Faulty Education

After watching all three of the videos, I've got to say that the video that impacted my views on the education system the most was Ken Robinson's speech. Just like what he said in his video, I believe that the youth should be taught in an entirely different way that what we have been doing in the past. In almost every instances, a student's grade is not based on their intelligence level, but instead on their determination and drive for their desired future. The problem is that each student has had different and unique experiences and in many cases, a student's life and fate can be greatly affected by the crucible of their environment.

Motivation is an important part of the grade that every student gets. One student can be really smart but are just unmotivated to go above and beyond. In "Mindset", Dwiek utilized the classic "Turtle-Hare" metaphor to compare the smart, lazy student to the determined one. No matter how smart you are, being lazy just isn't a successful trait, it demonstrates that getting smarter and honing down your ability to think things through will be better for every student in the long run. The problem with our education system is that it just tests children on temporary "intelligence" instead of the actual ability to grow as a person.

Similar to how the motivation level can sway the grade a student acquires, experience and environment greatly influences the motivation. When someone's upbringing is littered with doubts and negative experiences, their motivation can be greatly affected. There's only two ways that this can go, they either take in all their negative experiences and use it as a catalyst to better their knowledge or just completely fall off thinking that they are insignificant. Whatever the path, it is all based on the person and it would be very difficult to change their mindset. One solution to this problem that can help in alleviating student's mental health is by giving somewhat "tougher" tests that won't determine their grade. People may argue that this would just lower their motivation but how about proposing an incentive to actually try on these mock tests.

One example that I would like to use from one of the videos is Ken Robinson's metaphor of an industrial model of education. His metaphor clearly outlines that with our current education, students seem to become molded into their futures similar to an Iphone being molded to become the perfect product, but what happens if there is a fault in that factory? Just like products in factories, there are a just select few that just aren't right and faulty development can lead to disastrous tragedies. Although it is uncommon, it is not impossible that the mental state of one student can greatly be diminished when put under a tremendous amount of stress. In severe cases, this horrid way of living can lead to mass shootings, suicide, and other avoidable occurrences.
-Marc Pascual