Our schools here in America are shitty. Here is what I would like to change about them:
- Critical Thinking was a class I took in college. I'm not sure if this is the way the course is always taught but the one I took was all about how to process information. It was about being skeptical and finding out if your source is reliable. The class basically taught you how to learn responsibly. Why are we not teaching this for 4 hours a day from Kindergarten to the 10th grade?!?! How do we expect children to learn if we never teach them how? I'm sure some high schools offer this class but mine certainly didn't and it should be taught at a much younger age as I stated before. Another function this class could have is as a workout for your bullshit detector. I think we should specifically offer a critical thinking class dedicated to helping kids figure out psychologically if a person is a con artist. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a class that teaches your kids not to join a cult, or fall in love with someone who will beat the shit out of them, or join a pyramid scheme? If I had kids I know I would definitely have them properly trained to be on the lookout for social predators.
- Responsible Free time: I believe that starting at around the age of 14 schools should offer kids a chance to work on their own for 2 hours on whatever they want. You want to be a guitarist? You can practice guitar for 2 hours. Schools currently teach kids how to do what their told. What happens when you're on your own and you have to figure out what you want to tell yourself to do? This "class", could also help people find what they're passionate about. I know so many people who have no idea what they want or like, maybe this class could help kids find out. I think the world would be a much better place if everyone had a healthy and fulfilling hobby (except hobby is too dismissive of a word, but you know what I mean). Of course this class would still have teachers, but their main job would just be to encourage the students and to make sure that they are working.
- Completely overhaul the subjects that are taught: OK, this one is a bit radical but I believe it is necessary and could really help our society. First of all I believe that very few people are born exceptional and I don't mean that in a negative way. I just mean that most people are kind of a blank slate when they're born, much more nurture over nature. Yes there is the occasional Albert Einstein or Jeffrey Dahmer who comes around and would be brilliant or evil no matter what. But for the most part I think people are highly suggestible, especially at a young age. Right now we do indoctrinate people with a lot of good values, but there's a lot of bullshit in there too. What I'm trying to say is I think that if we brainwashed human beings into being nice and thoughtful and caring, it would work. So fuck science and math and history, we need to spend 90% of school teaching people to be good. To help their neighbors, to be open minded, to not fight, to be empathetic and never want to hurt another human being because we've truly ingrained it into their skull how important it is to be good. I don't think all traditional education needs to be thrown out the window, but it should be a secondary concern. Would you rather have the person standing in front of you in line at Starbucks know Trigonometry or be a P.H.D. in good gosh darn honest niceness?
- Happiness: We need a class that actively gets kids thinking about happiness, because happy people do not rape or murder. Get people thinking about their own happiness at a young age, make it something that they pursue. Teach them the meaning of real happiness and how it comes from being accepted and valued by people who you respect and by valuing yourself. I think this could help a lot with bullying too.
- Those are the main things I'd change about schools. This last one isn't an original idea of mine, it's one I've heard from many places and I strongly agree with it, teachers should hold a much higher status in our societies. They should be paid more, they should all need doctorates, and they should be revered. You should need more education to teach 5 year olds than you should to teach college. Honestly, these people are in charge of children, their job is ridiculously important and it should be treated as such.
