Thoughts About School

I’ve not been here in two days and it felt like a year already. I am sincerely sorry for the sudden disappearance, it was not willingly, I was busy and other issues contributed to my absence, I hope my apology is accepted? Nevertheless, I am back now and I want to say a big thank you to everyone seated here. It is not easy creating time out of our busy schedule. I am equally happy to have you on today’s episode, as I didn’t change my name in two days; you all know who I am.

Currently, I am home alone, everyone’s got somewhere to go except me and I am here with my baby and my loud thoughts, and I decided to write something. I was bored initially so I decided to accompany my writing with some soul-lifting music while enjoying the serenity of the environment. And my brother just entered arrrrgh! I don’t know why he loves disturbing me and he doesn’t seem to get tired of it, I pray he’ll get admission and leave this house. My only consolation whenever he starts his disturbance is that I’ll leave for school soon. I feel like going to school already, I just can’t wait to end this new session, it’s a burden kind of, even with that I don’t think I’m ready for the session but I’ve got to face it (shrugs). School is way too interesting if not that tests and exams are real mood and fun spoilers. I do not know of any student who enjoys writing exams, well I have a big problem with exams maybe not exams particularly, I have issues, a big one at that, with the whole school system and I will tell you why and probably a seeming  solution. In this part of the world, education has really being overemphasized, like if you don’t go to school to get a solid education you’d amount to little or nothing in life, with or without education anyone can amount to something, we’ve got examples around us, Bill Gates dropped out of school, the great physicist Albert Einstein was called a dullard whose way is not school, hmm, everyone seems to be interested, lol, trust me I am in no way encouraging you not to go to school, as a matter of fact I am in school o, this is one aspect people try to avoid talking about and even if mentioned a thousand and one reasons follow their claim of why education is important. What we are forgetting is that not every will succeed with education. I don’t enjoy using this example but someone’s gonna say it still if everyone were to go to school and everyone was to be successful, who’ll mend your shoes when it’s torn? When your soak-away is full who’ll come to clear it for you? When you need to build your house, who’ll mix the sands for you? You see, we all need both the educated and non-educated in the society; I won’t call them illiterate because they know the ins and outs of their jobs. I know some people who went to school since they could not cope, they quit and found themselves something more lucrative to do, something they are so good at.

Imagine, go into your imaginations and picture what I’m about to tell you, let’s go, you’re in the jungle seeing all kinds of animals, don’t worry they won’t hurt you. They’re not real, you saw the king of the jungle in person of King Lion, you saw his deputy, Sir Elephant, his cousin is there Mr. Leopard, moving on gracious Gazelle greeted you, and then came Giraffes’ neck next to you, omg! You just saw a Dinosaur, then the light on the sea that shines so bright caught your attention, there are sharks, whales, tilapia, Titus, swan, even rhino was there. After a few moments of admiring the sea, a shadow blocked the sun rays right above you; it was the mighty eagle leading a troop which consists of egrets, pigeons, dove, and woodpecker and so on. Still imagining, the king rose and called all the animals together for a meeting on land, including the aqua-animals and the air-animals, don’t forget they can all survive outside their territory in your imaginations. Shortly, every animal were present as they feared the king, then the king said he wants to know who the best animal is, to decide that they’ll have to go through a test and the test is everyone has to climb a tree, yes they all have to climb a tree to test their strength. To the animals, they thought it was crazy and absurd and strange, in our territory we know who’s best but they must obey the stupid king, every animal kept grumbling, hmm, now snap out of your imagination, I hope we enjoyed the adventure lol, we absolutely know those who’ll be best in tree climbing, and we equally know those who’ll fail woefully in tree climbing, we know those who’ll be average and those who’ll never finish climbing. Relate this with our school system and see for yourself what I’m saying. We are different individuals from different backgrounds, talents, families and all, yet you call us to school and give us a test, with the test we’ll know those who’re failures, an average student and intelligent ones, this is my main problem. That individual that failed math and yet can draw a perfect picture of you with no blemish is who you call failure if he could fail math yet he calculated in his head how to make you so nice in a picture, does he sound like a dullard to you? No absolute no, he is damn good, meaning your way of measuring his intelligence is wrong. And this student will believe he’s truly a failure since he hears it from you almost every day after some time he will lose confidence in what he knows he’s good at. If the thought of failure persists, he feels he amounts to nothing, depression sets in and he decides to end his seemingly useless life, suicide.

I’ve got a long talk about this but I won’t stretch it too much, we students are also tired of teachers or lecturers who are in the system for, respect, money, and much more. Some of these teachers are frustrated, they know it but they don’t want themselves alone to be frustrated so they gladly bring frustrations to students. Teaching is a sensitive work which should be driven with passion and love, these days all that is lost, so unfortunate for our generation.

Failure is meant to serve as an encouragement, a stepping stone to success, but in school, if you’re a failure you’re nowhere to be found in this world. What can be the solution to these problems? Let us stop looking down on ourselves even if your result is saying otherwise, I don’t believe anyone is a failure. Each person should discover their talents, know what you’re good at and explore it, the solutions lie majorly in ourselves. I would like to hear your suggestions in this matter, what do you see about the school system, is it good or bad to you? Possible solutions to end or minimize its effect. I appreciate your patience, my name is Adeleke Mayowa Esther, and stay tuned for another intriguing and exciting moment with me, cheers!