How to Maximize Your Schooling Experience

Schooling methodologies are frequent topics for heated debates. Teacher quality, funding, curriculum, and teaching styles have all come under fire at one time or another from politicians, parents, and students. If only "there were better testing tools", "more money", "better facilities", etc. To be honest, I am extremely biased in most of these discussions having had the good fortune to almost always be surrounded by amazing teachers. Many made a meaningful impact on my life for the better (even if some lessons took longer to sink in).

Half of these dead un-refrigerated
chickens must be below average.

However, while I don't believe the public school system is inherently broken, I do believe it could be significantly improved. I often ponder the merits of homeschooling/no-schooling/and public schooling. One problem of teaching most classes is the diverse range of ability. Any teacher can tell you that some students exceed expectations while others struggle with material. With testing initiatives like "No Child Left Behind", the incentive is to focus on the laggards and attempt to bring them up to speed (or more cynically, to teach the actual test materials...some places do this and it is a detriment to their students).

By definition, half the class must be above average. For top performers, classes are inefficient places for learning because they are anchored by the lower half.

However, this unsurprisingly creates a dangerous trap for the students that consistently perform above average. While they may learn some new material, the majority of their brain cycles are instead placed into less valuable activities/emotions. Other students will perceive the material as challenging, while top performers will be bored, possibly disruptive, or (from a teachers perspective) at best daydreaming.

Many top performers will never struggle to integrate knowledge in these classes. They are "smart" and therefore simply understand (or already know) the information and techniques taught in class.For them, a "challenge" might be defined as having to review a concept twice (not struggling for days or weeks on end). This leads to the second problem created in our school system. While some of the students struggle with the class, top performers are never introduced to real challenges.

Classes targeted for the middle and lower half of students means for most of their childhood and teens, students will never truly know an academic challenge.

The unfortunate result, is that when ultimately faced with such a challenge. Strong students find it all to easy to justify avoiding these "walls". Perhaps they dismiss a particular academic area as "trivial" and choose not pursue it. Or, they may very well conclude they are not "smart enough" to understand the topic; after all, if they were smart, they would simply grok the lessons moments after reading the material. This second response clearly can lead to additional struggles of self-worth and identity.

The solution could not be simpler ...

The best way to maximize your formal schooling experience is to take responsibility for your own education. Instead of relying on teachers and the system, begin to rely on yourself. Instead of viewing teachers as the means, view them as one of many resources.

Maximizing your formal education could not be simpler: If you feel a topic is easy, pick up a related book that is challenging and work through it. Understand the concepts and try to utilize them. As a student, you should never feel comfort. If you are comfortable, it means you aren't being challenged and aren't improving.

So, stop waiting! Pick up that new book. But, also remember the second half. If you want to be truly awesome you must also do. Interested in programming? Stop reading blogs about why C++ kicks Scala's ass and actually program something (a compiler, an app, a dynamic website, etc.). Interested in political history? Choose something in the world and try to reason how we arrived at this current state of affairs. Interested in writing? Then write a book and try and promote and sell it using an E-book platform. Want to be an entrepreneur? Start a company and track your earnings.

Stop waiting for the permsission of a piece of paper from your high school, college, or certification program and start learning and doing now. Maximizing your potential rests on your shoulders. No one else's.






What are you doing to improve yourself? What goals do you have for the term? What about the year? Leave a comment and then get back to work!
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When writing this entry I came across an awesome post by an MIT grad about the personal growth he and countless others experienced at the school. A primary lesson learned by many seems to parallel the idea that understanding requires time, study, and practice. I wish I could find it again to link for you but for now, it is lost to the wilds of the internet.