If you've ever been to a school, especially a state-owned one, you have probably heard students say "School sucks!" For some, they dislike school because they'd rather be doing other things such as surfing the net or being on Instagram. 

For others though, it's because they don't believe our education system is the best it could be. But it isn't our schools who are at fault! So who is?

Take it from me, I was good in school. I got good grades (often the highest in my class), but I hated school. I found that our education system didn't work, and it was quite frustrating, not only for me, but for many others too!

I was talking recently with my grandfather on this issue. He told me about how when he was in school (mid 1950's ish), his biology lessons would consist of going outside, to the local woods, and his teacher would show the whole class whatever they were learning about, in its natural place! 

For me, who was being educated in the mid 2010's, this would be something almost unfathomable! My grandfather also talked about how the lessons were more student-led, rather than led by a teacher. 

So, I asked him, what he thought was the reason behind the dramatic change in education was down to, in only a sixty-ish year space. He replied: Politicians. 

Why are politicians to blame?

My grandfather told me this quote: "[In an election] Politicians only care about two things: education and healthcare."

I asked him to explain this further to which he replied:

Think of it this way. If I'm a politician, I want to play off the voting public's emotions. Children are the best way, and where do children go everyday? School. So that's where they'll reform.

Women are especially susceptible to this, as it is their natural motherly instinct to want to help so-called 'vulnerable' children.

Politicians use education reform as the reason why they should be the ones in power. After all, there is also a sort-of "I want you to do better in life than I did" and people tend to think that getting good grades, in order to get into a good university, in order to get a good job is the way to do it!

So, whenever education reform pops up, people vote for the one that gives their children (or future children) the best upbringing!

How exactly are they to blame though if it's meant with good intention?

In order to answer this, we need to delve into a little history. 

Up until the 1970's the UK (where I live) had no formal qualifications that all students had to undertake- there were certain professions that required certain exams to be sat. This means that my grandfather has no GCSE's or A-Levels (AP equivalent in America apparently). 

In the late 1960's, politicians realized that there would be a strategic and economic impact if there were universal exams. So they began to devise some. 

So education moved away from students asking the questions, and being shown it in the natural habitat, and moved towards getting your head stuck in a textbook, memorizing definitions and equations!

 It was meant with good intention by those who set out the formal exams. But it is a flawed system. And a deeply corrupt one at that! 

This is due to one main problem: it doesn't focus on measuring intelligence per se, but is more like a giant memory test. 

Standardized tests don't focus on how well a student has understood a topic, merely how much of it they can remember, potentially five years after they've learned it! 

But, politicians argue that countries that use the standardized testing system, such as the UK, US, France etc. are among the smartest in the world. And yes, that is true. But those countries that use Standardized testing are not the most intelligent. 

No, that title goes to Nordic countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark. And, fun fact: They don't use Standardized tests!

So, if we know it's not the best why do we use it?

Short answer: It's too difficult. Long answer: It's costly, unpopular and still too difficult. 

I'm not saying that politicians are lazy, as I'm sure many of them are incredibly hard workers, but there is one issue: teachers are generally experts in their fields, but they just can't teach!

The problem is, is that we have had almost 50 years of standardized tests. Most teachers have spent their whole careers teaching for one final test at the end of things. Most teachers, did those same standardized tests, and know literally nothing different! 

There is an old adage that goes something like: "Idleness breeds idleness" 

The same principle applies here. Teachers can't teach what they don't know, probably the same way that you (nor I) can't explain what quantum mechanics is, to a five year old, in a way they'd understand! 

PS: That's not an insult to you, or some random five year old!

So that's why we use it. Idleness from politicians and teachers. "Same old, same old" attitude. And the fact that, I don't think the countries that use Standardized Tests really want to be the smartest nations in the world in reality. More, telling themselves that they are as a way of comforting themselves and their broken system made fifty years ago...

How can we change it?

Sadly, we won't change it this year, nor the next, nor the next. It is simply a fact of life for the minute. But, we can change it. 

We can do it by acting out. It may be tempting to go away after reading this post and go "I'm not going to work hard at school because it's stupid, and this finally proves it!" 

And, as much as it pains me in many ways to say this, "Do not do that!" 

By not trying, you are failing, not only these stupid standardized tests, but also yourself. Why? Because you can change this broken system!

It is already too late for me. But you, you are a different story. Do well in school, do really well in school in fact. Get active. Not only in the gym, but also politically. Get elected. Once you've come away from school, with your good grades, and almost every political party in the country begging for you to join them, run for election. Change the world. Once you have gotten elected, invoke your master plan, get bills passed that allow you to slowly change our broken education system. 

Don't do it all at once. People don't like change, and they certainly won't like you if they think your deliberately trying to stop their children from obtaining greatness. Even if that is the complete opposite of what you are after. So don't do it all at once, take your time. Take years, take decades if you need to. Remember the phrase:

Until it personally costs you, people don't change.

And once you have done that in your country, band together with other like you from other countries. Then change each country, one by one. It will take years, decades even. You may not live to see the day where children all over the world, once again are truly free. But you will be immortalized in history forever. 

And when people in a hundred years hear your name, they will thank you. Because it was you who saved them from repeating the age old error. Remember Einstein's quote of:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

That is what education is now. But it doesn't necessarily have to be. Does it?