FIRST PUBLISHED: 25th Feb 2014, aged 18 years old.
It's never too late to repost old blogposts from when you were 18 years old. What on earth could go wrong?!
Can I first apologise for my (serious) lack of writing. This statement I have to admit is more for my own benefit than the internet, but I really should try to write more (whether good or bad – Sorry!). I of course blame my new found technologik for eating away my time (see previous post). Anywho, onwards….
Is it just me, or when you leave the education system, do you become less intelligent? Because I have been pondering this idea for a long long time. Since finishing sixth form and entering the adult world….Ok, OK, maybe not entering, but most definitely ‘dabbling’ in the adult world. I have found that the timetables and big brother-esque tactics are partially removed, or at least morph into a new guise. It can be hard and suddenly the only one who can tell you what to do is you (Ok and your boss, the government and maybe your partner, your bossy sibling/parent). Theoretically you are your own person, educated and in the knowledge that your are the king of your own cause. I will leave this place to return back to the comforts of education and the cushy uni lifestyle. Always having a safety net and the comforting knowledge that your bed at home is still there (and necessary) as you have to go home in the summer holidays and have food cooked for you and presents showered over you. Well this is how I would love holidays to pan out anyway…… BUT back to the topic, my time away from ‘schooling’ in this big bad adult world, I think I’ve lost my knowledge mojo.
I guess I need to ask myself is if this ‘lost knowledge’ is useful. Making a general assumption that I’d like to be able to communicate with my peers and those who are older than me (the younger generation can just remain flummoxed at my stupidity and vague madness). I’d think not. What I’ve forgotten is more to do with school and things of the academic nature. Like how to solve simultaneous equations, how to use a tree diagram and how to write a killer essay. With a 5 minute refresher I’m sure I’d get back into the swing of things, but off the cusp, I am hopeless. But do I even need this to communicate effectively with most people? …… I think not. Does this mean that I have become ‘dumber’? or just I have always been inherently stupid but extremely obedient and skilled at jumping through hoops? …… I’m not too sure.
Me is ‘stupider’? Because well as this blog is witness to, I am a tad lazy at this current time and not really doing anything exceptionally educationally stimulating. To be honest I don’t really miss it, but the little geek in me is desperately worried that I’m going to decrease my academic potential and therefore lose the only thing that actually might help me further my career (in whatever I eventually settle on- I know it’s all got a tad theoretical). Being able to multi-task cooking while chatting to two people and playing a mindless game is hardly a skill. But all the things I’ve forgotten from school would they help that path anyway?
Most jobs in the real word don’t really tackle the things that I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten. Of course they exist, but I don’t want to do them so the problem is erased! woohoo! I can’t think of one position where someone would ask me to draw a plant cell….. but perhaps that’s just my naivety of the workplace, and everyone hangs around cracking jokes and quizzing each other on GCSE science questions to help decide who receives the promotion but for some sneaking suspicion- I think not.
So dumber, stupider? Does it matter? I mean my people skills are still relatively in tact and I still enjoy and can share my thoughts on cultural activities. I keep up to date with current affairs and can tut loudly, with a sense of righteousness when political commentators/politicians talk rubbish. This has not disappeared since leaving the comforts of schooling. In fact I’ve probably become more vocal in my views, or at least learnt to seethe silently while shouting within my head. This is something that I don’t think I even received from school anyway. This was a conscious decision to follow my loony parents and have an opinion on events and political theories while sitting round the dinner table. I didn’t gain this from school and I’m not sure school even helped this interest to grow. Perhaps I was the one who fostered these independent ideas onto my peers rather than the school. BUT this all just leads to some things that I, (and probably through your deduction, you) already knew -I’m an opinionated, loud and at times pompous character. With or without education I doubt that would change.
But still I haven’t answered whether I’ve become less clever. I think I’d have to go with ‘a tad’. Because it is true things that helped me pass all my exams where things like simultaneous equations and plant cells, but this was in fact just an exercise in proving that I could grasp these concepts. What is really important is being able to use the skills from these tasks in everyday life- which I guess no-one teaches you. Im not sure if I’ve come to the right conclusion but this is what I think I’ve found through a small session or prolonged thinking which I do not partake in regularly. Till next time, which will be soon I promise! Ta-rah!
C x
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