Skip to main content

"This I Believe"

As someone hoping to be a teacher of English, Literature someday, I hope to improve our existing education system. Yes, there are problems with it, but there is also room for improvement. I believe to get our education system to "perfection", we need to let our students individually decide what they are interested in, and teach for the sake of teaching, not for the sake of passing a test.

I have always hated it when teachers enter a classroom, telling their students that a test is coming up and if they are not prepared they will definitely fail. What is the point of that? All that does is add stress. And say that a few kids managed to memorize everything the teacher threw at them, and pass the test with flying colors. Doesn't mean they learned anything, it just means they know what the teacher wants to see. Why can't teachers come to class excited about what they will be teaching that day? Why can't teachers make their class something to look forward to? Are you telling me that teachers willing put themselves through years of classes and training just so they can hate their job? No! I believe every teacher is passionate about their subject, but some just don't know how to show it. Instead, they focus on how they can prepare tests, or how many points their students can earn in their class. What is the point of a stressful class? For example, I used to love reading and writing until I took an A.P. American Literature class. My teacher seemed to enjoy watching me fail! Every time he handed back a test or an essay, there would be red marks all over it! But did he ever ask me to see him so that he can find out why I am struggling? Did he ever take interest in what was going on in my life? Did he ever even ask why I was struggling? Nope! He just sat there and let it happen! After that I started losing interest in reading and writing, it took a really good teacher who helped me understand my mistakes for me to take an interest again. But that teacher hadn't been there for me, I would have dropped Literature. That's the problem with our education system. It's all so point based, and when you fail you feel so ashamed.

To fix this, I think we should follow Finland's lead and make school less stressful. In Finland, students don't stress about homework because they hardly get any, tests are not the only way to prove your intelligence, and teachers are much more lenient when it comes to grades. Why can't we be like that?

Inspired by: Teacher from Nick Capo 

Comments

  1. Mudita, I can hear your passion through your words! I agree that teaching/learning can't just be about points, tests, and grades. Your post is a great reminder that when students are struggling, the best way to help is for the teacher to ask why. I know you will be that teacher for your students!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sourdough Bread Journey

 I've always been interested in baking bread and I recently took on the endeavour of baking sourdough. Immediately, I started to hear how difficult sourdough bread is to bake due to the the time consuming aspect of baking the bread properly. Even before this journey, I knew that bread-bakers always attributed sourdough to a very difficult bread. So, I started this journey with my guard up, expecting to make many mistakes that would result in uneatable bread.  Guess what. They lied.  I'm not saying it was incredibly easy, there are plenty of lessons I've learned through my mistakes. But those mistakes do not mark a difficulty for me, they mark my accomplishments. I've made mistakes I never thought I could make through my journey of baking sourdough, but they taught me valuable lessons and I don't regret a single mistake I made.  I decided to dust off my blog after taking to a friend about sourdough, and all she had heard about it was that it was the most difficult th...

Book Review: Convenience Store Woman

Keiko sees herself as an essential part of her community; someone who makes sure everyone has what they need whenever they need it, and someone who keeps everything organized for their convenience. Her work is very important to her, she is very dedicated to her job to the point where it's her central focus in life. Work has been the only thing in her life that's made sense, it gives her purpose and she feels safe in that. Keiko is a convenience store woman. Obviously, her family and friends find it very concerning that she's happy working at a convenience store for seventeen years, and that she's never had a partner, which makes her an "other" in their eyes. The thing is, Keiko knows how she is perceived and she doesn't care. She continues happily working at the store until Shiraha, a new hire at the store, moves into her apartment. "Convenience Store Woman" explores the idea of relationships viewed by society, and how society can make you feel f...

My (really awful) Poem About Advocating For Students

I'm really bad at writing poems, especially if they are supposed to convey a deeper meaning. What I want to bring across is how I want to be a positive role model in kid's lives and get them excited to come to class. I want to make my class fun, and have really fun discussions about texts as well as learn how to write your own texts! (Essays, poems, short stories, etc.) I remember sitting in class, dreading every minute of it. Why am I supposed to be interested in a subject that bores me to tears? "You'll use this in real life" my math teachers always said. I think they forgot that calculators exist. But with literature class, I always looked forward to it. I liked discussing opinions and having fun, Our teacher knew how to make the class enjoyable. Our class environment was really friendly and supportive, Which is something I hope to bring in my future classroom. Like I said, my poetry skills are not the best. This is the best I could come up with in ...