The Ghost of Subject Past
If a couple of days ago you came up to me and told me that I would one day show an interest in accounting you’d be covered in a shower of spit that is a necessary prerequisite to any decent laughing of an arse off. But strangely enough that’s what happened yesterday. In total defiance of any potential prediction I would have made up till quite recently I went home and dug up my Frank Wood’s. To further wreck havoc on any remaining hope of ever becoming a respectable psychic I found the damn thing interesting! Luckily, even before the seeds of an identity crisis could dream of being sown I knew what the difference between now and my schooling days was. This time around accounting is relevant. I became interested in it only because I am now seriously thinking of becoming a successful accountant. Not! I am interested because I have started to seriously think about tax procedures in connection with the economic activity called Peklectrick. I will be recording soon, after which comes the purchasing of shit, and the stocking of crap; the selling of this, and the drawings of that. So now that accounting became somewhat relevant and that I can relate to it directly the subject has ceased to be the mind numbing school subject which I constantly avoided. It is now a mind numbing necessary evil which I have to face. Still, I enjoyed reading through it. Of course some accounting guru will say ‘wait till you get to do the ___________ [insert tough accounting concept]’. Fair enough, maybe it is because I’m doing the very basics, but I think there is a lesson to be learnt by all educators.
People learn what they think is relevant. So, it is as simple as teaching relevant stuff and teaching it in a relevant manner. For example, Maths beyond the obvious basics isn’t really relevant, is it? Physics, isn’t taught as if it is relevant either, although it could be. Poetry is not generally of any relevance to school kids either. I never liked poetry in secondary school. In fact I hated it, and thought of it as something I had to memorise rather than appreciate. Why not teach more practical things? Teaching first aid, for example, would be more positive than teaching kids to hate dead poets. Kids have a tendency to learn (as opposed to memorise) stuff like that better. Why not have a population that can do something in an emergency while at the same time is not prejudiced against, say, poetry? Why are we ‘educating’ kids to hate things that they might otherwise enjoy? How about history? History is one of the biggest deficits when it comes to our education. In a small country with such an abundant historical legacy within such a small territory teaching history creatively is very practical. Instead we have a historical super 5 where people fire up random numbers to pass their exams, and remember 1565 because it’s a beer they bought on their latest drinking binge.
Of course this is not to say that teachers are the culprits. Some of them are. Others are doing a great job within the suffocating contexts they work in. The problem lies in the education system which is very convenient for the economic one. The weight of the syllabus and the general obsession with exams and grades, particularly from parents who have duly internalised the competition culture of the market, creates the perfect noose by which any dream of having an education system that educates dies a sorry death.
People learn what they think is relevant. So, it is as simple as teaching relevant stuff and teaching it in a relevant manner. For example, Maths beyond the obvious basics isn’t really relevant, is it? Physics, isn’t taught as if it is relevant either, although it could be. Poetry is not generally of any relevance to school kids either. I never liked poetry in secondary school. In fact I hated it, and thought of it as something I had to memorise rather than appreciate. Why not teach more practical things? Teaching first aid, for example, would be more positive than teaching kids to hate dead poets. Kids have a tendency to learn (as opposed to memorise) stuff like that better. Why not have a population that can do something in an emergency while at the same time is not prejudiced against, say, poetry? Why are we ‘educating’ kids to hate things that they might otherwise enjoy? How about history? History is one of the biggest deficits when it comes to our education. In a small country with such an abundant historical legacy within such a small territory teaching history creatively is very practical. Instead we have a historical super 5 where people fire up random numbers to pass their exams, and remember 1565 because it’s a beer they bought on their latest drinking binge.
Of course this is not to say that teachers are the culprits. Some of them are. Others are doing a great job within the suffocating contexts they work in. The problem lies in the education system which is very convenient for the economic one. The weight of the syllabus and the general obsession with exams and grades, particularly from parents who have duly internalised the competition culture of the market, creates the perfect noose by which any dream of having an education system that educates dies a sorry death.
posted by Peklectrick at 1:43 AM
5 Comments:
I just hate accounts. When I can be 100% sure I won't need the whole pile of notes and books they're going straight to the skip.
In 3rd-year I had a credit that was half management and half accounts. At first I hated the accounts with a passion, but then I locked myself in the library for four hours and I finally got it... walked away with an A too, heheheh.
I disagree with your dismissal of subjects like poetry - you're quite right that it is important for people to have practical skills, but I think that "thinking" is just as important as "doing" (because one without the other isn't much use). I think that the study of poetry encourages people to stop and think about things, to take the time to be thoughtful. When I was ten, I was learning first aid and also writing poetry *grin*
It was never the point. The point is: don't shove things like poetry down people's throats, you cannot like poetry because somebody wants you to. Good for you if you enjoyed poetry at ten. I'm sure the majority don't fall in that category though. :) I think poetry should be introduced later, when people have the capacity to appreciate it as something other than a school subject. Also, learning poems by heart is ridiculous.
As regards the thinking and doing. I don't think that you can seriously 'do' without thinking.
But anyways, cheers for the comment.
i agree with you on the point regarding relevance but not on the implied issue of 'useless' subjects...
many times subjects are rendered inane because you have a nincompoop as a teacher; the subjects as such would be interesting... but it is up to the teacher to make them so... i am sure that there are some very bad teachers competent enough to make first aid look boring and useless...
same thing that occurred to you with accounts happened to me with maths... i hated the fucker but a few years ago i started seeing it as a game instead of a boring subject with no apparent practical use... the philosophy behind teaching maths is to train the mind in logical thought... but it can so easily backfire if your maths teacher is an ass...
I did not imply general uselessness. But I think that in the mind of the student, a subject is not useful if they cannot see the relevance of the subject. My main issue is that certain subjects are elevated (maths for example) to a level where they're considered absolutely necessary when in fact all the maths one learns at school rarely comes in handy. Plus, this elevation suggets, albeit subtly, that other subjects are not important. Education should be much wider in scope methinks.
Another problem is that subjects are presented as, erm, subjects. Anything that is taught at school is, in reality more than a mere subject. It's ingrained in the structure that necessitates a quantification of learning and certification of such quantification. Knowledge is fragmented.
I fully agree that the teacher can make the whole difference though. But teachers have to work within the structure and they are in general limited in their effectiveness.
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