How many equations, subjects and dates did you memorize just before an exam never to use again?
How many “A” grades did you get, which were never asked for when applying for a job?
How many times have you remembered something 5 minutes just after the teacher said: “Stop writing”
Only to receive your results a month later to realize that you were only 1 mark short of the top grade?
Does that mean remembering 5 minutes earlier would’ve made you more qualified for a particular job?
Well, on an application form it would have we all have different abilities, thought processes, experiences and genes so why is a class full of individuals tested by the same means?
So that means Cherrelle thinks she’s dumb, because she couldn’t do a couple sums and if this issue is not addressed properly, it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Then every school has the audacity to have policy on equality. Huh, the irony!
Exams are society’s methods of telling you what you’re worth. But you can’t let society tell you what you are. Because this is the same society that tells you that abortion is wrong, but then looks down on teenage parents!
The same society that sells products to promote nature hair, looks and smooth complexion with the model on the box, half photoshopped, and has fake lashes and hair extensions.
With pastors that preach charity, but own private jets Imams that preach against greed, but are all fat. Parents that say they want “educated kids” but constantly marvel at how rich Richard Branson is
Governments, that preach peace, but endorse war, that say they believe so much in the importance of higher education and further learning. Then why increase tuition fees every single year?
I believed Miss Jefferson when she took me into the office, said that my exams would be imperative to my success because we were taught to always follow when Miss Jefferson led.
Then I took Jefferson out of the equation and learned to think for myself. I realized, we were always taught to follow when misled. Huh, the irony!
Test us with tests, but the finals are never final. Because they never prepare us for the biggest test which is survival! And what I suggest is fairly outlandish. So I don’t expect everyone to understand this.
Except for the kid that knows what it feels like to be worth no more than that D or that A that you get on results day. And the ones whose best stories were never good enough for your English teacher.
Because apparently you missed out key literal techniques…Did not follow the class plan…And the language was too “informal” for him to understand. But then he’d reference Hamlet and Macbeth. And you’d fight the urge to express your contempt by partially clenching your fist with only your medius finger left protruding in the middle of your hand.
And asking if he was aware that Shakespeare was known as the innovator of slang Or the kid at the back of the class who thinks: “Why am I studying something that doesn’t fuel my drive?” But when confronted with a maths problem his eyes come alive.
So this one is for my generation, the ones who found what they were looking for on Google. The ones who followed their dreams on Twitter…Pictured their future on Instagram…Accepted destiny on Facebook.
This one’s for my “failures” and “dropouts”, for my unemployed graduates, my shop assistants, cleaners and cashiers with bigger dreams. My self-employed entrepreneurs, my world-changers and my dream-chasers!
Because the purpose of “Why I hate school, but love education” was not to initiate a worldwide debate, but to let them know that whether 72 or 88, 44 or 68…We will not let exam results decide our fate.
