Failings of School

I was thinking today when faced with a job application form how little about life school actually taught us. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed school hence why I've decided to further my education by coming to university to study Chemistry for 4 years but one thing I was never taught how to do was to write a CV.

I would like to get a part time job whilst I'm here to gain a bit of extra cash but I have no idea what I write on a CV, having never been told how to at school. School also never taught you things like how to do your taxes, they told you that you should vote but never showed us how to register to and other things related on how to actually just live your life. The menial tasks that our parents and guardians just do were never explained to us by the schooling system; they taught us how to learn, remember and regurgitate facts to pass an exam.

In many ways, it's similar to learning how to drive a car. The instructors will teach you how to pass the driving test, not actually how to drive. Obviously the basics of making the car move, but your road sense and general awareness and the instinctiveness of driving is almost self-taught. But from school, learning from your mistakes is not a good way to go. You should be getting it right first time, every time pretty much.

There is no provision for different abilities of people and the different skills people possess. In a world where we are all unique and different from each other, why will they test us all in the same way to see how much of one skill we all possess? That isn't a fair representation of the population.

It's like testing every single animal on the planet on their ability to climb a tree. A fish is not going to be able to climb that tree because it was not designed to do so but a monkey would pass the test with flying colours. Humans are the same, we don't all have the same abilities and I think it's absolutely fantastic that we don't. It gives us opportunities to marvel at somebody else's expertise.

School is a useful tool but I think you can't judge everyone by their ability to perform academically in exams because not everyone is hardwired to be able to do that.

They were just some thoughts from today..

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Freshers!

In a few hours, I have a formal ceremony called matriculation at the Cathedral here in Durham. It is a welcoming ceremony, a bit like graduaton but for entering rather than leaving the university. Then I feel as if I will officially be a member of Durham University!

I am half way through my Freshers Week now and I have to say, it really is such a great experience and the way ours is set up here makes it so easy to make friends and socialise. I have 5 'landing' mates who I share a bathroom with etc. and there are 24 other rooms in my block so when we all squeeze into one place and have a block party, it's a little cramped! I  also have people who I have met at our events during the week and people who are also doing Chemistry in my college so a wide circle already!

We had our societies fair yesterday too which was our chance to sign up to do all sorts of things from Chamber Choir to Debating to Lacrosse to Quidditch. To say there was a massive range and the place was total chaos would probably be an understatement.

I will post again soon, I have the pictures from my IKEA Haul but never got around to formulating a post for them as trying to get organised to move out took up a lot of my time.

Speak soon
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