The Strongest Succeed

Realizing that I haven't posted in several weeks (what seems close to a month), I would first like to apologize to those who were interested in my postings and hoped to read more on my thoughts. Unfortunately, my life has gotten busier than usual, and due to school as well as extracurricular activities, I have been unable to find the time to write on this blog. An additional fact to add to my excuse is my laziness and my inability to control myself from going to websites such as facebook and waste my time.

My apology being written, I feel that there should be a one sentence update, to make sure that everyone understands that my circumstances have changed from when I first started writing. I have reconnected the internet back at my house (yesterday morning) and developed closer friendships with many individuals. Through my break from writing, I've been listening to the viewpoints of many students, educators, and my mom to understand the flaws in my views, and I hope to use my wider span of information and insight to mold my views toward the education system.

Getting all those formalities aside, the reason I felt compelled to write today is a topic that has actually been on my mind for sometime. It seems that the some of the most intelligent people that I know do not remain in the "Honors", "AP" or "IB" program. Those who I view to be the most intellectual people tend to end up being viewed as rebellious and provocative, going against authority, and are looked upon as the problems of the classroom. I place people under the category of "most intelligent people that I know" based not solely upon their knowledge, but also on their desire to learn more than what they know as well as the ability to apply the information they hold. These individuals are able to have conversations on topics they enjoy for hours at a time, and can hold intelligent debates. They have a strong position on a matter, or if they do not have a position, have a concrete reason they don't have a position. The ability to apply the information, in my opinion, is the crucial factor in determining a person's intelligent. And when I say apply, it isn't the ability to regurgitate a fact in history: that World War I was ended on the e 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month. In contrast, those who are able to see the importance in the knowledge that they hold and apply their knowledge in either everyday life or in dicussion are ones who are the most intelligent.

This being said, it is no wonder that those who are the most intelligent are not in the honors classes. In my opinion, the honors classes are not classes for those who are intelligent but are able to play the education system to the greatest extent. In their case, they know the information that is necessary to get into these high level classes. That is, they learn solely to get into high level classes. The information they know is, in most cases, less than those who I consider "Most intelligent." If they know more, it is mostly useless facts memorized through some method of rote learning. They are unable to find the purpose of their learning and there range of information is very narrow. To not question the information that is spit out at them, "honors" students are many times trained to regurgitate information, the products of a primarily lecture-based education system.

The students who are able to apply and find the importance of their information and have opinions often thrive in an active-based learning environment as well as an outcome-based education school system. Debates, class discussions, and arguments are like fertile soil to baby plants. Unfortunately, these very students were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Currently, our education system is somewhat rote memorization (although significantly less than nations in Asia i.e. South Korea) and lecture/passive-based learning. Lectures, note taking, and regurgitation of information fall under this category. When looking at the big picture, it is efficient to take the second approach: it is a faster way to teach large amounts of material in a shorter amount of time. However, it is clear that these "honors" classes are not a true checkpoint of intelligence, rather a category of how well students are playing the system. To treat is as such and degrade people based on the heirarchy of education they stand at is in itself incorrect and many times problematic. In my opinion, to have an education system in which students are actually taught to apply information and understand the purpose of learning is more beneficial to society than the one that is set in place today. Some may call me an idealist, but in reality, it is just a hope I have. In reality, the best I can hope for is an education system in which teachers do the best they can in order for students to become what I consider "most intelligent." However, teachers must look to efficiency to maintain their jobs, and thus such change is very unlikely to happen.


Hopefully, this was a good return story.
-Simon Rhee