Figure it out
"There was a time when Stone Age men and women used to sit and look up at the sky and say, "What are those twinkling lights?" They built the first curriculum, but we've lost sight of those wondrous questions. We've brought it down to the tangent of an angle. But that's not sexy enough. The way you would put it to a nine-year-old is to say, "If a meteorite was coming to hit the Earth, how would you figure out if it was going to or not?" And if he says, "Well, what? how?" you say, "There's a magic word. It's called the tangent of an angle," and leave him alone. He'll figure it out." -Sugata Mitra
The things in school are not necessarily hard - you do not have to be a genius to master it.
In fact, anyone with a decent amount of perserverance and understanding should be able to learn and master techniques that are taught in schools today. And this is proven by the "Hole in the Wall" project, where different people, even some who have not received any formal education prior to the experiment, are able to learn things decades ahead of their time. So why are so many people failing? One answer to this problem is this: no one likes it. It's boring. It's not interesting. Why do I have to learn calculus and trigonometry and the formula for kinetic energy?
But we can change that. And no, it's not that we should abolish these subjects - these subjects are all wonderfully informative and interesting, if we make them interesting. Technology is everywhere nowadays - application of knowledge is much more important than knowing the facts. And fortunately, relevance invokes more interest in kids than memorization. A simple solution is this: scrap all those complicated problems in imaginary situations, and replace them with everyday problems that are more relevant, realistic, and relatable. That way, a child will be able to see what they have learnt in everyday life, and be able to understand more about what's happening around them. And that, we believe, is more valuable, more memorable, more fun, and more meaningful, than piles of worksheets that only screams "memorize me you foolish child!" with imaginary shapes and scenarios that can only exist on paper and painfully emerge in reluctant minds.
