I ran an excellent guest post a few weeks ago called Education Sucks courtesy of Bud Hennekes.
Bud ripped the current education system and how it places so much emphasis on attaining good grades and getting a degree and almost none on being happy and living a life with purpose and passion.
I agree totally with that. In my opinion the entire education system needs overhauling if we’re to give the next generation of kids every opportunity to reverse a worrying trend of increased social anxiety, depression, obesity, and drug dependence.
There is some really basic yet profound stuff we can do with kids that wouldn’t mean scrapping more traditional subjects. A relatively short investment in time in the following 3 areas could yield amazing results.
Breathing
Let’s start with the very basics. When was the last time you heard of a kid being taught how to breathe? My guess is, unless they were learning to play a wind instrument or swim for their school, the answer is never.
Yet is there anything more basic in life than this? The last I heard we need to be breathing on a daily basis, so it’s kind of important to do it right, right?
The vast majority of people (I have seen figures as high as 90%) breathe incorrectly, that is, too quickly, from their upper chest rather than their diaphragm and through their mouths.
This type of breathing not only increases the likelihood of anxiety and even panic attacks (it’s physiologically impossible to have the latter and still be in control of your breathing), but growing research shows it shortens life and has all sorts of other negative long-term health consequences.
Children have a tendency to breathe correctly when younger, but this changes as they grow older and they literally stop utilizing their lung capacity.
By regularly reminding them how to breathe properly and the benefits of doing so we can stop the change happening as they mature.
Eating
I have no idea what we teach kids regarding food in school, but if Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is anything to go by, it’s worse than nothing. By that I mean we’re tacitly encouraging them to adopt poor and unhealthy eating habits by serving them a steady stream of fries, pizza and assorted crap.
This country is in the middle of an obesity and diabetes epidemic that’s costing millions of lives and billions of dollars every year, yet somebody like Jamie Oliver who is trying to help through education hits resistance at every turn.
Over a third of Americans are classified as obese, meaning they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30 which roughly equates to being more than 20% over their ideal body weight.
If I were to start listing the health implications of being overweight you’d be reading the longest post in the history of mankind. Think of any major illness and there’s a good chance you have thought of something that if is not directly caused by being overweight or bad eating habits, is exacerbated by it.
How can we say we are educating kids correctly when we don’t even allow them to eat healthily? If I were a parent I’d be appalled. In fact I’m appalled anyway.
Thinking
In a nutshell, How To be Rich and Happy is pretty much about thinking and how the quality of your thoughts dictate the quality of your life.
Shakespeare got this half a millennia ago when he said “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so” and then a few hundreds years later so did James Allen when he wrote ‘As A Man Thinketh’, but possibly the best quote I‘ve read was in Michael Neill’s book ‘Supercoach’ and is from life coach Serge Khalil King:
“The World Is What You think It Is”
That is so simple it’s easy to miss how profound it is.
You’re constantly on the look out for information to back up the beliefs you already hold. I know this to be true because we all do it, we have to in order to make sense of the world. We delete, distort and generalize information as we run it through our own set of values and beliefs.
Have you ever found yourself saying something like, “I refuse to believe that” or “That simply cannot be true”?
That’s because you’ve been exposed to information that doesn’t fit in with your mental map of the world. Immediately you’ll head off into the nether regions of your mind to find evidence to support your current viewpoint.
Usually, although not always, you’ll find it, and this is one of the biggest blocks to progress, success and creativity, the unwillingness to accept we are frequently wrong.
We could be teaching children the value of questioning, not only the own beliefs, but those of others in positions of authority. Not in a confrontational kind of way, but coming from a place of tolerance and curiosity to learn and understand.
We could also help them understand it’s ok to be wrong, show them the power and benefits of optimistic thinking and how to reframe negative events when they do arise so they don’t feel so badly about them. We could if we really wanted to, also teach them about the power of visualization and how their brain works.
Surely maintaining self worth, understanding how to control our own moods and feel better about ourselves and the world around us is slightly more useful than knowing the English gave the French the thrashing of their lives at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415?
I could have covered off other things I think we should teach kids, such as rapport building skills, managing finances, parenting skills etc, but I’d really like your take this. Where do you think we are most letting kids down and more importantly, what can we do about it?
Tim Brownson is a Certified Life Coach and has been unsticking people and helping them reach their true potential since 2005. If you would like to know how he can help you
A very insightful post and spot on. We have long had a very patronising parenting style in this country (UK anyway) of treating children like potential deviants in the making – not developing people in their own right – thankfully that is changing.
We fail them on many levels – the basics you describe – but the main one is our education system and parenting style often dictates that they shouldn’t question even when they see the flaw in our ‘logic’.
This creates fear – don’t question for fear of being laughed at; do well in exams for fear you won’t get a job; we seem to use fear as our main tool for ‘controlling’ our children and getting them to do as we want.
Unfortunately, this creates many mental health problems and behaviourial disorders as our children pay the price for our concentration on ‘parenting for results.’
I overheard a conversation between two mothers one day – one of whom remarked that a friends son was very bright, a genius at school and had high promise. He went to a prestigious university and in his first year had a nervous breakdown due to the pressure. The last she heard he was working in a fast food outlet. The sad remark she made I thought was ‘It makes you wonder how to know how much pressure to put on your kids to get what you want out of them.’
I think that’s the problem. How many schools and parents complain of the pressure they feel under from the kids? How about we just stop the pressure on both sides and simplify things? ADHD, Aspergers, schizophrenia and a whole host of other ‘conditions’ would take a significant fall in numbers.
Hey Tim, thanks for the plug again no pun intended. ;)
While the education system is weak in many areas, I see it particularly weak in finances. I can’t tell you how many of my friends and classmates don’t know jack shit about how to handle money, myself included. Obviously, I think parents are responsible for this as well, but having more awareness in school wouldn’t hurt.
The most important thing schools need to teach and that the grade system often fails to do, is to fall in love with and establish a relationship with learning.
My current frustration with the educational system right now is this push to get children reading and writing and doing formal math (right term?)at ever younger ages thinking these means they’ll be better educated.
What a freaking joke.
The high schools aren’t graduating rocket scientists since they started expecting all kids to be able to read in kindergarten (age 5 in the states). What’s happened instead is a whole bunch of kids are being classified as slow when they just weren’t developmentally ready yet and a whole bunch of other kids are on the scared shitless to make a mistake path, lest they get booted out of the gifted program or whatever their district has.
In primary school this is happening.
I know it’s popular to say that kids are spoiled these days, and I will grant that they do have an awful lot of material things, but it seems so much is so conditional.
I mean, today is Mother’s Day but almost every other day of the year I have to remind myself over and over again that yes, me and my children do have the right to occupy space in public and it’s not the end of the world if one of them throws a tantrum and causes a bit of a scene while we’re out running errands.
And I’ve been life coached and I have that kind of anxiety!
So, children, even tiny ones have to be perfect or they have to be invisible and we carry this idea into the schools. Even my preschooler knows which kids in his school are “bad” and he’s scared to make any mistakes lest he be “bad” even with me doing the best I can to explain to him that sometimes kids mess up a bit, but it’s fine, it doesn’t meant they are bad.
I’m on a bit of a rant here – it’s just feels like it’s time for society to evolve from a situation where we’re classifying children as good or bad as babies (ask any parent, folks often ask, is he a good baby? I know what they mean by the question but like Tim says language matters) and then wondering why so many of them wind up unhappy, act out and so on.
@Strawberry Fields, you said:
“I think that’s the problem. How many schools and parents complain of the pressure they feel under from the kids? How about we just stop the pressure on both sides and simplify things? ADHD, Aspergers, schizophrenia and a whole host of other ‘conditions’ would take a significant fall in numbers.”
While I do think that changing the way we care for children both in and out of the schools could lead to fewer behavioral problems, I do think it’s a bit misleading to say that it would cause a significant drop in the diagnosis of disorders like Aspergers and schizophrenia.
I’m not too familiar with ADHD and schizophrenia so I won’t attempt to debate that – although I have read that the percentage of people with schizophrenia is constant throughout cultures which would point to a genetic or organic cause rather than a behavioral issue. ADHD is more tricky and I do agree a diagnosis can be a crutch but it can also be a useful tool for parents and educators to signal that different strategies might be useful to help children achieve their goals.
As far as Aspergers, my oldest son has a diagnosis and I’m the mother of 4 other children as well. There is not one doubt in my mind that Aspergers is an inborn condition and while our current system doesn’t do a lot to help it, it’s not the cause. I noticed differences in my son from a very early age – I won’t bore anyone with all the details, but the difference between him and a neurotypical child was striking.
That said, my son and all the kids with Aspgergers and ADHD I’ve known have also had so much to offer and I think we do a disservice when we look at a diagnosis and anything but a tool to help us help our children to reach their goals and lead satisfying, happy lives.
I absolutely think we could do more by children with these disorders and many of the changes that I’d like to see in the education system would help enormously with helping all children follow their passions while at the same time limiting destructive or disruptive behavior.
What I don’t think helps is calling very real, documented developmental or mental health issues conditions in quotation marks. Getting that diagnosis of Aspergers has been one of the best things that happened to my son and has allowed us to understand better what could help him.
I hope this doesn’t come across as hostile or defensive, that’s not my intent. I just felt compelled to share my thoughts on the matter.
@ SF – I’m not sure it would make any difference to Aspergers and Schizophrenia as these tend to be genetic and not acquired. I do think it would make a huge difference to stress levels, depression and maybe to some extent ADHD.
ADHD, is a really tough one because of it’s difficulty to diagnose especially with really creative kids. It seems the answer is give them some speed which seems bizarre to me as amphetamine is highly addictive and the opportunity for misuse is through the roof.
@ Bud – You’d think that with what has been going on over the last 2 years more schools would be pushing to teach kids how to deal with money, but it seems not to be the case. Better to know the capital of South Dakota than how to balance your checking account.
@ Tracy – If you can’t rant here, where can you rant?
I agree it’s a real joke to push kids to do stuff earlier. It’s almost like a pissing competition going on with some parents equally as guilty as the schools.
It really effects those born at the wrong end of the school year negatively. How on earth can you expect a kid that is only just 5 to be advanced as one that’s almost 6? The older one has a massive head start.
We’ll look back on now in 100 years time a bit like we look back on the days when we sent kids down chimneys and mines to work, with a disbelieving shake of our heads imho.
And thanks for your thoughts on Aspergers.
Where are we letting kids down worst? I think in not giving them enough time to play and enjoy themselves.
What can we do about it? Support home schooling/unschooling, not force them into stuff they don’t want to do, help them do what they want to do.
Thanks for a great post on a very important topic (in some ways the most important).
@ Evan – Actually that’s a brilliant point I missed. Play time is sooooo crucial in childresn development and yet still many people think it’s frivolous and kids should be working harder.
I agree with you – my point is there should not be a neurotypical child. Each child, as you say, has so much to offer – trying to fit every child into a narrow band of perceived normality is, in my view, part of the problem. Current schooling practices try to do this – find restrictive commonalities, not encourage the unique aspect of individuals. It’s like trying to fit square pegs in round holes.
I don’t think labels (hence the quotes) are helpful to individuals as it can isolate them further in a mainstream environment but they can also give peers a better insight and understanding – which, hopefully, creates more understanding in others.
I am a relative of several labelled children including Aspergers, ADHD, dyslexia and a few other diagnoses – to me first, they are people with a wonderful clear insight who just don’t fit into a norm. I would rather change the perception of normal than change any of them.
Who decides what is neurotypical anyway? Isn’t that just a belief?
Ah man have you taken a look at The Work of Byron Katie? You’re getting closer the process it seems. :) Its good stuff!
@ Alex – No I haven’t, maybe I ‘should’ ;-)
Although I’m not a parent, I also see many things wrong with the educational system and hope/wish for drastic changes. What I would love to see is more emphasis on “life skills” which is essentially the kinds of things you’re talking about. It’s something I really started to think about while reading the Harry Potter books. Bear with me.
If you’ve read the books, you’ll know that most of the classes the students take are practical. They have very little theoretical course work. The rest is dedicated to learning actual, useable skills.
Taking a look at real life schools makes you realize that almost nothing taught is a life skill. And the kinds of classes that do are either not taught anymore (home ec) or looked down upon (shop class). Instead, we teach to tests and hope that giving tons and tons of homework will be enough to pass the tests, get the right funding and get kids into “good” colleges. Or, barring that, just get them through and out the door. To hell with what they have to deal with once they leave school.
Traditional course work is not bad. Children should know how to read, write, do math, have a grasp of basic science and history, but the WAY we go about that can be drastically improved.
I’m a public school teacher, and it is so refreshing to read all of your comments. I couldn’t agree more.
I teach the gifted program in my school, so I actually do teach kids to think and question, but I recognize how little of that goes on for the vast majority of kids. And yes, the very existence of a gifted program puts all kinds of weird pressure on kids and parents. If only all kids were taught this way, we wouldn’t need a gifted program!
A large part of the problem stems from the fact that most teachers are conformists themselves. They were “good” in school and don’t mind all the mind-numbing drill. They are not divergent thinkers themselves, for the most part. (Yes, it’s a gross generalization, but I stand by it.)
Another huge piece is that what happens in schools is increasingly determined by federal and state lawmakers. Although teachers can certainly include other material and teach kids the kinds of things we’re talking about here, they are obligated to do the job they were hired for and are paid to do, which at this point is to prepare kids for the state tests.
Until lawmakers perceive the need for a broader concept of education, teaching life skills and how to think will be something parents must teach. And like teachers, most parents are products of the system themselves and don’t have the awareness to do this type of teaching.
I think our best hope is to have the transformation driven by law. An example is the movement to pass No Child Left Indoors laws, prompted by Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, which gives a research-based explanation of the many benefits of kids spending time exploring outdoors.
If laws like these pass, teachers will have to change their teaching, and gradually our future teachers and parents *will* understand these things enough to pass them on to the next generation. So…get on your lawmakers!
Ahh…that felt good. :)
Hi Tim… yes education suck…and what suck the real blood..is the status symbol for grades and degrees.
Any of the ideas expressed here would be better than what we have.
It’s been 40+ yrs since I graduated from the “robot factory”. And, from the looks of the world, it hasn’t improved. Children are segregated from society, forced into irrelevant “molds”, and told at some point to go out and change the world (but not too much).
Law makers, who refuse to regulate financial and environmental companies that create disasters daily, feel free to “standardize” the growth and education of the next generation.
Give the kids enough fear, anxiety, depression and boredom and useless information and then wonder why drugs and violence are so prevalent.
Kids want to learn. Kids want to explore and invent and be courageous. Kids love to teach and share their knowledge. Kids love to play and laugh.
These are all things suppressed by the most common educational model! Society is changing and we are afraid to change education to meet the needs. We marvel that so many of the worlds innovators are drop-outs and rebels while mental illness expands in the general population.
And the way we were educated makes us afraid to change it. There is too much vested interest in maintaining an expensive, assembly-line status quo.
I’ll be quiet now, and go back to my seat.
Tim brilliant as ever! Kids these days are not encouraged to grow, explore and express themselves through being inspired and creative. Instead they are zombies regurgitating facts and information to get a tick box pass. They are, in fact, a mini sales force being required to hit targets, achieve standards and make goals. You know what pressure that does to adults who might be able cope? All I will say is this if education was a building somewhere where children go in as happy carefree boys and girls and come out stressed, lost unhappy younger men and women needing solace in alcohol and tablets we’d all wonder, “What the hell is going on in there?”. It’s not a building but it’s fast becoming an institution.
@ Kelly – If Jamie Oliver is treated as the Devils Spawn for suggesting kids don’t eat crap, goo luck with persuading them that we should adopt the Hary Potter approach ;-)
Seriously though, it would be a great idea, but I can’t see it happening in my life time.
@ Sue – Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts. Everything you said makes perfect sense including the generalization about teachers. As Ken Robinson says in The Element, he thinks most academics only have a body to transport their head to meetings.
@ GT – I certainly agree that the whole status thing with qualifications doesn’t help.
@ Sanford – I agree kids want to learn, in fact they put adults to shame in many respects. Maybe we should put kids in charge.
@ John – I’ll tell you one of the things that has shocked me since moving to the US is how many exams are multiple choice. I mean they even give Doctors multiple choice exams ffs! Is there anything on the planet better equipped to train people to simple regurgitate facts and not think out of the box? I doubt it.
Hi Tim, everyone…
Excellent post as usual. :)
The other very important think that in my opinion we’re not doing properly with our children is to teach them how to communicate; thoughts, feelings, anything basically that is crossing their minds. I don’t know…we’re probably too busy or too tired at the end of workdays; and it’s really a shame because everyone is loosing from this. Communication is the key of any successful relationship so why would we treat differently our own kids?
This will somewhat echo Evan’s comment, but how about starting with repealing the “more homework is always better” attitude that seems to have become pervasive?
Having some homework is good, but it should still leave teens with time to do other stuff during weekday evenings, and leave younger kids with lots of time to play!
@ Flo – Communication is the key of any successful relationship so why would we treat differently our own kids? An excellent question and one I wish I had the answer to.
@ Christian – Agreed 100%
A really interesting post Tim and even more interesting comments.
I’m intrigued though how many commenter’s are educators within the school system themselves and how many are outsiders looking in?
Having been a full time teacher and now working as a motivational speaker and trainer in schools I have had the privilege of visiting thousands of schools in the UK. This has enabled me to work with over 30,000 young people over the past few years.
Having the wealth of experience that I have I don’t feel the education system in the UK is failing young people. I think the government and society is.
One of the biggest areas missed out in children’s education is what I call “soft skills”; teamwork, goal setting, determination, positive thinking, independence, and communication skills as well as many many more. Teachers in schools are jumping up and down wanting to allow their students to experience and learn this kinds of skills but are trapped within a system that wants targets met and results gained. This isn’t created by the education system but by the government that enforces it.
Society also needs to take a role in this. Everyone believes that children should learn in school and that any other learning, that could benefit society as a whole, shouldn’t be lead by those outside of education. If we want to develop young people who are well rounded and able to tackle any challenge set on them during their life we ALL need to be involved in that.
Many young people don’t just experience a lack at school, where teachers are unable to teach what they feel is necessary, but also at home.
Education fails most young people because it’s set up incorrectly by those in power not by the schools themselves. We need a change of mindset in society as a whole to tackle this problem. It’s not justified to lay the blame and responsibility for this change at the feet of teachers and their schools.
!@ Ben – Good points mate, thanks!
I actually didn’t mean to blame the schools, I realize this is the preserve of Government.
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