We need to reinvent the wheel

"We don't need to reinvent the wheel." I hear that all the time, but I personally hate that saying. While there are times when it makes sense, it has a regressive feel to it. We are insisting that we don't pursue something better.


Perhaps the worst offender for this mentality comes from our schooling system. Overwhelmingly, we believe in maximizing the performance of the traditional schooling model. Very few people are seeking answers to more important and more fundamental issues such as the best way to handle education.

Have you ever looked at the history behind the traditional schooling model? It's nothing to be proud of. Such values as obedience to the government and prevention of over-education are embedded deep within the roots of our schools. These things are highly visible for those who are willing to open their eyes.

What if someone bothered to look for the best approach to education without allowing the traditional schooling model to hinder ideas? What are the odds of a facility-based approach with age groups further divided into specific classes with all students attending the same days and same times with letter-based evaluations reflecting performance at specific levels that can be converted into an overall numerical average that tops out at 4.0? I am not going to discuss all of the details about schooling sameness, and a traditional schooling model can certainly turn to basic insignificant variants of what I just said.

The idea that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel is a serious inhibitor to educational progress. Instead of looking at maximizing the quality of education in America, we prefer to focus on simple changes to the disaster that we already have in place. Most of these changes end up reinforcing the foundation, sometimes further harming the educational prospects of the students.

We need to shed society of our current schooling environment. Reform will always be insufficient. Do we really believe that building off of our anti-educational schooling system will ever fix the flawed foundation? Do we really believe that the corrupt individuals who originally created the traditional model are better suited at developing schools than we are? Personally, I think we can do better, and we deserve better.