Education or Ignorance?

So many kids have been left behind, by the system. This is not only an error, but an actual killing of high potential. They are murdering abilities by this mediocre effort towards giving kids an actual and relevant education.

Why is children’s education treated as a group project rather then as the snowflakes they actually are?

Education is not a contest. It is not something which needs to be ranked. You do not need to victimise an individual, who learns differently than you teach.

I have seen highly intelligent children who fail, only in the education systems eyes, because they are understanding things in different ways. For an example mathematics. Now you would think this is a structured and non-able to be discovered in any other way than how you teach? Think again…

Let me give you an example:

Solve – The sum of the first 10 positive integers.

1. Direct Addition
Add the numbers directly: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55

2. Arithmetic Sequence Formula

3. Gauss’s Method
Pair the first and last numbers, second and second-to-last, etc. and add each pair: (1 + 10) + (2 + 9) + (3 + 8) + (4 + 7) + (5 + 6) = 11 * 5 = 55

4. Visual Representation
Draw a number line from 0 to 10 and visually see the sum as the area of a triangle with base 10 and height 10 –

5. Algebraic Manipulation/Sigma Notation
Use sigma notation to represent the sum and simplify.

Sigma notation, using the Greek letter Σ (sigma), is a shorthand way to represent the sum of a series of terms.
∑(x) from x=1 to 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + … + 10 = 55

All of these ways to solve it are correct. If a kid finds it easier one way over the others, why do you think they should be called wrong? That is how their abilities or their brain works. Do not question how they solve the problem, it teaches them how to analyse and use their own ability to achieve a task. Encourage their ability and don’t dissuade them via degrading the way they feel comfortable in solving problems. This will help them grow confidence to continue finding ways to solve things and testing new ideas and theories. Learning is learning what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes learning the incorrect way, will help them to understand a different way. Mistakes are encouraged as they mean progress towards new ideas or solving problems.

Trying to regiment intelligence is an actual hindrance to intelligence. When idiots or ignorant individuals control they put boundaries around thought or ideas and this leads to stupidity as an expectancy. Without growth, you cannot have intelligent ideas, without freedom to experiment you cannot value intelligence, without support intelligence is crushed by ignorance.

All kids have the ability to be smart and are capable. They are able to achieve in anything, the only thing hindering them are bad education systems, which fail to see their potential.

All kids and in fact adults deserve the right to learn at their own pace and ability, whether fast or slow. It is not a competition, it is a basic human right.

Some people that overcame the education systems ignorance (there are millions not just these few that I have mentioned):

Helen Keller – Overcame challenges with sight and hearing.

Albert Einstein – Asperger’s syndrome

Nikola Tesla – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Emily Dickinson – Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder

Sir Issac Newton – Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Bill Gates – Autism Spectrum Disorder

Barbara McClintock – Autism Spectrum Disorder

Surprisingly, most Nobel Prize winners show likely possibilities of being on the autistic spectrum disorder.

What I am saying with this, is that ignoring these kids with these disorders is a huge waste of potential and in neglecting them, is causing irreparable harm to new ideas and breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Even in entertainment these skills are being lost with music, writing, sculpting, painting etc.

Just because they learn or understand things differently, does not make them stupid. It means they are solving things using their own abilities and not to an ignorant structure.