Bona Fide Curiosity

Do we go to school to learn or do we go to school to be tested?

Let me explain the difference.

A typical school day places a student in an environment in which teachers constantly doubt him/her.

My Spanish teacher checks my worksheets for completion.

My physics and chemistry teachers check my worksheets for correctness, knowing good and well I could have cheated. So they're really checking that I put the effort in to discuss the answers with everyone else. Which I do, shamelessly.

My APUSH and English teachers assign activities and Socratic Seminars that they hope will provide valuable practice, but in reality come too often and on too long of a list of responsibilities for students to give them any thorough concentration. So instead of employing these assignments for educational value, Academy students develop the age-old practice of "B.S."-ing, in which we exert minimal effort into said assignments with the understanding that their teachers will exert just as little effort in grading them. And practice of B.S.-ing continues because the students are right.

And every so often, my teachers administer tests, because they trust me so little that they feel the need to make me regurgitate on the spot in the classroom in addition to my typical extrascholastic regurgitation (homework).

My only question is this: If teachers still trust us so little, what is the purpose of the Academy? Why are we designated as a more intelligent, more scholastically interested bunch if we are still subjected to the same distrust?

Now, up to this point I've been focusing on some pretty abstract ideas like trust and distrust. Here's what I can say to solidify my dilemma.

When I applied to the Academy, people told me I was in for a real "challenge." I figured when I took that intelligence test to qualify, they were making sure I could stand up to the rigor of the intellectual work that lie ahead. With the Explore knowledge test I figured they were making sure I already possessed a love for knowledge and learning and that my teachers could trust me to want to learn. That they could trust me read the History book without testing me on it, or to to investigate chemistry concepts without grading each and every one of my worksheets critically. Sure, they'd give me worksheets to facilitate and direct my learning, but they would know that I, as a naturally curious being, WANT to learn.

Imagine that. Bona fide curiosity.

But an attack on teachers is naive and shortsighted. I understand most teachers don't control a lot of their requirements. If I had one suggestion for those people up top, though, it would be to recognize curiosity when they see it, and don't punish it for God's sake.

For all those kids who "don't give" about school, sure, they don't deserve trust. But Academy kids--at least most of them from what I've seen--genuinely enjoy learning. So for us, structure a system based on facilitated exploration.

I know, that would require a total revamping of the education system. Maybe that's what I'll do.

I have more to say, and I want to keep using my brain for a little while to write this blog. But I and every Academy student knows that grades don't get themselves. And grades are what really matter. I couldn't care less about learning, because I want the best for myself and I understand that all I need to do that is convince my teachers I can be trusted to complete the worksheet, double-space my paper.