Have you ever felt like an incompetent student? Maybe that school just isn’t your thing? We go to school to learn and expand our minds, yet the systems which we follow choose to present education in a ‘one size fits all’ format. So, what happens when you teach every student the same way? You get all kinds of different students questioning if they are capable of succeeding. It didn’t take me long to feel like I was dumb under this system. Yet, luckily, I’ve been able to overcome the pursuit of standardized learning, but the wrath of this generalization persists.
When I was in middle school, it became apparent to me that math was not my strong suit. Struggling, I labeled myself as a student who ‘wasn’t a math person.’ Now I question if maybe it wasn’t me who wasn’t a math person, but that I was simply only taught one way to learn it. I’ve always been a hands-on learner who needed to write things out, say them out loud, work in groups, e.t.c., but at school, I was consistently taught on a theory-based level which made it difficult to fully comprehend things. I’ll always remember the time a teacher called me up to the front of the class to solve an equation. I was paralyzed with embarrassment and fear since I knew I wouldn’t be able to solve it; it was never taught to me in a way that made sense. I froze. She looked at me, frustrated and disappointed. This made me feel inferior and I wondered why school was so hard for me. Why couldn’t I get high marks? Why did none of the explanations make sense in my head? Sadly, this led to a resentment for learning. The number of subjects or topics I swore off because I felt I wasn’t smart enough has been a shameful waste of knowledge.
A close friend of mine excelled in math and science growing up. She could bury her head in books for long hours, with an ease that made it look effortless. I was envious that she was every teacher’s dream, yet I could barely study for one minute before the words faded from my memory. I always thought she was smarter than me because she was able to study so well, and this feeling of not being capable enough runs deep when you’re in middle school. Then one day, she asked me to help her with an essay, and for the first time, It clicked. Here I was explaining something that I found to be easy, yet it was difficult for her. This was a simple example of two smart individuals who just happened to learn in opposite ways.
Flash forward to high school (before deciding to go to university), I planned on applying to college since I knew I was a hands-on learner. When I told my school guidance counsellor, she confidently said that I was “better than that.” This notion of hierarchy in education is not uncommon and further solidifies how one way of learning is favoured in secondary schools. Both college and university are perfectly-suited paths, yet schools make it abundantly clear which one is deemed superior.
While most university/college students are finally able to learn what they love and have escaped robotic schooling tendencies, secondary students remain struggling. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has recently taken out the option for applied and academic math courses. Now, the course has been made more general which will inevitably result in student setbacks. This decision further exemplifies how Canadian school systems do not strive for learner individuality. Students are told to take a career aptitude and personality test to show us who we are. So, why don’t we take the learner test and finally make education more inclusive. Learning does not have to be an academic uniform we’re forced to wear.
Countries such as Finland have made strong efforts to give education the makeover it needs. Implementing rules such as lowering homework amounts and allowing students to discover their strengths and weaknesses, has significantly increased the country’s educational quality. Their approach enables students to grow into their minds and discover how they individually operate. With this practice in place, students can learn accordingly and dive into subjects they are interested in, aligning with their developing personalities.
The reality is that learning should never feel scary or off-limits. For anyone who’s ever thought about quitting a subject because a teacher made you feel like you couldn’t do it … It’s time to prove them wrong.