board did not help me in anyway. I had to be listening to the teacher and be writing at the same time. That's why university was the perfect setting for me. My own notes made sense to me, whereas the teacher's notes from the board were all textbook perfect and were written in such a way I had a hard time understanding what was being taught. It was the expectation that you were to copy the board while the teacher was talking, so of course I wasn't going to absorb the information, and YouTube was not so widely used for classroom purposes for me to learn from.

Now, if you do not fit into that box you are wound up to fail. My husband was homeschooled, and he did not do well in that setting, he learned that in university he was able to succeed because he did better with in-person learning where an instructor was at the front of the class. However, the classroom has changed since then, children have smartphones and tablets, and it is showing in their grades as the grades are the lowest that they have ever been in history. Also, more and more children have learning disabilities from ADHD to non-verbal autism, and the curriculum is not crafted to suit their needs. Children are placed within a classroom are all expected to behave the same and be taught in the same way, we need to create an educational system that is more individualized as everyone is so different and learn at different paces. We need to pay our teachers more for the work that they do every day. Reminder that the teacher also sees more than parents do on some occasions, they know where to seat their children in the classroom, so they learn better. We really set up the school system, so it fails rather than setting up our children for success. More and more parents are leaning towards homeschooling children because their success rate is higher as it lets children be children and who better to teach them than their own parents? True, not all kids are meant for homeschooling, but finding a method that works for your child is the one of the most important things to do as a parent.

What are your thoughts on the classroom learning? What did you like about school? Did you wish your parents did something else?