Why Isn't Learning Enjoyable Anymore?
The education system strives on funding. Funding leads to more accesible resources for students and faculty, more resources leads to better equipped individuals. Resources like preparatory programs, after school activities, field trips, tutoring, mental health, wellness resources and SO much more. Without these things school basically feels like a fucking prison.
After watching this video I really appreciated his emphasis on self learning and self teaching yourself and his entire schpeal of prioritizing yourself which leads to self discovery and blending it in with what you need to learn in a classroom (the actual school part). Coming from the public education system with the majority of lower income families and lack of funding, school didn't teach me shit about myself.It didn't motivate me because it didn't offer, teachers would stop showing up, students were fighting principals, quality of classrooms and facilities were a joke. And I could assume those around me felt sort of the same way, the first two school years felt like I could ditch school and no one would stop me because education didn't matter, that's how rigid it turned to be for the most part. With heavy heart that's what most public schools in America face to this day! I feel like the entire education system drains and sucks the life out of our K-12 youth and most of it has to do with financial reasons if not embedded practices that segregates one institution to another, so there's a reason why one school has a better reputation than the school on the other side of town. My point being that we really have to look at the root of the problem and acknowledge the elephant in the room it starts with compromise, what can school offer us to get us excited? How can it spark something in my mind to anticipate myself to even want to enjoy learning and enter a classroom?
If we don't have anything we could offer our youth such as safety in America and start having the community show up, we're looking at bigger problems than trying to find the joy of learning.
Hi Yeida!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! Coming from the public school pipeline for most of my life, I can definitely tell you that I hate school. I had the whole concept of educational institutions but I love to learn you know? But school has never felt like a place where I could go to find myself or leave from feeling like I authentically learned something, even for the great portion of my life experiencing this was rare from me. It would really be in random off-handed moments where I'd have a moment of realization about my identity but it would never be from actual school and it would never be positive. I went to a Charter middle school, which I know many people are against and for good reason but literally the middle school I went to might as well have been a public school with extra steps. Yeah, the college prep aspect was there in minimalistic ways but not really in your face for those 8 hours a day I was there. Learning that educational institutions are considered the secondary institution for socialization is crazy because it's expected, socialization and identity building are meant to be built into the institution but I feel this is only experienced by those who have the privilege of going to greatly regarded schools. We enter this kind of paradox with urban education and it's ridiculous because we could have the resources, the problem isn't that complex but it's just that people refuse to address the root of it. We prioritize and value the experiences and education of some groups of people over others. The myth of meritocracy claims you could pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but reality is that not everyone has bootstraps or their strength to pull themselves up was never adequately developed. Give more resources to those who need it and invest in urban youth through their teachers, curriculum, and learning materials. Only then can we begin to talk about making learning "enjoyable."
Thank you for your post!