SPECIAL ARTICLE – CAMPUS MAGAZINE ANNIVERSARY
GENERATION ADAM
REVOLUTION BABIES
Since I got pregnant in August 2010, I have been on a bumpy hormonal trip; everything seems so intense and magnified but at the same time most things seem trivial and marginal. It is like wearing bifocal glasses while driving on the highway. I thought once I gave birth I would welcome my old self back but I was never more wrong! Adam has taken me hostage and I am enjoying being a captive of this tiny yet amazing creature. My whole world lights up when he smiles, I cry when he cries, and I laugh when he giggles. He is a yummy edible bundle of joy – and I do not want him to go to school! Yes! This is what I just confessed! I do not want my baby to attend school in Egypt or anywhere in the world!
Education the way it is today – and the way it has been for hundreds of years – is a sin against humanity! We are all victims of the educational system no matter how good or bad you think it is!
- School hours
As of the age of four or five the "student" gets up at six in the morning, spends thirty minutes in transportation if his school is a few streets away, and at least an hour on the road if his school is a little bit far from home.
At school, he spends at least seven hours between classes where he is bombarded by information delivered by people whose teaching capabilities are a question mark.
He is expected to meet expectations from day one!
There are rules and guidelines for the "good boy" who sits in his place, does not make noise, does his homework, raises his hand, plays quietly, and eats his meal.
Good obedient boys who are tamable and controllable get a star on their forehead and others get sent home with a letter to their parents!
- Homework
Poor "student" has to spend another four to five hours at least working at home! Say bye bye to sports, fun, entertainment, hobbies, creativity, and childhood as it should be!
Who cares about art or music classes, or sports and games when there is homework to be done?
Look at how the bright smart look our children were born with fades away as they progress in school!
- Grading System
This is the worst crime of all; treating little perfect unique human beings as robots who have to perform according to benchmarks and a preset catalogue.
Instead of focusing on their individuality and their innate strengths, grading systems color beautiful minds with gray – a dull shade of gray!
Grades are the source of the early grains of insecurity, anxiety, and failure that grow with us and haunt us through our teens and adult years. The fear of not meeting expectations, as opposed to self confidence – was born on the grade sheet and its likes!
Grades do not just tell you that you are excellent or lousy; you are excellent because someone else is lousy and you are lousy because, in comparison to someone else, you are underachieving! You are never regarded as an individual – you are always a reflection of someone else.
Final exams, admission exams, and all sorts of exams are murder in cold blood! Dreams and talents are the main victims of exams! A few numbers decide what you can and cannot do – your sense of self worth was just shot dead!
Do you see where the mess comes from? Do you see how grades bring out the worst traits in human nature? You are never satisfied with who you are or what you could do! Competitiveness, envy, and greed are just a few vices that schools breed because of their grading system!
No! Scrap that! The overall schooling system brings out the worst in us and kills anything good we were born with!
Parents, instead of enjoying their children and their uniqueness, are dragged into the benchmarking game; they compare their kid's grades, performance, and development to others and they miss out on the beauty of exploring that kid as his days and years unfold. They want him to be like someone else … all the time and you can kiss unconditional love goodbye!
Kids grow up totally oblivious to their talents and potential – they grow up and they don't know what to do with themselves now! They become frustrated adults who are anything but productive! School killed them!
- Curriculums
I do not want Adam to study anything that is being taught in schools. I want him to learn how to read, write, and count then go out there and read all sorts of books, articles, and papers related to any topic that he fancies. I want him to search, research, and come up with his own conclusions and answers. Knowledge, truth, and real education are not in school books; there are many books, novels, songs, experiments, and theories out there and I want Adam to choose what he wants to read and learn.
- Permanent damage
Schools leave our kids permanently impaired! A sickly competitive disappointingly lost ass-kissing boot-licking generation graduates every year from our schools and universities and there is no way to reverse the effect of years and years of ugly molding.
I am really not interested in having a kid who is the top of his class – or continuously striving to be so! I am not interested in comparing Adam to other kids his age or older! I want Adam to be! I do not want him to be like me or like his father; I want to take a step back and watch his character unfold. I do not want him to be anything but himself and I intend to give him all the space he needs to explore who he is and what he wants to do with his life. The question is: how could he blossom into the man he could become without going through the mental pasteurization process called education?
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