Education

Earlier at school, my class watched a Chinese TV series called Dangerous Mind. Although it sounds like a "Criminal Minds" Chinese knock-off, it is a show that actually had a lot of substance and allowed me to think rather deeply.

The main theme of the show is that education is not determined by a certificate, exams or just good grades. People should not go to school just to get a piece of paper that tells you that you are an excellent student because that does not make you a great student. What makes a good student is the will to learn.

Another theme in the series is how one person can influence another and how influence can be a dangerous thing. This is completely true as most revolutions were started by the thoughts of one man, then those thoughts are spread quicker than Ebola.

I thought that the main theme is very applicable, especially in schools like mine. Teachers NEVER teach so that the students can learn and benefit from the teachings. The teachers just tell us which questions will probably be coming out in the exam and where to memorize the answer. Emphasis on memorize.

Furthermore, if you were to overhear the students in my school around the school year, they never ask, "What have you learned?". Instead, they ask, "What have you memorized?" This is very bad. Especially since after the exam, everything that was "memorized" does not remain in the head. They are temporarily stored until the end of the exam when they are dumped.

Thus, all students are just blindly memorizing. Sure, it will improve their memory but it does not teach them anything. This completely defeats the purpose of an education.

So, how can we fix this? Make classes more experiential instead of just reading from a book and copying textbooks. Instead of writing down how a scientific experiment works, do it! Instead of sitting down and read about the Islamic influence on our country's history, bring us to museums and teach us with the actual artifacts. Not only our memory of the topic will improve but we will also learn. Everything learned via an experiential method will be imprinted deeply in your mind, especially if the teacher makes it interesting for the students.

Let's take this theory into test with a normal situation. John went to the cinema 2 weeks ago, he still remembers it today because he enjoyed it and experienced it. But John also copied a page of text a week ago, he has no idea what he wrote about, because there was no experience, he was blindly copying.

In conclusion, if a student wants to have a good education, the student should not just be educated for the grades but the student should actually learn and imprint the knowledge in their minds. How? By experiencing the topic of study firsthand.