(Another) Rant?

EDIT 21/10: Since writing this I think that it came across a lot harsher than I intended. Shockingly, I really do enjoy school. Don't hold me to this, it was a spur of the moment anger thing and I don't believe all of these things, especially not to the extent I gave the impression of.

It seems a bit ridiculous that out of the select few things I have chosen to post, the vast majority have been about education. (So obviously this is going to be too.) I feel it's kind of necessary to add that this is by no means an outright attack on my own school - which of course it's going to appear, as my only experience of the school system. But at the same time, I'm not stupid enough to believe that every other school in the country isn't run under a similar, if not identical, regime. With that said my views on the British school system won't apply to everyone and it is honestly just how I feel at the time of writing (usually in stupid hours of the morning.) It feels wrong, too, that my sole purpose of writing this is because of school/D of E and that my assessor is one of my own English teachers who I value really quite highly. At some point I'll consider writing what I actually enjoy in terms of school, which is the fundamental concept of learning. (That's for another day, I have grievances to alleviate.) 

Every Monday I help with the local Rainbows unit spending an hour and fifteen minutes entertaining girls from about age 4 to 7. Out of every adjective going that could be applied to them specifically I'd have to go for the lexical field of "energetic". It's a pleasure, of course, and always significantly uplifting, but consistently a shock when you consider the contrast between their endless excitement and my own somewhat vacant motivation. To hear from one of the leaders of the group, who doubles as mum to two of the loveliest girls, that she wants to homeschool her children, is hard hitting. There is absolutely nothing wrong with homeschooling, that isn't my point in the slightest. It's that she feels already, with a daughter who has been in Reception for one month and another who had just started Year 2, that they're being limited. She knows that their blossoming creativity and passion might get crushed and moulded and twisted until they're well and properly prepared for working life. 

My issue with the education system (today) is that it often leaves very little room for individuality. You could be the most animated, vehement, zealous person when it comes to your favourite subject and love it wholeheartedly but that really isn't all that relevant. Yes, it might drive you to study hard for it and focus all your attention on doing well in it but your "cleverness" is eventually just determined by how well you can manipulate a question to fill criterium. Exam boards limit the topics you study and so often times you have to go out of your own way to educate yourself on what it is that you're interested in. It's just about the testing. And I am sure that a lot of people would love to beg to differ. It's a love for the subject that drives us to excel, we are only limited by exams and curriculum if we adhere to that belief. Honestly, I do agree in many cases and would love to do so wholeheartedly.

I have veered off the point to a ridiculous extent when all I really came to say was how sad it must feel believing that your child is going to have to change themselves and restrain their blossoming creativity for the sake of getting a handful of good grades which are considered worthwhile. 

I can't help but feel like the value of an occupation in each society dictates the weight it holds in our education. We have to be taught the Sciences and Maths and English but subjects like Art and Drama are optional. How "academic" you are is defined by how well you do in predetermined classes. Your own worth as a future component of the workforce is presented to you on a sheet, or through an email, in the form of ten or so letters. And what do they really mean? Besides dictating your future. Do As across the board equate to cleverness? Or realistically, in a lot of cases, does it just mean you worked out the way things have to work, worked out that you need to memorise the facts and commit to memory what the mark scheme requires you to write? Is that selling out to the system? A letter grade doesn't necessarily show ability to learn, rather obedience. Everyone is born with the ability to learn, there isn't a graduating scale of how well you can do it. Perhaps it's even showing your ability to conform. (I know this doesn't apply to all subjects which is one of the reasons I love English and Sociology so much.)

The worst part of all of this when it's consuming me at ungodly hours of night is how helpless I feel. Even if I did have a real, practical solution that solved every problem which arises from our current state, and combined the reasons we have schooling like we do now, it's just not going to be enforced. The process would be lengthy and far too controversial to be considered as a genuine proposal. Really, I'm content with complying if that's what has to be done to get to a position where I can inspire social change, or even just be content doing whatever it is that I love. I just wish there was more honesty in modern education, admittance that what you have to do is adapt to an exam board to succeed. 

It feels less like learning everything that the world has to offer and a lot more like being programmed to live inside accepted roles.