What I Wish My Education Was Like

I recently read an article from The New York Times that does a sufficient job of summing up my educational experience. Basically, I got As in all my classes and didn't learn anything. Okay...that's probably not fair. I learned how to take a multiple choice test. I learned about SparkNotes. I learned how to do the least amount of work possible for the grade I wanted. In essence, I learned how to work the system.

Every once in a while, a bright spark of a teacher would challenge me and push me to actually learn the material. However, I can count those teachers on one hand. I don't want to blame teachers, though. The problem with the education system is bigger than teachers, bigger than administrators, and bigger than students. And quite honestly, I don't have a solution. Learning is such an individual experience that when you attempt to create a program that fits every student, it ends up not fitting any student. I stopped thinking about how we could reform the entire education system and started thinking about what kind of education I personally wanted.

When I started college, I was struck with the thought that my education is getting in the way of my education. The classes were somewhat helpful and the instructors often imparted a sliver of their vast knowledge to me, but there is so much about school that is such a waste. I realized that I was learning more things on my own outside of school than I was in my classes. I thought of all the time I spent in class and working on things for class and wondered what I would know if I had just been given that time to study what I wanted. I think I'm a pretty intellectually curious individual and if you just gave me a library and a dedicated time for study, I would be able to learn so much more than from a traditional education. I would learn things that truly interested me, and that seems like it would be of so much more value to me. I wouldn't need to sit through the same lecture about Realism in American literature or write the same paper analyzing a text from a certain critical perspective. I could pursue things that interested me. If one week I wanted to read Charles Dickens' novels and the next week I wanted to study astronomy, nothing could stop me. Professors would be there to guide me and help me, but they wouldn't assign things and dictate my learning. I would go where my intellectual curiosity led me.

Obviously, this kind of education is not feasible on the largest scale, and it wouldn't be right for every student. It's what I imagine would be the perfect thing for me. I'm about to graduate, though, so I will play the game for a few more weeks. After that, I will be free to do what I please with my time, and I intend to take advantage of that. I've got a stack of books a mile high in my room waiting patiently for me and a list of subjects I want to know more about. At the end of my education, my education is just beginning.