On education and reforms Comments Off

If you have no patience to read though it all, the bare bones idea of the post is that I think that the reforms of the educational system that most governments undertake are utterly useless. It does not matter how you grade and how many years of school are mandatory. Only two things matter: how good the teachers are and how good is the material they teach.

That was the idea, the rest of the post is a rant, let it be known! A good rant, I believe, but a rant nevertheless. This latest outburst against our glorious education system came to me while sitting on the toilet and reading the latest news from the free newspaper we get at the subway. Free is the only price I’m willing to pay for most newspapers that are published these days and the toilet seems the most fitting place to read it, since it’s full of crap anyway.

While reading the latest and greatest conquests of our glorious political leaders there was a small article in a corner about the new education law. Should I say the annual education reform? Or is it the semi-annual, there are so many I keep forgetting. Anyway, in this last example of pure genius, somebody thought that it would be a good idea to force kids go to school starting with the age of six and to move the 9th grade from high school to elementary school. Also, there were two minor changes that the rector of a university cannot have a political position and a rule against nepotism.

Now, guess which of the changes caused an outrage with academia? What? The 9th grade thing? No, you are wrong, the nepotism and political position rules. And these guys are supposed to shape the minds of the young generation.

Beyond that, please, if anybody can explain, I beg of you, tell me what is so important in starting school at the age of 6 instead of 7 and how does it help to move the 9th grade to elementary school? And yes, I understand that at least with 9 grades, if kids drop-out, they will have some kind of education, and yes, I understand that there is a theory kids are more advanced these days, but what’s the point? This is completely useless, a waste of time, money effort and I’m sure, some sort of a diversion and a way for politicians to point out they didn’t just sat on their asses idle for a year.

I think I’m entitled to rant about education and to have an opinion about it. I’ve been and still am a faithful customer of the education system for more than 20 years of my life, and counting (hopefully for only a few more months). I’ve gone through all levels, learned in 4 countries and changed education institutions 7 times. I’ve studied in systems that had grades from 1 to 5, from 1 to 6, from 1 to 10 and the winner of most useless, from 1 to 12. I’ve studied in countries where I was the older in class because only kids that were really falling behind did the 4th grade, the rest just jumped to the 5th and I was coming from a system where the 4th grade was for everybody. I graduated elementary school after the 9th grade, as our leaders wants us to change the system to, and graduated high school after the 11th grade, because there was no 12th grade.

And in all these schools and systems only one thing was important, how good the teachers were and how good the textbooks were, the rest was unimportant, from start to finish. You can be inspired sitting in a warn-out bench and be born out of your mind sitting behind a state of the art computer.

If it was my choice I would freeze all these useless reforms and focus on getting the best people this country has to offer to want to be teachers, be rewarded to be teachers, be proud to be teachers and let them be teachers and shape the minds of the young. Let them write clear and good textbooks, the kind you will cherish and be inspired by when you read it, the kinds that open kids eyes. And let the teachers tell stories, inspire and show how kids can use their knowledge to build the things they are dreaming off.

But no, let us argue for half a year about a law against nepotism, because that’s what ruined the education system. I’m glad I’m out of school and sad for all the 6 year olds.

One of my previous rants about education is here (in romanian).

Licensed to Rant 3 comments

After 3 months in which a local shop failed repeatedly and with incredible persistence to correctly manufacture the glasses I ordered from them, I found myself one morning walking down the street,  and thinking what I was going to include in my already elaborate and nasty rant to be given to the shop people later that day.

By all means the situation gave me the right to be pissed, but as I was getting angry by just thinking about the incompetence of the people who work in that temple of stupidity where I made the horrible mistake to order the damn spectacles, it downed on me that many times we just feel entitled to rant when the smallest of things is not exactly like we dreamt.

Think about the last time you or a friend of yours complained a little too much and too loud about how a waiter was slow to take your order or how the salesman at X or Y shop was not that nice or so on. It’s like whenever we go in a shop or restaurant somebody gives us special permission to bitch about everything.

I believe that this eagerness to rant about all and everything, even when the reasons are not that good, is fueled by 3 things:

1. Very bad experiences, like my 3 month soap opera for some glasses, teach us that you have to get nasty in order to obtain what you paid for.
2. We tend to abuse our power as a customer, just because we can. The unfortunate guy or gal behind the counter has to smile, because “the customer is alway right!”.
3. It’s easier to bark at people than to be constructive.

I’m going to go and make the people at that eyeglasses shop wish they were never born, because of their incredible incompetence, lack of tact and, what I hate from the bottom of my heart, the inability to admit that they can’t do it. However, every time something will bug me in a shop or restaurant I’ll try to think first and not just act based on experiences like this.

NOTE: The same day I wrote the draft for this post Seth Godin, who I greatly admire, wrote this post, which is somewhat related. It’s a good, short read and I recommend it.

Don’t forget to tell me what YOU think about this? Are we licensed to rant when we enter a shop? Or should we be more human and think before we open our mouths. Waiting on you comments!