THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!

I hated school and still do. People talk about Thank God it's Friday (TGIF) so they can take time off work but for me, I started using the TGIF phrase as far back as 1994 whilst in primary school. Fridays were my best days in school because school usually closed at 1pm on Fridays and Fridays usher in the weekend free from all school activities. How I loved to get home, fling my school bag and play until 4pm when the TV channels wake up from sleep. Thank God for DSTV these days. About homework? Forget that; I never  did my homework. it was just like hanging out with an enemy at home. if i ever did it would probably be in the car on my way to school. I always wondered why we went to school when we could have learnt those things at home. In my mind I always wished school would be scrapped and Maths banned,
after all basic calculation skills were enough to take one through life or so I thought. And then the pain of copying note, i never had a complete note all through my school days. the closest i had was in SS2 in Economics which was a semi complete note and earned me a punishment of digging gutter. I guess everyone thought that sending me to boarding school will change my views about school. Lai lai! For me, boarding school was about hanging out with friends, playing pranks (i did so many of them) and growing up. As a primary school child I had already calculated how many years I will spend through school and fantasized about how I will rejoice the day I graduate and never see the walls of a school. Masters or PHD? Those ones were not necessary because they meant more school work to me. Trust me the day I finally graduated, I took a special photograph and even wrote a farewell note to school. Through my years growing up, I discovered that though I hated school, school wasn’t as bad as I thought because I met teachers that made learning interesting and subjects and courses I really liked and didn’t even struggle to pass. And Maths? I fell in love with it in my SS1. So what is it about school that really made me and several people hate it with passion? If school is so bad, why is it still in existence?

The problem with the system is not the institution called school but the process by which learning is administered. First, you grow up playing all day and in a flash, you are woken up by 5am one morning, dressed up and dropped in a room full of children with a teacher that has a long cane and forces everyone to learn through the instrumentality of the cane. i remember earning marks on my face for failing one answer in my quantitative exams. I hate those canes. To make matters worse, you are told that examination is the ultimate determinant of intelligence. And so from kindergarten, we are forced into this race to prove our intelligence and never really stop to enjoy the bliss of learning. And you wonder why you can read a 1000-paged novel and remember it whereas you haven’t even scratched quarter of your school books? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with your brain; it’s the school’s method that needs revision.

I was a chronic school hater until I discovered that learning is about taking myself on a shopping trip where I buy information that will beautify my life and equip me to live my dreams. I have realized that learning is not about pleasing my teacher nor is it about cramming a text book to look cool only to forget it after the exams (i crammed eh). Learning is fun when you locate the amusement park and that’s what I am here to show you. But before that, share your school experience. Where you in the school hater’s club or where you one of those students who preferred school to holiday? Let’s talk; the Ministry of Education may be listening.