What is the most primary thing that we learn at school?
Well we are obliged to absorb lots of knowledge.
But I think that's not the point.
What we have to do at school is to establish a good system of learning.
Time management which optimise our learning
Study English to learn how to read and absorb more knowledge.
Study Math to learn how to utilize numbers, functions, and graphs.
Study each subject to learn way of thinking linked to each subject.
School provides a guidance. Tests tell what's more important than others (things appear on test and things don't). Homework tell us about an amount of work that one should do everyday or one can handle. Discussion helps us to learn how to communicate and learn the existence of various point of view. Project gives hint to find out problems by ourselves.
Once one acquires the effecitve learning system, one can progress into one's new stage of life.
On the other hand, even if one memorize all the knowledge needed to graduate from school, one has to start from the beginning in one's next learning environment. Think about a computer that can answer to all the typical questions within the ambit of high school level yet can't answer anything outside of the scope. Would you hire it? Probably no...unless it still have a huge free memory and it is a fast one.
I have been thinking about what is missing in education these days. Data is only data. Unless we know how to read the data, it does not mean anything. It is also important to know what data to collect. Too many (both helpful and harmful) data around these days. Basic education should help us in these. How to think, how to appreciate beauty, how to connect with others, how to share the moment with others, etc. We may have something to learn from education systems in the old days.
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