The title given for this post literally suggests of a tree that climbs monkeys. (Because of the letter a missing between climbing and tree, funny how a letter is so important in making sense)
To the point now- Look and the picture below and think if you can relate to it. There is a similar story I have heard about an eagle that grows up with a family of chickens all its live thus it believes that it cannot fly. It opened my eyes and gave me perspective as to how the education system may be unfair to different people in society. Especially today when we see someone not reaching his or her full potential, we should ask ourselves- is it because the person is really stupid or because he is different, where the person is not as capable as we are in different areas. I believe that when a person is bad in, for instance, academics, then he must be extraordinary in other areas such as the arts. Its just about finding your talent and having people to believe in you, with the resources needed to peruse talents.
So we should not think poorly of others when they are not capable to do things that are easy for us. This may cause believe to end up living all their lives that they are stupid and incapable which I think is not the case at all. Believe in everyone, as who knows, someday this person that we think of as a lump of stone will polish into a shining diamond.
These is one of the many thoughts that comes into my mind when I think about some issues in our society. Does it make any sense to you? Comment below :)
Personally, I think that there are a few excuses to this:
ReplyDelete1) It is hard (and even possibly near impossible) to actually streamline an education or examination to fit every single person's preference and strength, simple because some have yet to recognize their personal strengths, while others' strengths simply do not fit the curriculum.
2) Considering how there are a few desired endpoints, mostly pointing back to a few popular professions (such as your doctors, lawyers, etc.), it is foolish not to have a standardized examination since it allows a more fair streamlining body.
3) Customizing an education for every single person is truly a waste of time.
That said, I don't fully condemn this picture because I too support the belief of ensuring everyone receives an equal opportunity to receive the best education and recognize one's own potential. To that, I have 2 key suggestions:
1) Rather than just have 1 form of examination, why not have different stages of evaluation to actually evaluate each person's strength and weaknesses? If a monkey can climb a tree, great for him. but we shouldn't make climbing a tree the only form of evaluation. Probably, the next stage of evaluation could be swimming? Flying? Carrying a large piece of wood? That, itself, is a fair form of evaluation. This is because everyone is judged based on many assessments, and who knows, probably the elephant desires to be a monkey and could climb a tree? You never know ;)
2) Given the circumstances here, we should always remind ourselves that there are, undeniably, a certain class system in the society. This means to say that as much as we don't want people to believe they're stupid, there must be people to fill up the bottom class of our society (crude, but it's the truth). Yet, education should always be a medium to educate people and guide students through, considering how it is the only place people can climb up the social ladder. Education should NEVER be used as a judgement medium.