I remember being in history class, not too long ago, and my teacher brought up teaching by rote. When questioned as to what it meant, the class discovered that it referred to a teaching technique where students just had to memorize a lot of things and were quizzed on it. My teacher then said that it was a good thing that that system has been discontinued.
It hasn't.
Classes like history and science, mostly, is just rote memorization. There is no formula you can plug into and say, "4x-3y to the power of 1920's speakeasies= who won the election of 1902". That leaves us with memorizing everything, and then losing anything that didn't interest us. That is not a very efficient system.
Math and English are better, to a degree, since you learn formulas and apply the knowledge into other examples. But once you reach sixth or seventh grade, you know everything you'll need to know if you aren't planning on entering that field. No acting job will ever require me to know the volume of a sphere.
This system didn't always suck however. There was a time when school was the only place to get this information, and that was why it was so vital. Nowadays, the Internet can be used to find literally almost anything you would need to know. Now you don't have to memorize the President in 1812, because Google does.
It isn't a good idea to get rid of school. I'm not going to even entertain that notion. But school needs to adapt to the times, not cling to old ways that no longer work or are no longer important.
Students all over the world are having information that is not important to them or relevant to society today shoved down their throat. It's time someone asked "Why is there a hand in my mouth?"
Thanks for reading and considering,
-J.Valett
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