School Is A System That Only Works For Some

From the moment you enter school, you are subject to a system dictated by tests and exams, some you don’t even realise you’re taking. You’re under constant scrutiny so that your development can be compared to the students around you.

Up until this point, you have been conditioned to look at yourself in numbers, to quantify who you are and hold it next to everyone else so you can see where you stand. Your abilities that cannot be graphed or tabulated (like creativity and passion) have been pushed aside and your comprehension and mathematical skills have been placed at the forefront. Doing well means being the best in a system of standardised testing. Failure and success become dependent on the arbitrary documentation of numbers.

When we are squeezed through a system that tells us coming first is of primary importance, rather than a genuine love for learning, something is wrong.

When, to be successful, we need to memorise dates and numbers and spew chunks of rote learned answers and quotes onto the page, something is wrong.

When intelligence is defined by a single number and a learning model takes a ‘one size fits all’ approach, something is wrong.

But we’re not failing… the system is.

When we abide by this educational model you have those that win the race, and those that don’t–the lost causes, the no-hopes, the wasted potentials. According to our school system, these kids are behind because they’re lazy, unmotivated or just ‘not trying hard enough’. Their reports will be crammed with comments about how they need to apply themselves more, or how easily they’re distracted in class. Their practice essays will be scribbled with red pen; the whole thing seemingly becoming an ‘area to improve’. And, at the end of it all, when their final number isn’t good enough, they will be deemed failures.

But these kids are not failing–the system is. The system ignores the diversity and creativity that cannot be graded, the social and emotional intelligence that cannot be measured by standardised exams and assignments.

So, take your marks, good or bad, with a grain of salt. For now, we struggle in a system that determines what we are worth in numerical values and defines who we are by how well we do in a few exams. But we know we are so much more that the system could ever comprehend. For all the so-called failures, your time is coming. When you put down your pen for your last exam, when you walk out those school gates and say goodbye to all your teachers, know this: school is a system that only works for some. When you get your ATAR, and your final marks for all your subjects, know that they have been determined by a system that has a narrow idea of success, one that could never capture the full potential of any student it ranks.