A Pondering

Consider this a rant. I’ve been pondering tirelessly on why exams matter. To my employers in the future, it will provide them with a rough estimate on my capability. To universities/colleges, they want to see that I’ve got the brains or the extra edge to make them look good. To exam boards, I’m just another number waiting to be rounded of statistically to graph the average intelligence of teenagers today. To my parents, it’ll get you jobs. To be honest, I still don’t think I’ll ever need to use pi, cosine or the Pythagoras’s theorem unless I’m some architect or mathematician. I like to talk. I’m good at bullshiting. I don’t walk the walk but I can talk the talk. I can lie pretty well. That aside, I’m passionate about talking. Writing. Expressing my thoughts when I’ve to submit homework in t-minus 12 hours. I don’t really have the patience to sit and do boring homework. Why is homework boring anyways? Who the heck made studying synonymous to house chores in the syllable of a teen? To learn is to be intrigued, captivated and inspired. These four walls are meant to be torn down and expose students to passionate learning. Exams make education seem like a race when real education is never a race. We learn until we are buried in our graves or until Alzheimer’s hit you. I like to listen to debates. My brain is pumped with adrenaline and that’s where I see people who are quick on their feet. On the go. I love listening to TED talks. People have these ideas to share and they engage me. I like to listen in History because my teacher talks and not just teach. We’re only human. And scientifically, the brain has not much energy as compared to the body. The brain has about less than a quarter of the body’s energy. We get bored. An average school day is almost 6 hours long. When I get back, I’m expected to revise. My brain can’t handle that. My idea of a perfect school day would be 1-2 classes a day, 2 hours for each. We should then be encouraged to do research, and to explore. Why am I studying for 9 academic subjects? Is the point in doing so really just to prove my ‘intelligence’ to others? Everybody is so different. But with this race for academic excellence, almost every kid nowadays speak at least 2 languages, plays an instrument, goes for tuition, spends more money on tuition and feels knackered out their wits to be human. We’re almost like robots. People might argue that the secret to academia success is simply time management but that already sounds like a chore. Why do we feel like a need to laze on the bed at times? To kill time and watch soaps? Unless you’re the type who loves routine, being neat and organized, I can’t stand it! I want to inspire and be inspired. That, in my opinion, is the best way to learn because you feel motivated. You don’t need to be pushed. You WANT to learn. How do exams motivate me? They make me feel like I’m on a death row. Exams should be gotten rid of and university placements are bull because if you haven’t realized, they’re out to earn money from us lot (students) as well. This endless chase for money. We’re slaves to a system we ourselves created. I myself am not free from this neither. I simply question freedom. Aren’t we simply escaping from smaller cages to bigger cages in terms of academia when we excel in our studies? Unless you are a scholar or someone who studies as a job, we’re supposed to follow our own pathways. Make our own mistakes and learn from them. Live a life that is ours. Be honest, be open and explore. We are a blank canvas. A friend once told me that we as humans are selfish. We have a desire to want more than to give. Our raw animal instinct to simply cooperate and survive diminishes because we bite off more than what we can chew. We always want more. Why is being complacent a bad thing? The human species is like a disease eating and killing off the Earth’s resources because we’re greedy. Once all these resources are depleted of, we will then become extinct and guess what happens next. The Earth will heal and we humans will simply disappear. We should exist as an encyclopedia of different facts instead of becoming carbon copies of one another. Like that Einstein quote, if you try to judge how a fish can climb as good as a monkey something yada yada. Everyone is a brilliant individual but we’re brilliant in different things. I really wish we could embrace our differences more. This is my opinion on life or simply another excuse to procrastinate on my homework. Everybody loves learning but not everyone enjoys it in the way of the current cookie cutter system. Exams do not determine who I am. I am here to learn. And I am here to live.