Neuronal Perceptions

“I’m thinking of home-schooling my kids in the future,” said Will, Liz’s boyfriend. “Perhaps Danielle from Desperate Housewives might give me a tip or two on how to do that.”

“Yeah,” I said without thinking. “I see school is rather useless anyway. Though, who is going to do the teaching? We are all possibly going to be high paid professionals, a scientist, a pharmacist and a chemical engineer.”

Will nods. “Me of course.”

“But then do you not have to go out to work? Then your whole degree will be wasted! Though, I agree, school is basically useless nowadays.”

I recall the various things I’ve learnt in school. “Hmm, Maths… We could teach the kid some basic maths within a month, then move him/her on to algebra in the next month… and then calculus in the 2nd half of the year…” Will smiles. He is the math expert to whom I often go to ask for help in college.

“But then your kid can’t just learn math,” I said. “He needs some English too, if not he can’t write. Then of course, Science–Chemistry, Biology…”

I think back to the other things I have learnt in school. We spent the whole of primary school basically trying to get our head around basic maths (addition, subtraction etc). Algebra, Pythagoras’s theorem and others only came in Secondary School. And how about English? There would be Grammar, and spelling and…

And then of course, there were the other subjects. Moral Education, Phys Ed, Geography, History etc. I hated Phys Ed in my school, and often got into trouble when I tried to escape this class. And in this modern world now, who needs Geography and History? Moral Education? Religious studies can cover this area much better than how our so-called “Nilai Murni” can ever hope to achieve.

As I sit here conversing with Will, I begin to realise that education is rather useless after all. Of all the things I have learnt in my Primary and Secondary School, the only things which are of use to me right now are Science, Maths and English. There is nothing else of note in school anymore. Everything seems too spread out… and boring, in fact, only to cater to poor students who cannot catch up on the lessons.

In fact when was the last time you went out into the world and was asked,” My company cannot survive so we have to start cheating our customers by substituting some low quality products. What “nilai murni” don’t I have?” I don’t think I was asked such a thing, and neither should you be. So Moral Education is definitely out big time. Or was it important to know where coal is mined in Malaysia? How is this knowledge that applicable to real life anyway?

Learning isn’t supposed to be fun. It has to be useful and most importantly help nurture the student to mature and ultimately able to contribute to society. Fun is the secondary aspect, understanding the subject should be the top priority. Cut the crap and start concentrating on more important subjects (eg Science for budding scientists), I say.

Yet, beneath the so-called important stuff lies the all-useless element of mundanity and repeatability. Of course… what I mean is your homework! And to see what I’d say about it, why not you try doing some homework first while Darkwolf prepares himself for tomorrow’s post? That’ll surely bring my point about better than it can do otherwise.