So in the video, I mentioned about how to achieve innovation & why to do so. But I believe the most important point is that innovation is not taught in schools, some schools even opposes it, although many schools claimed that they produce innovative students.
This is my video.
So why did I say that school is against innovation? Well, schools require you to be normal, so normal that you'll find yourself very similar to your friends & I don't like it. Imagine: if every smartphone all over the world are just like iPhones, will iPhones still be popular? of course not. Schools are supposed to let their students be different & nurture students' strength, making them unique in their own way.
Remember being punished in school? Do you still remember why did you get punished? Schools usually punish you when you make a mistake but failed to realize you important that mistake is. Mistakes are life's lessons to teach you something new & gain new knowledge. But then, to be school smart, you're not supposed to make mistakes. That's why they're more & more students graduating each year, with lesser & lesser value. Due to the traditional education system, people are trained with lesser value & people wonder why graduates are unemployed.
The country I remembered most about its education system is China, China has a very strict education system, especially in the primary school. Students are required to wear uniforms (I'm okay with dress codes), bring the same backpack, buy the same type of stationary, write their names on the same spot of a pencil, etc. The result? Students have the same sad faces, with no more enthusiasm to learn & discover. Is that a good way to teach? Many students are willing to learn but not really willing to be taught. There's a difference between learn & be taught, yet many do not know how to distinguish between the two. I can learn how to drive a car after several embarrassing fails, but I just can't get it right when my teacher 1st taught me to drive. So make sure that you know what you need, to learn or to be taught, that's the question!
There's an interesting article 《六年后我将收获怎样一个孩子》written by 林爻, it explains a mother's concern about her child's education in a so-called elite primary school. According to her, she has groomed her child to be creative & make sure that she respects everyone's uniqueness. I believe this is quite an achievement in parenting. So she sent her child to the school hoping that her child can do better than her, just like what every parent will do so. On the 1st day of the parents' meeting, she is given a full list of things she needs to prepare for her child including the textbook, the type of wrapper of the textbook, the thickness of the wrapper, even where & to write her child's name. Later, her child was reprimanded because of her "bad" writings. She has taught her child to draw & create artwork instead of writing for the past 6 years thus leading her to question whether she's right or wrong. She also received messages from the teacher that are actually mandatory orders but perceived as a communication method by the school.
After reading the article, I am quite relieved that I did not go through this type of education system, on the other hand, it's also very painful to know that student that young, need to be processed in a way that people believe will produce a successful individual. Success is a dynamic word, it has different definitions for different people, therefore, we cannot actually define success. However, I do know that success is the stage where one has achieved one's dream, and it can't be measured by others. According to the example above, I doubt that they can produce creative students, as all they do is suppressing individual uniqueness. More & more students are "produced" through a "factory" & they have the same barcode & same ingredients. Schools should start valuing creativity & respect the fact that every student has their own strengths & try not to suppress their ideas.
