“We Live in a Society” a Call for Change

I’d imagine you frequent social media and the internet in general right? Are you familiarized, or have you read by any chance the phrase “Dang, we really do be living in a society” (or any of its variants) as an exclamation of sorrow? It’s quite worrisome to think that the generation of today is perplexed and saddened at such a simple fact. We of course possess a social aspect by nature, and society is our way of co-living with that premise. But as seen and proven, our modern day society really has its fair share of severe flaws that cause the newer generations to feel completely at a loss and out of place. 

Disclaimer: this post will have a wide spread of ideas that aren’t necessarily built upon, but that most likely will be further explained in future posts (or maybe even a book, I’m personally tempted to write a book about this topic). 

It must be clear that this post will emphasize one crucial flaw in our modern day society, its form of education. Let’s all be completely honest, the education implemented has become obsolete. For crying out loud, we’re still using models that have barely even changed from their origins in the medieval period. And if we continue to be honest, most of the existing flaws in any society sprout from this. Remember how I mentioned that humans are by nature social beings? Well they are also unique and subjective. Sure, we share a fair amount of similarities that cause us to be categorized under the same species, but if we compare two or more of us, we would find an endless amount of differences. You may be pondering to yourself, “where is he going with this?” Well, just bear with me. One of our main differences is the way In which we perceive and apprehend information and knowledge. Sadly, “modern” education doesn’t account for that. 

I’ll share a personal experience regarding what was previously mentioned. I’ve never had any trouble in school, but I for sure wasn’t a fan of what they taught, nor how they taught it. In my personal opinions exams never have been an optimal way of testing whether someone has learnt something or not, it’s just a tedious bureaucratic procedure and nothing more. If I have to be completely honest, I don’t remember 80% of the things taught during my academic years (I’m referring to everything before university which is where I’m currently at), but I’ve aced just about every exam presented. This doesn’t mean I studied by heart and just exclusively for the exam, it means that the way that education is implemented doesn’t function as expected. For starters, the previous statement shouldn’t be possible, but somehow it is. And I can reassure this isn’t just my personal experience in play, countless other students probably had similar experiences. 

There are many things that I consider crucial to know, but that the education system apparently doesn’t, or they don’t bother to teach them. Nowadays in university, I see so many other students struggling to survive, and I swear that’s no exaggeration. One of the most crucial elements people should know is how to study, learn for real, and one would think schools would teach you that by the time you reach university, but it’s evident that’s not the case. 

Regarding how I’m not a personal fan of how content is portrayed and taught, this is mainly due to the fact of our different learning styles. Not everybody learns by listening to a lecture, or by reading a textbook that has to much irrelevant information. But, the education system basically presents these options as the soul and spirit of learning. They cut off the complete sense of curiosity and the own achievement we students can pursue of learning in our own proper manner. Returning to my personal case, I’ve heard countless times that teachers almost insist that we stick to the handbooks and solely what comes out of their mouths, I’m just not in accord with those statements. If I would’ve stuck with those premises, in current times I’d probably be a complete wreck. A depression driven zombie. You can’t even begin to imagine how happy I am for not listening to my teachers in that sense. What did I do then? I went and searched for my own information off the internet. It’s truly incredible how many people are extremely skeptical of the internet and ditch it right off the start for any academically purposes. It just seems utterly insane. Sure, false news and misinformation is common currency online, but there is so much potential hidden (and sometimes it’s even in plain sight). The only tool necessary is to know how to fact check, and if schools were to teach just that simple thing, everything and everyone would be so different in our society. 

I’m not saying to get rid of lectures, or to throw away traditional handbooks. As stated, we all learn differently, and that would mean some of us benefit from those pedagogic strategies. What I’m truly trying to point out is that there is so much more out there than just simply what is portrayed in our educational system. And I truly wish more people would be aware of this and start personalizing their forms of learning. Sadly, schools scare most of us out of those kinds of ideas right from the beginning.