School’s built on the wrong kind of geometry

I’ve previously talked a lot about symmetries and asymmetries. Here I’ll apply that to the modern school.

To start off, something with symmetry in this context is something that has equal input and output. An asymmetry is something where the input and output don’t correlate. It can be a slight offset, but it can just as well be a big one.

I’ve always experienced asymmetries in school. I’ve been a top student, most of the time on talent and in some very rare cases on hard work. I’ve written long essays on few hours and still gotten high grades.

For most people there’s been a symmetry. My best friend from 7th to 12th grade definitely had a symmetrical balance with school work. If he spent another hour studying for a test, he got a higher mark. If he spent that hour playing video games, he got a lower one.

I’ve also seen people who’ve had another relationship to the grading system. Similar to me, they seemed to get the same grades no matter what they were doing, but they were always studying hard to pass. I had a classmate who studied for 3–5 hours every day for three years and still only got about passing grades in all classes except music.

And that’s the core to this whole text, that’s where the systematic wrongdoing of school lies. We don’t build it on the asymmetries that work in our favour.

As stated, I had a very easy time in school, at least with most subjects. I haven’t been that motivated to put in the effort tho, which has resulted in me not knowing things that I really should’ve learned. Geography is a blank spot for me, I know very little on the subject. The things that I do know, I’ve learned outside of school where my effort has at least matched the result that I’ve gotten.

The classmate that had to work hard for passing grades really couldn’t get a higher grade than passing, no matter how hard she tried. But she has an amazing voice, and sings better than most people I’ve heard sing. Ever.

Had the system worked in her favour, she would’ve been encouraged to sing more. She would’ve been graded on her grit and efforts rather than the result. Because clearly, if she’d been putting in the same effort in to something else, the reward would’ve been asymmetrical the other way around.

The thought behind most grading systems is that people are going to go through it in a symmetrical manner, like my best friend. But for a lot of people, the subjects that are taught simply aren’t symmetrical.

If we were to help them find asymmetrical models, positive asymmetries, they’d have a lot more to get out of life.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that my classmate should only be doing music from a young age. There is more to life for her as well. But it means that more of us would be able to enjoy her music, because that’s what she’d be putting in effort to developing.