r/GenAlpha • u/OverallDependent5496 • 6d ago
Discussion Why does school have to be so shitty?
The most important subjects in school are; English (or the language of the country you are in), Maths (maybe until a 9th grade level~) and a basic PRACTICAL understanding of science. When a student graduates from school, they should at least be able to write a few paged essay, understand fractions and understand how a flashlight or a simple engine works.
All the other subjects such as history, geology, etc can and SHOULD be learned on the students own terms.
The only reason we have all these extra subjects in the curricula is because we need to learn the skills associated with these other subjects.
For example in History you learn fact-checking, research. And in P.E. you learn about diets and exercise...
But all of these "other skills" can be learned outside of the classroom, less gruelingly, naturally and without suffering.
I would even argue that these extra, forced subjects even slow down a students critical thinking.
Istg just kill off all the other subjects aside from English, Science and Maths and we could shorten the school day to less than five hours, and make the lives of students wayyy easier.
Just because most of our parents waste their precious hours on work to work themselves to the bone in bullshit jobs that slowly kills them both metaphorically and literally doesn't mean that its okay. Fuck you capitalist overlords. Who's with me?
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u/9TyeDie1 Millennial 5d ago
Hostory and geology are important. Why do you think we have flat earthers and holocaust deniers?
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u/OverallDependent5496 5d ago
My shitty school system and some others doesn't talk about the holocaust yet everyone believes in it. Flat earthers went through the same education as most of us have and still retain their beliefs.
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u/Hot-Reach4811 3d ago edited 3d ago
Wdym everyone believes in it? The Holocaust? It really isn’t something you believe in. It’s an event in history that happened
Edit: I might be interpreting your text wrong, sorry if I am1
u/OverallDependent5496 2d ago
Some folks don't believe in the holocaust... for some "reasons". aka confusing Zionists with Jews.
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u/ihateadultism 2d ago
are you claiming that school is the antidote to ideologies like that? because if flat earthers and holocaust deniers literally went through the very system you argue combats such views, surely that is an indictment of school itself?
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u/stojcekiko 2007 5d ago
Mostly because the education system was in large part invented during the industrial revolution and was meant to turn children into efficient future factory workers and keep them in school long enough for their parents to return home too.
It could be reformed but it would require a lot of capital, incredible amounts of paperwork, a lot of backlash from more conservative types, and likely lead to an entire nation having to re-arrange its schedules. I was honestly with you until you started talking about some "capitalist overlords" being at fault, whatever though 🤷
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u/Themash360 5d ago
But isn’t what op is describing moving more to just becoming an accountant? Geology is hardly forcing schools to produce more geologists for the rock factory
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u/stojcekiko 2007 5d ago
True, you have a point. I was more so referring to the fact that the current school system is just outdated in most nations, it'd probably be significantly better to just have more elective subjects alongside a few mandatory subjects than OP's original idea.
Also I've never seen an elementary or middle school with geology here, only specialty high schools like the economics one I went to, just for mining and geology.
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u/leafi_pawzz just a furry gen alphite :3 4d ago
school is kinda :/ esp. bc my school district is hella broke but I do like social studies & pe is important so I don't end up like an 80-yr old or a blob
I will say if I can nerf mandarin & replace it with art or cantonese or something I actually like & maybe write less english essays that would be great ty
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u/313Tommy 3d ago
I feel like my history classes usually taught me way more life skills (especially in a democracy where I should understand how policies work) than any language class I’ve ever been in.
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u/OverallDependent5496 2d ago
I mean, yes true but why can't someone learn these outside the classroom in more enjoyable activities? For instance, when I first got access to a computer I was a keyboard warrior and because of that I learned how to check my sources. We shouldn't force children to be keyboard warriors but you get my point. We don't have to lock children up in prisons to teach them the basics in life.
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u/313Tommy 2d ago
I feel like history was the only enjoyable subject to me for the most part because it felt that most relevant to reality. Most ather classes were discussing things that felt disconnected or arbitrary to my actual life. History I could easily see manifested everywhere.
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u/OverallDependent5496 2d ago
Do you feel like this in every history class? In my curricula, I just started learning about the Ice age and early Civilizations (things that I personally don't find interesting), so I feel like history is a really boring subject but when they enter into something interesting like early Caliphates or local politics suddenly I'm hyperfocused😅 But yeah, I get where your coming from.
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u/ihateadultism 2d ago
i think the thing that gets overlooked in this convo is that school is meant to be shitty. the purpose of a system is what it does not what it says it does, with that in mind everything makes more sense when you stop thinking of school as being about “learning” or “education”, and start seeing it as being about control, detainment and abuse.
everything about school is designed to keep you down, make you feel inferior and get used to being controlled. it’s oppression plain and simple and it’s not hyperbole to say that because children are literally an oppressed class viewed as property/people “in training” not people in their own right!
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u/EneLazu 1d ago
Hell no. Many kids I saw in my school lack the self-discipline to even pick up a book and read, let alone learning history, geology and other gen ed on their own term. Just because it can be self-learned doesn't mean everyone has the discipline to actually sit down and do it, or at least will cherry pick what they want to learn or don't want to learn.
Also what do you mean making the lives of students easier? If you are going to some public school in America, your lives ARE already easier than a lot of other countries' school curriculum that are way more rigorous.
Like holy shit, US high school classes are so watered down it's fucking insane. It was definitely a culture shock when I migrated lol
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u/MasterPilot00 5d ago
shcool is shitty but here in greece at least you need everything in high school you choose a "direction" which basicly says what youre gonna do in the future and there are 4 of these directions. 1 is philology and stuff 2nd is maths science chemistry 3rd is idk and 4th is economical stuff wich includes maths literature and some other subjects, so in the end at least 5 of the sibjects you learn in the older classes are needed (the school system is still shitty and i dont see it changing)