Learning For Real: A Little Daydream About Real Schools And Real Results

Self Education is tested with progress and real little achievements,
whereas all the other types, are graded.

I don't know what grades are,
but I know it is easy to memorize disconnected facts, and we quickly forget it all.

I think the moment we get tricked to gather good grades,
we kind of stop learning for real.

The threat of repeating classes or being held back is very real,
we get pushed into pretending to learn.

Not to mention all the crazed and unfair teachers, school bullies, and meangless things,
and sitting in rows, and everything being cut up in 45 minute cubes and mixed up into a memorization salad sprinkled with homework.

And then college, somehow, for some crazy reason,
starts charging money, for more pretending.

They sell this promise of a career,
but only if you and your parents give them all your savings and then some.

The real questions remain, unchanged by fantasies,
we still have to ask if graduates get a real education.

And we have to ask the big questions as well, like how is their mental health,
where are they going in life, how wise have they become, what are the regrets of their elder selves.

How has their compassion for other human beings flourished,
how will they make the world a better place, what is their legacy, and how lasting their contributions.

And then we have to ask,
what if students were learning for real.

What if that perfect GPA, that was fueled by stress, freaking-out, and cramming,
was replaced with actual achievement, not imaginary grades - but real things instead.

What if music class started off with 27 minute and 51 second tutorial on music composition with lmms,
and only ended when someone felt proud to show off their song.

What if art class taught instant results even with inexpensive mirror projectors
and by the time the first lesson was up everyone had a perfect portrait they loved.

Learning math is like trying to learn driving by memorizing all the screws in a car,
the way math is taught is a terrible mistake.

The beauty of mathematics is best appreciated,
by fist learning a little bit of programming and then falling in love with math formulas by means of generative art.

We are taught to hate math,
that is so sad.

More than just real results,
what if schools taught us to bring things together and create bigger things.

So that the students that liked music,
created synthesizers, or programs to automatically remix songs, or even great a new generation of boom boxes out of miniature computers and vintage hardware.

The students who liked art would print 10 foot sculptures with 3D printers,
or generated infinite and fascinating generative art, that could fill a museum, both with visitors and works.

And when time came to go to High School,
the students would be graded by how well they tend to their Business Start-ups.

And in real college - that wouldn't dare to charge a cent -
we took to philosophy, science, wisdom and greatness.

The first lesson would open with,
"Growing up has nothing to do with getting older".

And we took to trying to solve real problems,
like the problem of Nuclear Weapons being fueled up are ready to launch 24/7.

Problem on national borders that creates the conditions,
that push uneducated men, into sending their children into war.

And of course poverty, we invented money,
and trapped every human being in a cycle of stress and poverty, without actually intending to do so.

Beautiful and wise biographies and non-fiction read in a sequence that suits us best and at a comfortable pace,
are so much more meaningful, that one can only wonder what are schools are actually for.

Until real schools exist,
we can't just go along with cramming, memorizing, paying for fake-ish education, and pretending that it is all a good plan.

Self education is so much more meaningful,
and so much more real, filled with memorable milestones, and countless lovely creations.

The most beautiful thing about real education,
is that it helps us to great health, and great adventure.

It does not end in some silly fantasy of graduation,
as in real life we grow to no end, we grow all the way up, until we become Great Beings.