What My Education Failed to Teach Me
Today when I think about what my 12 years of school and 2 years of college education has given me , many things like degree ,certificates and friends come in my mind. But what also comes in my mind are the things it never taught me.we spend our 12-15 years of life in schools and colleges, which is said to make us well equipped and ready for the real world . But is it really the truth, does it really teach us how to deal with our life? No.
From learning about vowels in our first grade to learning how genes are transferred to the next generation in our high school, we learnt a lot of things, but not what we actually needed to deal with our real life(I know gene transfer is real life thing, but still).It proved inadequate in teaching us how to Deal with social and emotional issues of our life.Which explain the alarmingly increasing rate of suicides , drug addiction and juvenile crimes in the country .In spite of their so called ‘A grade’ education system what did they fail to teach the youth that turned them into delinquents? Or what did they didn’t teach me something which I (and everyone else) really needed to be taught :- It didn’t teach me how to deal with the times of my low self esteem and loneliness. It didn’t teach me how to deal with my opinion conflicts with my parents. It didn’t teach me what to do when everything seems jumbled up and hopeless.
It didn’t teach me how to deal with my relationships. It didn’t teach me how to handle financial management. It didn’t teach me how to live when I’m jobless. It didn’t teach me what to do when I get rejected by 10 companies for a job. It didn’t teach me how to deal which the death of someone I love . It didn’t teach me how to fight depression .
It didn’t teach me how keep my friends forever. It didn’t teach me what to do when someone cheats me . It didn’t teach me what to do when I cheat someone. It didn’t teach me what to do when someone breaks my trust. It didn’t teach me what to do when I breaks someones trust . It didn’t teach me about how long should I hang on to person who doesn’t care about me.
It didn’t teach me when to make or when not to make a compromise for good of family and friends . It didn’t teach me that believing in myself and my dreams is the only way to success. It didn’t teach me that success not always means happiness but happiness always means success It didn’t teach me how to fight for something I feel is right. It didn’t teach me how to fight with people I love for something which is right. And it didn’t teach me thousand other things which I needed to deal with my so called real life.
These are the things which should be taught if we want a child to develop into a socially and emotionally strong person . what we need is a curriculum or a program that teaches us all this,which is taught to us along with the regular curriculum. So that in times of depression and frustration the youth doesn’t take step which he regret for a life time,or more disturbingly did not regret . So that he love himself and his dreams and want to achieve it only through right means. What parents and teacher fail to see is more than the bookish knowledge of the world we need a knowledge to deal with the difficult situations of our lives .
So that we fall while walking alone the world ,but less number of times.The child who is taught to deal with life in a right way from his early years always proves to become a better adult and a better human being. There are hundreds of things my formal education taught me and thousands which it didn’t. It made me smart enough to know that tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable but knowing that couldn’t help me deal with a broken heart or some broken bones, could it?
