Why Does School Suck?: The Shortlist

[Subb]

Let's just make a shortlist of reasons why school as usual is far from the best way to learn. The object is to get a concise list we can refer other people to. They can be anecdotal, fact related, addressing a particular aspect of it, pointing out something that will make people look at it in a different perspective-Anything that's short and has a point, really. I'll join in with my share in a bit.

[Ky]

1. Attendance is compulsory - one does not simply choose not to go to school. If having the state oversee the education of the next generation is such a good idea, why does it have to be implemented through force?

[timf]

Quote:Why Does School Suck?: The Shortlist

1. It's like slavery. People use coercive force to make you do what they want.
2. It's like prison. You are locked in an institution where the inmates can mess with you and you have nothing to say about it.
3. It's like a circus. You can be humiliated and put on display for others to laugh at.
4. It's like a con game. The staff is paid because you learn. If you don't learn, it is because you are a failure.
5. It's like a factory. You are industrially processed so that much of what makes you you is stripped away and replaced with a cyborg personality that is more compliant.
6. It's like a communist political reeducation camp. You are bombarded with values and views that others want you to have.
7. It's like chess. You learn that your only value in the world is as a pawn for others to use.

[brainiac3397]

1.It's based off the educational policy of a military state from the 19th century
2.It relies on forced attendance, forced participation, and harsh punishment for disobedience
3.It uses negative punishment to "change" behavior, sometimes extremely
4.Arbitrary "leadership", vague chain of command, inefficient management
5.Foolish beliefs in how to education students, relying on memorization and repetitive work.
6.Creativity is a no-no. Individualism is a no-no. Must Conform, Must Obey.

[MurkScribe]

1. The social hierarchy in school, which disconnects fellow students from one another as enemies. Reinforces behavioral normality and gender roles. Hierarchy is harmful and degrading to everyone, especially the ones on top.

[brainiac3397]

That'd be from the natural form of tribalism that seems to be the default social state of a human being.

[KFC Nyan Cat]

The fact that it's just a vehicle for countries to compare to other countries for no fucking reason?

[TheShadow]

1. You're forced to go to it, whether you like it or not.
2. At times, no alternative to go to, leaving you with public school.
3. Not about learning, but behavior modification. Learning to shut up and do as you are told (basically make you a dumb, conforming puppet of the system)
4. Grades. They ruin learning. It's not about learning new information in school, it's about memorising as much shit as possible for a stupid letter or number that doesn't represent what I know and what I can do.
5. Memorization. A completely ineffective learning method with most stuff. Makes you lose interest in the material.
6. No real say. It's shut up and sit down and memorize and do tasks that you don't give two halfs of a shit about.
7. Basically destroys the desire to learn. As you go through this system, you start to associate learning with memorization. This form of learning is boring and ineffective (at least when it's compulsory, as things work better when people want to do them, "BUT THE KIDS ARE STUPID AND DON'T HAVE INTEREST AND DON'T WANT TO DO IT" No that's because you have an unstimulating enviroment.) Because of stupid learning method and grades, you don't want to do any 'learning'. Just the thought of it sickens you.
8. No real creativity allowed. At my school we have around 2-3 a week of creative stuff.... Which is forced as f**k and doesn't really help us become creative at all, especially when we have around 26 hours of non-creative stuff which cancels the creative stuff out.
9. Authoritarian enviroment. Not allowed to say anything unless the teacher says so. Not allowed to eat or drink at all, and you can't go to the toilet without permission, for fucks sake....
10. Punishment and reward. Because that will help me so much on my journey.
11. Sometimes you need to wake up really early, thus becoming sleep deprived. Smart move.... "Go to bed earlier!" Because that'll help me and others... Sure... Let's go to bed 2 hours earlier! Yeah! And then have teachers and parents complain because our grades aren't good enough anymore.
12. Completely ineffective methods when it comes to languages. "MEMORIZE THESE WORDS AND THESE GRAMMAR RULES YOU'LL BECOME GOOD AT IT."
At my school (Which it a HAVO school, here in Holland it goes from VMBO to Havo to VWO. VWO being the hardest and HAVO being the semi-hardest, almost at VWO level) There are people who can't speak or write english that well... in their 4th year of high school. Meanwhile I speak it fluently and my writing is pretty good too. Never memorized stuff, never learned grammar rules directly. Just praticed and became better. In 6th grade I could already speak English, I was already really good at it, took me 2/3 years to get to that level. Eventually, after a while, you'll understand a language. Sub titles may help you understand the language in the beginning. Actively searching what stuff means may work, even though I've never really done it.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

There’s a place I know of. Every individual in this place has a job allocated to them. There are lots of workplaces but the jobs are all pretty much the same.

Everyone is divided into departments. These departments aren’t based on interests. They’re based on what tax year someone was born into. Training is based on specific times for specific training topics for specific departments.

Training happens during these particular times for everyone, regardless of the ability level. Doesn’t matter if someone is ahead, behind or on track for training, they all get trained on the same thing at the same time.

During training, these individuals are expected to learn a lot of things. Training rarely has anything to do with workplace advancement. Training involves minutiae – something that the employees will be expected to regurgitate during their supervisions. If the trivia is forgotten after the supervision, bosses will not care.

These employees are expected to take work home with them, past their punch-out time. If a few employees from any department misbehave, the entire department is expected to do overtime for free.

These employees don’t get paid for the normal work and training. They aren’t allowed to strike or take action short of strike such as a work-to-rule without risking sanctions. Their break and training times are dictated from on-high. There is a special authority designated to rounding up those that are brave enough to strike. They must request permission to attend to bodily needs e.g. getting a drink of water or going to the ladies or gents.

Their bosses do get paid and are allowed to strike and take action short of a strike. Their bosses chose this job. Unlike the employees, the bosses don’t have a minimum term. The employees didn't choose this job but sadly, there are few alternatives.

If you’re as outraged about the treatment of these employees as I am, there is hope. There is a group that is working to change this. To find out more, please visit the forums for <Insert charity name> here.

((Maybe shove that on blogs? Obviously, give the charity a reasonable name. The link naturally leads to school survival))

[James Comey]

God, I have a lot to say about this fucking topic. Let's get this shit over with. Ignore the intro and I'll try to be politically correct.

1. School is not a good learning environment because it's all about popularity and narcissism. Perhaps at one point it really wasn't too harmful, but with the incredible widespread popularity of social networking, and the increase in "leadership" and student governments, etc, popularity has become a toxic hazard in the "learning environment". You're constantly exposed to the popular people every day, and it clearly sets a segregating factor between popular and non-popular. Sadly, the non-popular often correlate with all the ASD, schizotypal students, etc.

2. School is not a good learning environment because you are treated like a factory worker. You are expected to show up every day, obey all your superiors, do every task, and repeat all the time. You are never taught to think of yourself as a true full individual, and your creativity is to be sucked completely out of your body in favor of test scores and grades. Free speech and thinking of full human rights and amendments are strictly prohibited.

3. School is not a good learning environment because the ideology behind it is based on 19th century social Darwinianism. There's a whole "survival of the fittest" in which every student must compete with each other, and cooperation is strictly prohibited, unless called for, which in the end is pointless because the only the individual's grade matters. Humans must cooperate with each other in order to advance. (Ironic given the social aspect of school is the opposite)

4. School is not a good learning environment because there is the unfortunate implication of literal neuro segregation going on. All the "special" kids have IEPs, are put in dumber classes, and are practically stigmatized and degraded in front of the rest of the school. This puts them at a disadvantage at the theoretical school rat race. Unfortunately, the terms "ghettoization" can be quite accurate.

5. School is not a good learning environment because of the seriously disturbing implications of totalitarianism. Never mind what goes on in my school but zero tolerance policies, suppression of free speech, and lack of internatl options really make schools literal dictatorships inside a democracy.

6. School is not a good learning environment because it's boring. Enough said. Irrelevant subjects, deliveries that don't engage the student, being forced in small cubicles with other people who aren't engaged in the subject, bland textbooks, and rigorous tests and homework make being at the DMV a much more exciting place than school.

Overall, school is NOT about learning. Far from it, my friend.

[xcriteria]

Related thread on Quora -- a lot of people there get it!

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-chil...rds-school

[Cianna200]

1. uncaring People believe that coercion is good: We are forced to go to there, we have no say in this, because we are younger they believe they can push us around, and coercion is stressful and shows a lack of respect.

2. You are taught the same things over and over again: It is a common misbelief that memorization is the same as learning and on top of that, we are basically taught the same things throughout school, they just get more complicated as the hellish years go on.

3. Selfish parents: Schools brainwash our parents. As if Parents care more about our achievements than just the fact that we are their children. We are punished (usually by having electronics taken), yelled at or even physically harmed.
It's as if the worth of our children is only high if they can do good in school, I don't want to believe this is true but sadly there is so much evidence.

4. Complete and utter humiliation: If we make a wrong move than we could be set up as laughing stocks, (it is usually the fault of the teachers) bullying is allowed to continue on, our self esteem is destroyed when we make mistakes in this hellish building.

5. Useless information: How many people have gone to dance class, received essays about a story ect? School is supposed to prepare you for the real world right? How does dancing and and giving a written report about the pilgrims help us survive when we have to face the real world? Unless a hoodlum marched right up to me with a gun demanding me to dance or get shot, I don't see how this can help you live in the real world. We are not being lazy by not doing the work, this is not laziness, this is a matter of principle! Where is the freedom of speech, freedom of learning ect.

6. Needs are denied: Let's face a more immoral fact about the school procedure. When we are hungry, we can't eat until the school says we can eat, if we have to use the bathroom, we either are not aloud to go or must get permission to do so, if we are tired and fall asleep in class, we are written up or (loudly) reprimanded by the teacher. Fun is a need, if we don't have entertainment, we become very bored and boredom can be destructive, we are already bored out of our minds with the mountains of lessons we receive. Love is a need, without it, we are unhappy and hopeless, however openly showing affection is a crime at school (anyone ever heard the story about how a boy and girl got in huge trouble with cops for hugging?) Everyone needs a hug, what's so wrong about it, nothing.

7. No talking/interacting: We are social beings, talking is just one type of interaction. Until we are paired in group assignments, talking is a crime in school. Sure it can get a tad noisy, but it's just rambunctious conversation .
We need friends, life is meaningless without friends, like I said before love is a need, and most of the time, the love just isn't there. Elementary school was the worst for me, I had only a few friends.

8. Parent teacher conference: Your parent/s are brought up into the school just to see how worthy of a person or how worthless of a person their child is. This ties into the "humiliation" passage because Parent teacher conference is so embarrassing. I got forced to go with my grandma (I knew what she was trying and she should be ashamed)

9. Mean teachers: Okay this may sound childish but who isn't bothered by disrespectful and selfish teachers?
They are not good for a child's self esteem. We have seen children cry or get angry because a touchy teacher can't
make the mature decision to be patient and compassionate with the students. Mean teachers produce fear, and fear is a huge obstacle when it comes to learning. In my opinion, only nice teachers should work, not obnoxious ones.

10. Getting up extra early: Ugh, now who wants this?! Another stressful part of school, is preparing for it.

11. Much of what we taught will be forgotten: Because school believes that remembering is the same as learning, much of what we (remembered) will soon be lost from our minds, what a total waste of time. On top of that, most people know this will happen but they continue to feed us useless information. I asked my grandfather why this happens, but he can't give a logical explanation, I'm very suspicious.

12. True lessons are missing in school: I'll leave this up to people

13. No freedom: Freedom, without it, we could go insane, even outside of school we aren't truly free, but there is more freedom than inside the schools.

14. Zero tolerance: Seriously, is this their idea of how to prepare for the real world?
This is very very dangerous, it brings so much fear.

15. School is still here and will continue to be here in the future: Unless people decide to rely on common sense and reason, all of this madness will be here now and for a very long time. Surprisingly, most famous people are anti school.
Right now, the minds are trapped, and desperately seeking freedom, but this will never come until we learn to undo school.

I could say other reasons why school sucks but I'll stop here.

[xcriteria]

These are some excellent lists. There's actually a related page on School Survival, which is high in google results, and it's the most-visited page on the site. I wonder if we could update that page, with some of the ideas here, and make it more visually-appealing at the same time.

http://www.school-survival.net/blog/p/wh...chool/1490

Maybe we could also get an illustration made, that brings all these things to life.

[Ky]

2. In urban vernacular, to "get schooled" is to lose in a humiliating way.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

http://www.startschoollater.net/about-us.html

[James Comey]

We should make a comic book about these things and have it distributed....

[c00ldud3]

the negative psychological effects that the model has on a child's delicate, sensitive and creative mind.
the results can be disturbing

[Trekkie_Aspie]

I don't know about comic books but we could make an animation via things like POWtoon or RSAanimate. Tedtalks, maybe?

Or...Pixton for comic books?

[Dikont5]

http://www.sharecare.com/health/mental-h...ainwashing

The fact that you are legally being brainwashed and adults quite simply never realize this fact and you are stripped of your values and emotions.

[tybat00]

1. PREPS. EW.
2. The hierarchy that states that a senior, no matter how much of an absolute piece of shit he is, is still better than a freshman.
3. We don't have a choice; some asshole in congress made a bill that turned into a law that made school attendance mandatory.

[Missile]

The fact that it has an ineffective "one size fits all" system of learning is also worth mentioning

[Dikont5]

Oh boy, do I have a lot to say.

1) Tests. When the fuck are tests important outside of schools? Unless you need them, to get a job doctor and police exams, they're basically useless. In the workplace, doing more work and showing leadership skills are much more important.
2) Memorize. I'll memorize shit when I want to. Authority figures seem to equate memorization with intelligence. We're not in China, and there are other methods that can be utilized for learning.
3) Respect. Respect is earned not given, my dean of discipline said this, yet she seems to think respect MUST be given to authority. Bullshit, that's faulty reasoning, YOU have to EARN your respect as well, which she didn't obviously.
4) Learn useless shit that can never be applicable to your life. Why should kids fail because they can't understand solve x^4 + X^3 + 2X^2 + 4X -8=0? Let's face it unless I'm a scientist or engineer I'll never use this again, so why start now? I'll relearn it in college anyways so why does it matter?
5) School Appropriate. Unless you live under a rock, most of our entertainment in school is dumbed down so it can be "educational" and "fun". We can't watch movies unless they're for kids which diminishes the value of them.
6) Pledging to an inanimate object. Why THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO BEND MY ASS OVER TO SOME STUPID-ASS FLAG!? IT'S NOT A BEING FUCKTARDS SO WHY DO I HAVE TO SAY THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE EVERYDAY!? We aren't in the 6th century where some mystic rock has magical powers. I believe that the flag should be the president by the way we give our undying allegiance to it everyday.
7) Human Rights Violations. Not a lot has been said about this, but why am I treated like B.F.Skinner's rats? We are told to conform and we can't use the bathroom unless we ask for permission and we can't eat or drink when we want to. We're treated like animals, and have to get good grades to entertain the higher-ups.

That's all for now. I needed to get that off my chest.

[LordSeliph]

1. It's forced
2. It's run like a dictatorship
3. It strips us of our snowflake factor
4. They brainwash you
5. Unnecessary tests
6. "Appropriate"
7. You have no choice
8. No freedom
9. Everyone is annoying
10. School days are of unrealistic length

[schoolsux]

Tests- Tests are not accurate forms of student progress. They just see how much shit you can cram in your head. They cause serious panic for everybody. But when they get into the real world, it's useless.

One size fits all!- No, it doesn't. Every student learns at their individual pace. Why force students who learn faster than others stay behind with everybody else? Just do the opposite with slower learners.

Treatment of people with "disorders"- People with an IEP or 504 are treated as they are idiots. Same goes with people with ASDs (like myself), even when the student may actually be superior in intelligence.

Respect- Students are forced to give respect to authority. People consistently say "Respect is not given- it is earned.". But school staff force you to give them respect. They should EARN respect, not be given it.

Homework- School loves to invade our lives. It doesn't just do it for 7 hours a day in the building- it also takes over your home life. It's just a ploy used by teachers to brainwash parents and students into thinking that school needs to invade our home life, along with our 7 hours of incarceration away from home.

Freedom of Expression- We students are denied freedom of expression most of the time at school. If I decide to put all of my teachers onto a list, rank them from best to worst, and put it online, I get in trouble. Or saying that I hate a certain teacher. Bam! Sent to the office.

"Appropriate"- Entertainment at school is dumbed down to educational "fun". That "entertainment" will keep us students bored out of our minds.

Brainwashing- Schools want you to think that you need to be turned into a factory worker who obeys every command and repeats. It turns you into virtual slaves. It makes you think that learning the Pythagorean Theorem is going to be useful when you work at McDonald's (for example). It makes you think they need to invade your home life (see Homework).

Treatment- Students aren't even allowed to do their business without asking permission. We are treated like slaves. You would think slavery was outlawed in the mid 1860's, right. Well, it's not. It's being enforced at many schools across the USA (and world). There was also a law that banned child labor. School forces us to memorize useless facts like what ocean topography is when, in reality, at least 90% of us won't use that after state testing.

Treatment (by peers)- The popular students always make fun of the students of the lower popularity levels. Many students worldwide go into school every day that they will be humiliated by the popular students (who will likely be the ones who ask "Do you want fries with that?" after college) or physically bullied by fellow students. That combination may even drive people to the point of suicide. It's awful that people are forced into this kind of environment called school.

[schoolsux]

I also forgot it is forced. Students shouldn't be forced to be incarcerated for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year, for 12 years.

[Education-Reformer]

I agree with all the above points, they tell us that we're lucky to be able to go to school and get an education, yet we dread waking up at 6 o'clock getting on the bus and going to school everyday. I personally think that school is a sort of introduction to different subjects that we may want to get a job in some day. Here is a poem that I wrote that really goes along with this:
Something needs to change.
Education is supposed to be a privilege,
Not a burden.
We should be taught at a young age to love learning,
Not despise it.
This is why students would rather spend their time drawing than doing math problems.
There is nothing wrong with drawing.
But we should all hate math.
Because its mandatory.
And that’s what we were taught.
We live in a society where education is viewed as punishment by the students.
The only way to have a good life in the future is to get good grades.
Grades shouldn’t be able to tell how “smart” a student is.
Grades don’t represent learning.
Only obedience.
A student is viewed as “bad” or “dumb” because they forgot their homework or were having a hard time on the day of the final.
Grades can easily sway depending on assignments and tests.
They determine if you “pass” and can go on to new material.
Or fail and repeat what you already have learned with no modifications.
Once you pass only a few people look at the grades that once defined you.
School is a way to go from point a to point b.
After point b you can choose to go to point c or even go to point d or e from there.
No one cares what you actually learned between the points.
Only that you made it.
Who cares if you forgot everything you learned the day after you learned it.
No one.
All that educators care about is the amount of time it takes to teach a lesson.
Not the time it takes to learn it fully.
Teachers use their textbooks as a substitute for their own teaching to the class.
Nothing keeps the students from just searching and finding answers to conserve time.
They never absorb any of the information,
And that’s what most of the so called “good” students do,
And they get through life with straight “A”s but never learn anything.
Beside them are the people who are reading everything but only learning a fraction of what the teacher thinks they are.
The student could feel discouraged,
Give up thinking that they’re not good enough.
But most of the time the students could care less,
The teacher is only seeing the test scores.
Rules get stricter.
Homework levels grow.
New theories are tested.
And the student is still not learning anything.
The teachers, principals and superintendents all have different theories of how students should be taught,
But do they ever come to us?
Never,
We would take advantage of that,
As everyone seems to think.
We would use that to get away from school work .
Everyone wants to learn deep down.
They just don’t always know that.
The “why” is rarely ever taught.
Only the “how”.
With only the “how”,
How can you learn?
Students should get up almost every morning excited for school.
Not hiding from it.
They go to school for their friends.
Not their education.
Education is a burden,
Not a privilege.
Something needs to change.

---

I agree with all the above points, they tell us that we're lucky to be able to go to school and get an education, yet we dread waking up at 6 o'clock getting on the bus and going to school everyday. I personally think that school is a sort of introduction to different subjects that we may want to get a job in some day. Here is a poem that I wrote that really goes along with this:
Something needs to change.
Education is supposed to be a privilege,
Not a burden.
We should be taught at a young age to love learning,
Not despise it.
This is why students would rather spend their time drawing than doing math problems.
There is nothing wrong with drawing.
But we should all hate math.
Because its mandatory.
And that’s what we were taught.
We live in a society where education is viewed as punishment by the students.
The only way to have a good life in the future is to get good grades.
Grades shouldn’t be able to tell how “smart” a student is.
Grades don’t represent learning.
Only obedience.
A student is viewed as “bad” or “dumb” because they forgot their homework or were having a hard time on the day of the final.
Grades can easily sway depending on assignments and tests.
They determine if you “pass” and can go on to new material.
Or fail and repeat what you already have learned with no modifications.
Once you pass only a few people look at the grades that once defined you.
School is a way to go from point a to point b.
After point b you can choose to go to point c or even go to point d or e from there.
No one cares what you actually learned between the points.
Only that you made it.
Who cares if you forgot everything you learned the day after you learned it.
No one.
All that educators care about is the amount of time it takes to teach a lesson.
Not the time it takes to learn it fully.
Teachers use their textbooks as a substitute for their own teaching to the class.
Nothing keeps the students from just searching and finding answers to conserve time.
They never absorb any of the information,
And that’s what most of the so called “good” students do,
And they get through life with straight “A”s but never learn anything.
Beside them are the people who are reading everything but only learning a fraction of what the teacher thinks they are.
The student could feel discouraged,
Give up thinking that they’re not good enough.
But most of the time the students could care less,
The teacher is only seeing the test scores.
Rules get stricter.
Homework levels grow.
New theories are tested.
And the student is still not learning anything.
The teachers, principals and superintendents all have different theories of how students should be taught,
But do they ever come to us?
Never,
We would take advantage of that,
As everyone seems to think.
We would use that to get away from school work .
Everyone wants to learn deep down.
They just don’t always know that.
The “why” is rarely ever taught.
Only the “how”.
With only the “how”,
How can you learn?
Students should get up almost every morning excited for school.
Not hiding from it.
They go to school for their friends.
Not their education.
Education is a burden,
Not a privilege.
Something needs to change.