Screw the System

All it takes is a single spark of knowledge to ignite a bonfire of  wisdom, which can continue to burn away through a long and  dark night of ignorance. However, the flames of creativity do not like to be constrained. The rigid system of final exams, midterms and grades is smothering us, the strong cold winds of peer pressure and competition threaten to blow out our fiery passion for our work.  

The very passion which ignited our joy for learning and led us down this twisted path in the first place, the curiosity and thirst for knowledge which gave our lives meaning and us reason to  wake up each morning, this passion is being threatened by the current education system.

Is this system in fact a prison? A prison constraining talent and imagination. A prison suffocating us, preventing us from  breathing in the crisp fresh air of inspiration from the sunny pastures of learning, blinding our eyes from the light and  keeping us in the darkness of ignorance. Is it holding back our potential to create new ideas and push the boundaries of  research further?

On a warm spring day during my freshman year, I walked into Kelowna’s iconic Parlour Ice Cream, anticipating between my two favorite flavors, coffee and chocolate. I was faced with  the paradox of choice: should I major in Computer Science or Biochemistry. I couldn’t bear to turn my back on either of the two fields which ignited my passion for learning.

“Why not get a double scoop?” my friend suggested.

As an Honours student double majoring in Computer Science and Biochemistry, several questions have sprung to my mind during my academic journey, as I navigated the perilous waters of university life on my ship’s journey to the isles of success.

Do course work and midterms really prepare you for employment in the work field? Are grades a true indicator of a student’s understanding of the concepts? Are they an accurate metric to measure student success? Are final exams truly necessary to a student’s academic journey to the mastery of a subject? Or are they actually detrimental?

“Writing a final exam or even a midterm is an extremely traumatizing experience,” says fourth year Psychology student Khushie Nanavaty. “It’s not just the exam itself, it’s the entire  

atmosphere, the time limit, the pressure to perform well knowing that the stakes are high. Many times, I screw up on questions, not because I don't know the answers or I haven’t studied but because of the stressful environment. I can hear the clock ticking away in the background and I keep thinking about how much time I have left to complete the exam and if I have left enough time for the remaining questions. My brain just starts to shut off and I’m unable to think clearly. However, if you ask me the exact same question after the exam when I’m not stressed out, I am able to answer it correctly.”

“I definitely do not feel that my grades accurately depict my  actual understanding of the subject matter,” says Khushie Nanavaty, “I can’t tell you the number of times I really truly understand a subject but perform badly on the exam leading to a low grade.”

Does the system need to be changed to accommodate accelerated learners? Is the system too rigid? Is this the right environment to foster creativity and passion for one’s work? Is the bridge between scoring straight A’s and acing technical job interviews broken or simply non-existent?

“This bridge never existed in the first place,” says fourth year Computer Science and Co-op student, Mithish Ravisankar, “the number of courses which actually contributed to helping me  land a good co-op position and helped me perform well at the workplace, well to be honest it’s just a needle in a haystack.”

“As a Computer Science student, I was forced to take irrelevant Arts Electives like ANTH 100. In fact, I spent more time and energy on courses like ANTH 100 compared to any of  the other important Computer Science courses which I had taken in that semester,” says Mithish Ravisankar, “If I could go back in time and meet my first year self, I would tell him not to  waste so much time trying to get perfect grades but to instead work on building skills which would actually help me land a good job. In the end, most of the skills which I require in  technical interviews, I did not learn them from any of the courses, I had to teach them to myself. In the end, recruiters value actual experience over grades.”

Is it time for this prison to be broken? After all, the sky’s the limit. How can someone reach the sky if they are constrained by the roof of the house? If we truly seek to push the boundaries  of research and learning further, is it time to rethink the entire system? Is it time to break free and cast off the shackles which tie our creativity to an outdated grading system and instead let  our minds soar free? After all, “Wit Beyond Measure is Man’s Greatest Treasure.”

In the wise words of the Stranger Things Character Dustin Henderson “screw the system, screw conformity, screw everyone and everything trying to hold you back and tear us  apart.”