Nishreen – a 6th grader intellectual rebel…

Nishreen is bored to death with the school. In one of our “Kakaotalk” chats: “Why can’t people believe that I want to be an astronaut? I want to mix and tinker with things. I want to be a scientist. They teach you stupid things at school – things you already know. I am bored to death – I just want to stay in bed!”

She probably expected something new and exciting in 6th grade, so during the first long examination, she perfected 4 of her 8 subjects. However, she realized that 6th grade was no different. She lost interest again, which led to these hilarious incidents that kept me laughing at work long after our chat. 

The K to 12 (K12) is a big mistake. The world has changed in a way that truly boggles the mind – the money would have been better spent to overhaul our system of education. Technology has accelerated learning in a way that what took me 4 years of high school will probably take my daughter a year to learn. “Class, our subject today is Einstein’s Theory of special relativity. Open your tablets and cell phones and search on YouTube. An animation of Einstein himself will teach you his special relativity.” For 4 years of high school and 4 years of college, I didn’t understand Einstein’s special theory of relativity, but in minutes – my daughter can understand it on YouTube. In medical college, we spent months on the cadaver, but today, software anatomy in 3D allows you to walk around a hologram of the human body and study the tiniest part of the human body. You learn in days what took us months to learn, so what is the logic behind extending years of education? It's plain stupid.