No matter how he tried he coud not break free...
...and the worms ate into his brain.
A week ago I stumbled into an interesting discussion about our educational system, and the problems presented by the disparity in educational opportunities worldwide. My half formed ideas floundered and thrashed about for a bit, until I myself was unsure what I was talking about. Not my peak performance. As a result, this question of education has been simmering in my brain for a week, but I only seem to arrive at more questions.
The elite schools educate to a degree which is envied by many, and thoroughly prepares students for any academic challenges thrown their way. The syllabus is demanding, and the teachers unforgiving in their grading - so much so, in fact, that some students tend to burn out before they even get to college. While this is certainly lamentable, it is not the real problem. The problem is that the opportunity to attend such an institution is not available to everyone. Some areas do not have them, while others require testing to be admitted to these advanced schools. It stands to reason that in order to make any sort of meaningful impact, testing and admittance would have to be done at a young age. But, can testing really measure the potential of students? After all, what are young children but a reflection of their parents and their environment? (There are those who extend this argument further, but it is not constructive for the purposes of this discourse).
We could, I suppose, simply improve the educational system and subject all children to it; but what about the children who are unable to keep up? While I’m a firm believer that children will rise to the level to which you challenge them, there are always limits, and those limits will be different for different people. So do we take our current course and slow down teaching to the lowest common denominator in the class and keep the over-achievers from reaching their potential, and create a disgruntled and bored class of miscreants? Do we simply consistently fail the underachievers and create a listless and downtrodden class? If we segregate classes, we end up with the original problem.
Perhaps the solution lies in teaching without grading, but teaching for the sake of teaching. Sounds fantastic, but how do we motivate the students to learn, the parents to place value on education, and society to see any benefit in an educational system that does not allow employers to quantitatively sort and vet potential employees?
Maybe it's the case that with society organized as it currently is, there is no way to perfectly and neatly solve this problem. That the closest we can come right now is offer a variety of sources of public education, including schools, libraries, non-profits, and various after school sponsored community mentoring programs. Maybe not.