Blame the school system for those lies our teachers told us

Aikawa Ke photo

By

John Chizoba Vincent

Blame the school system for those lies our teachers told us in the classroom. Good grades are not what life needs, in reality, good grades sometimes don’t take you up there but they condition your mind to one man’s idea. Blame the school system for teaching us how to manage other people’s thoughts, it never taught us how to think but how to manage and hold on to the thoughts, principles, formula and theories of some men before us.

Why don’t you sit down one day and question all these principles, formula and theories you were taught in school?

The school system told our teachers to tell us that in order for us to be successful in life, we’d need good grades that would get us a good and secure job in the near future, not ideas that will create jobs for us. Blame the school system for those lies our teachers told in the classroom and leave those lies to discover who you are. The reality of life is beyond good grades and whatsoever your teacher taught you in school, the school system caused them to lie.

Blame the school system for the lack of equipment needed in school to teach us and the dubious lecturers employed to lecture you. They are the reason why most graduates are not employable in the labour market. The school did not prepare them to be employable. The school system failed to teach us that organisations are not looking for job seekers, but are instead looking for problem solvers. The School system told us that the smart ones are those with good grades but reality taught us that the smart ones are those with smart currency called ‘ideas’. Blame your parents because they failed to tell you that the school is only but one phase in many phases of life.

Those who school tagged brilliant and intelligent are those who repeat the book definition of terms, principles, citations, and formula in answering questions in exams and class tests while those who challenge and question conventional learning by defining those terms in their own ways and, according to their understanding, are penalized righteously. Some of our lecturers actually made us answer their questions in exams word for word. You are not allowed to think outside the box, you are meant to think within the box where they once thought yesterday. You become a traitor when you question their authority, when you think deeper than what the conventional school has in store for you. It’s unfortunate that we spend more of our time in school learning to cram theories, principles and formulas, most of which are no longer in use or are no longer applicable in our day to day living other than to sharpen our industrious mind for those things which are applicable these modern days.

Blame the school system for those lies our parents hold so dear to their heart. We are not leaders of tomorrow because those old men are still in power. The school failed to teach us that it is no longer how hard you work but how valuable your ideas are to your immediate environment/society. More gold is mined in the mind than is mined in the mines. Develop your mind in a special way to solve problems. Build yourself, sharpen your sense of belonging, go for your dreams and aspirations. Don’t condition your mind only in what the school system has taught you. Education does not guarantee success; it is only the best legacy you can give to yourself. But it is not a gateway to success, you still have to build yourself up to date.

Teach yourself that school is someone’s idea and shouldn’t determine your own success in life. Remind yourself that whatever you are taught in school is also someone’s brain child. It was someone’s idea some years back. Why torment yourself these days with it? Why judge yourself with good grades written with blue biro which can be erased?

Go and learn how to read and write but don’t cage yourself in the process of doing that. Create your own idea. Build your own empire. Bill Gates wasn’t a graduate, but he excels in his own ideas. The clothes you wear everyday are someone’s brain child, the book you read is someone’s idea, and the television you watch is someone’s idea. Ideas rule the world not good grades. You have to think. Think and think again and think again and again and again. School won’t teach you how to think but you should teach yourself. Remember, the idea you have today will not only create a job for you but it will create jobs for others and generations to come.

Most of the world’s biggest wealth is in the hands of those who are not graduates of any institutions but they are great today because they had an idea yesterday. The problem of studying hard to get a chance of getting a good paying job syndrome has undervalued the essence of education. Since we have many graduates from our institutions that could not get good jobs with their so called university grades, the younger generation will be reluctant to go to the same school to bang themselves up for four years in pain and the harsh hands of evil lecturersm in addition to the madness of strikes every three months. Let education expose you and show you what the world is, what the world is all about, what it has in stock for you. Let education be your map of exposure.

Blame the school system for those lies our teachers told us in the classroom.

John Chizoba Vincent

John Chizoba Vincent is a cinematographer, filmmaker, music video director, poet and a writer. A graduate of mass communication, he believes in life and the substances that life is made of. He has three books published to his credit which includes Hard Times, Good Mama, Letter from Home. For boys of tomorrow is his first offering to poetry. He lives in Lagos.