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In my recent post about ramen and life, I briefly touched on the purpose of higher education, and how for many of us, school doesn't necessarily set us up very well for life afterwards. Certainly, the point of institutionalized education shouldn't be purely for survival - otherwise, for most people the best thing to do would be to enroll in trade school at the ages of 13-14, learn a useful skill, and work off of that for the rest of your days. You're physically capable of working in most jobs at that age, but I can say with a degree of confidence that few people think this is the best way to go, at least in contemporary society. I think there's a big difference between "school/formal education" and "education", but I may occasionally use these words interchangeably. Bad habit, I know.
I got a lot out of school, and if I had a chance to do it over again, I wouldn't change very much. Overall, I had a fairly varied and diverse education, so perhaps that's why I have a more positive view on formal education than someone stuck in the test-centered Taiwanese school system, or a kid forgotten in the underfunded inner-city public school district. Still, I do believe that for the most part, what you get out of something depends on how much you put into it. I've had classes in well-funded institutions like Michigan where people really cared if you were learning something worthwhile, and I've gone to school in places where actually going to class regularly is a curiosity.
For most of my childhood, school was straightforward. I was a middle-class ABC and went to a good private school, taking violin classes two nights a week (of course), and playing in youth soccer and hockey leagues, depending on the weather. But when my family moved to Taiwan after the summer of 5th grade, everything changed. Most significantly, I think living in more than one country for an extended period of time definitely has an effect on your mindset and values. More than anything, that has helped shape my perspective of the world and life. After moving, I was homeschooled for 3 years (because my Chinese ability wasn't up to par to go to a standard school), and that made me question the necessity of formal schooling. Then I attended an experimental high school where to a certain extent, you could do whatever you wanted - in a way, similar to college. Many kids took the opportunity to play video games and cut classes every chance they got, and quite a few never ended up going to college, or delayed it for several years. For the most part though, they appear content with their life choices, something that may be somewhat unimaginable to many of my peers who graduated from the University of Michigan (obviously, a completely different educational environment), now in their mid-20s and in grad school for the next few years to come.
As a child, it's easy to believe that life is as you see it. This sounds fairly simple, but it is a crucial step in becoming a more thoughtful and nuanced thinker. When you grow up with only one language spoken and used around you, it's hard to understand the value and necessity of foreign languages. When you only hang out with people of similar ethnic background and culture, it's hard to see why diversity and multiculturalism can be a good, or even necessary thing. When you only hang out with kids from your church's youth group, you can't imagine how someone wouldn't believe in Jesus.
Of course, as you grow older and more experienced, you encounter things that challenge your worldview, if only because you can't be sheltered forever. You move out of your neighborhood, you meet all kinds of people at work, you start using the internet, you transition from childhood to adulthood and start to have more sympathy for the "respect your elders BS" that you once hated. Some people take this process in stride, becoming wiser as they go, and these are the people I look up to the most. Some can't handle it and reject any piece of information that contradicts their already-existing worldview. You see this a lot from those senior citizens who forward every piece of negative chainmail about Barack Obama to everyone they know, or just recite political talking points without independent thought of their own.
In my case, "shock therapy" proved fairly useful. When you live in one country your entire life, and then travel somewhere else only as a tourist, it's fairly natural to dismiss others as "weird" - finding yourself unable to really relate with their religious beliefs, their customs, the way they communicate. As someone totally accustomed to the American way of communication, Japan can be extremely frustrating, being that it feels like no one really expresses their feelings directly, but rather in (what may seem to you) a roundabout way. It's not actually roundabout, because people there know exactly what is being said, it just feels unsaid because it's not done in a way you can understand easily. Or you get frustrated when someone offers you tea in Taiwan and you decline, but they pour it for you anyway, because "you're supposed to decline out of politeness, and people understand that they're supposed to pour it anyway".
But when you move to a place, and for all you know, permanently... it's easier to get deeper into a culture, to understand how and why things work the way they do in a different place. Of course you have the kids of businessmen working abroad who go to American schools in gated communities and never really interact with the locals in any meaningful way, but for the most part, it changes you profoundly. It helps you to notice things about yourself that you had previously taken for granted. When I'm in America, I feel quite Taiwanese at times, but when I'm Taiwan, I suddenly realize how American I am. Overall, moving to Taiwan forced me to challenge many things I had taken for granted in life, and once I was able to do so, I came to the realization that *I could be wrong*, about almost anything.
"I could be wrong."
Four simple words, but a huge difference in terms of open-mindedness and willingness to change. This isn't necessarily moral relativism. There are some topics that I hold very strong views about, but I'm willing and able to see where others who disagree with me are coming from, partly because I was forced to when in Taiwan, and subsequently after moving back to the United States for undergrad. I'll use several examples to help illustrate my point.
Take the issue of gun control. In Taiwan, guns are illegal. As such, a common American NRA argument goes, only criminals will have guns. In a sense, this is true. Guns still exist in Taiwan, and occasionally you'll see news of police raids confiscating Uzis and Mac-10s, but overall there are very few shootings. The typical domestic dispute that goes too far ends with a watermelon knife (still ugly) and a victim in the ER, and not with dozens of bodies chalked on the sidewalk. The roots of absolute gun control in Taiwan may in part stem from its previous authoritarian government, which was a minority ethnic group (Han Chinese) holding disproportionate power over the majority (Taiwanese/Hakka/Aboriginal) population of the island. No doubt they would have felt rather uncomfortable with citizens being armed - the perfect "defense against tyranny" 2nd amendment argument. And yet, as Taiwan has become a stable, if idiosyncratic democracy, people are happy not go have to endure all the school and movie shootings that seem to happen on a weekly basis in the United States.
On the other hand, Taiwan is a small country. When friends there respond with incredulity towards yet another shooting in the States and wonder why guns are still legal, I remind them that in many rural areas, help from the police can be hours away. A well maintained rifle can be a necessary deterrent in some specific situations, and thus I'm reluctant to completely ban guns in the States, even while believing that Taiwan has done the right thing on this particular issue. Some American friends of mine who have never lived in a gunless society do not see it as feasible, much like they cannot fathom single-payer healthcare (socialized medicine) as being a good, viable possibility. But because I have lived in a country without guns, with universal health care, I say it can be done. But I understand where they're coming from. I can easily admit to being wrong because I can see cases in which a point of view that I had once held steadfastly wasn't, in reality, that ironclad at all.
This is a kind of lesson that you rarely learn in school, at least until college. Teachers fear being challenged, and cannot have their students considering the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the textbook is wrong. Because unless a teacher truly loves and knows her academic subject... what else does she have besides her title once the aura of expertise is stripped away? Thus the illusion of infallibility must be preserved, often at the expense of the creativity and curiosity of young, impressionable minds. This mindset permeates all sorts of subjects, to the detriment of many graduates who find themselves ill-prepared for a life in the productive workforce.
What are some of the things I wish school had taught me? Or similarly, what subject was taught so poorly that it would have been better if I had never learned it at all?
1. History
If you have never read "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong", you should. As a political science major, I may be biased regarding the importance of history (I probably find it more interesting than most). I believe an honest, nuanced understanding of history is crucial towards the improvement of the individual, and the nation. While I have only had in-depth personal experience with American and Taiwanese history books, I find they both suffer from the same problems. Inaccurate depictions of historical figures and events, and deceptive teachings that do not help students understand why the world they live in is the way it is. By framing the Founding Fathers at mythical, perfect figures, they become superhuman, mythological, unattainable, and ultimately, boring. They are no longer something that students can and should strive to be - real, flawed people that nonetheless were able to overcome their shortcomings and help to change the world for the better. And that's unfortunate, because there's a lot of truth in the saying, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." We have seen powerful nations like the U.S.A. make the same avoidable military and strategical mistakes over and over again, because we have refused to learn the right lessons from Vietnam. Of course, your definition of "right" may vary. Some think that the lesson from Vietnam was that the politicians held the military back from victory, and that more troops, more blood, and more time would have resulted in a more favorable outcome. This appears to be the dominant interpretation, at least judging from current U.S. policy (and especially neoconservative ideals) . Others believe that Vietnam showed the futility of fighting an extended overseas insurgency in which you have little to lose, compared to the locals. Either way, without truly examining the good and bad, how can citizens be expected to make anything more than gut instinct decisions?
2. Personal Finance
It's astonishing how poorly many (college!) graduates manage their finances. In Taiwan, there's a phrase called "月光族", which roughly translated, means "Broke at the end of the month". Many people live paycheck to paycheck, not necessarily because they aren't making enough, but because they have absolutely no concept of finance. When and where to save or invest in, what items to prioritize when on a limited budget, what life decisions are feasible or worthwhile. And of course, the U.S. pretty much invented living off of credit card debt. Arguably, the Financial Crisis of 2008 was in large part caused by questionable financial values. It is one thing to buy a house assuming it will appreciate, thus providing you with additional useful income after you sell it. It is another to borrow money that you may never have, purely on the assumption that the housing market will never fall, financing an unsustainable lifestyle based on a vague sense of hope. It should be fairly self explanatory how a nation would be better-served by having citizens well educated in basic financial concepts, or at the very least impart something about the value of self-control and restraint.
3. How to cook
Fairly self explanatory, I think. This is linked to a better understanding of your body and health, as food is a huge factor in all this, and of course it has long term effects on your future potential and quality of life.
There are several other subjects that I find personally useful, but I recognize that the value of these things can vary significantly depending on your line of work or what country you are living in. I personally think understanding basic statistics and probability is quite useful and I wish schools taught a bit more about this before college, but I can accept that this may be somewhat subjective.
What things do *you* wish you learned in school? Or otherwise, what things have you learned throughout your life (both in and out of school) that have been extremely valuable?
Related: All Life's Lessons Can Be Learned By Playing StarCraft
EDIT:
Based on some great feedback, I've added some of the things you guys would have found valuable below. Some rephrasing was done.
Credit Rating
Communication Skills
Doing Taxes
Practical work experience/internships
Resumes/Cover letters
How to navigate bureaucracy (ex: Department of Motor Vehicles/DMV)
First Aid
Basic Body Functions
Critical Thinking
 
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I wish I had more autonomy.
I wish I could choose classes of my level, rather than being taught at a certain level for no other reason than I was born a certain year. I could have learned year 12 English at year 7, from years 7 to 10, you never actually learn how to write, you are just given "things to do". Then for some reason when scores are on the line, you actually get properly taught, unfortunately in a crammed manner.
Theres no autonomy within subjects either. Instead of being given assignments, why not give students outcomes they have to achieve? For example in Art, the outcome would be to create a portfolio rather than assigning students to do specific things each week. That allows students to express themselves better, and produce better artwork. Its dull if everyone is doing the same thing, and you have no inspiration, so you just produce crap every week. Art doesn't usually work like that, what happens is you get an inspiration first and then you create it, you don't put a block of clay in front of you and then go "alright now make something out of it". Same goes for other subjects too.
I wish I could have specialised much earlier on. Some of the subjects I did, I thought were completely useless, and still do today. Some of our subjects are completely outdated, like OP said, finance is very important, other subjects like business/communication, and IT are never taught until the last 2 years of highschool as an elective. These should be core subjects at highschool now.
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Awesome blog! As someone who's lived (for long periods) in vastly different cultures I totally understand everything you're saying.
I'll try to respond more later but for now... I don't understand how NO ONE in the US tells you how to fill out a tax return.
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I wish i learned how to study :D still have no fucking idea
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I wish I learned how to be happy and enjoy life
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You should watch the movie 'Deserter', I think you can relate to the main character very well since his point of view is very similar to yours (as far as I understand it and I would think I am very similar to yours as well).
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I wish school didn't disgust me from many passionating subjects such as history, geography, chemistry, physics and mathematics.
I only now understand all the stuff that i missed and how big my flaws were and are.
Since I'm out of school I'm starting to understand this subjects, and since i understand a bit this subjects, I can finally learn a bit not for the grade but just because it really interests me.
I feel bad when I try to learn stuff I should already know by then, graduated in some exams but totally forget afterwards because the only thing I was trying to get was a good grade and not actual knowledge.
It has more to do with the teachers than school I think, but I believe it's the school responsability to hire passionated teachers that want to make you understand how great their subject is. In my personal experience, some succeeded, most failed.
I only now realise that you can only learn something that interests you, something that gives you some emotions because it has some kind of sense for you, otherwise you won't enjoy it and you'll quickly forget.
How many time did I have to learn some random names, dates or places just for the sake of it, without having any knowledge of what it actually was about, only to get my grade and forget afterward.
Stay out of school, kids
(I'm kidding, I'm only ranting about the bad stuff, shcool offered many good stuff but that would be for another thread)
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went from a good set-up about education, and your personal definition, to a transition to cultural shock.
a bit of a confusing write up, but nevertheless, it had good material.
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The main problem were the teachers, and that is why i became one.
Education system killed my passion for exploring new stuff, made me doubt my possibility's, avoided guiding me better and all in all made a very distorted picture of what makes you successful and happy in life.
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hell of a read man.
i've never lived in another country but what you said about education nails it. one of the - if not THE biggest - problems about public education in america (again, cant speak for any other country) is that it almost hinders creativity. The way all the essays and stuff are structured ("No, it MUST be a 5 paragraph essay!"), the way the subjects are taught in general, and of course the way its impressed upon you that success in life means going to a four-year college.
And the colleges don't get off the hook either. Look, I understand competitiveness and the need for people to spread themselves, but the idea of judging the next 4 or 8 years of someone's life by the person they were when they were 16 years old seems a little hard to swallow. I hate that aspect of it.
Just my two cents, probably rambled and didn't make any sense either. But yeah nice post!
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Blazinghand
United States25550 Posts
Part of the reason for bad teacher is the low compensation rate for teachers. I know some people who are great, intelligent, kind people who became teachers despite the poor wages for a job of that education level, and I also know people who are great, intelligent kind people who would have become teachers but would rather be able to make a middle-class living here in the bay area. I'm sure there are other factors but this is one of them.
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This makes me realize how lucky of an education i got.
You say your teachers always abided by the textbook to keep authority ? Mine kept saying Fuck the textbook. It's pretty awesome to get math teachers that intentionally make errors so you have to stay critical of what you learn :D
I guess I was lucky that my parents decided to cut on their lifestyle to get a private school for their children, and that they were rich enough and that school existed in the first place 
But I actually had a rather different experience. I'm half Asian, I played in the sandbox with arabs, blacks and whites, went to a catholic school thinking God was another Santa Claus (I remember going to a religion class and asking the teacher whether or not we looked small enough to be fooled by Christmas tales - I was such a rebel when I was 7 x) and received there an education focusing on making me think by myself.
And yet those four magic words, "I might be wrong" eluded me a long, long time. Some things you have to struggle for no matter where you come from  i find that sometimes i actually never tried to understand the interlocutor's position. And that makes me know, most of the road is before me.
Off topic : France has pretty rural areas and the full gun ban works pretty well here too 
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i wish that i learned somethig useful in school, after taking summer internships i habe found i learned much more in working then i did reading text books
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In high school we had this one block each day called CAPP. Career and Personal Planning. It was this 15 or 30 minute session where everyone just sat around doodling. I'm still not sure what we were supposed to be doing, but nothing was enforced by the teachers. I wish instead they had taught us little life lessons in those opportune sessions. Like how important your credit rating is. What to expect and what to look for when apartment hunting. How to formulate a proper resume and cover letter. A sampling of a cheap healthy budget. What stats are most important when drafting a QB? 15 minutes a day really adds up and just some quick easy tips on what to expect when we ventured out on our own would have meant a lot.
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We actually used Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States as textbooks for our U.S. History class. The teacher was pretty awesome.
Also, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have paid any attention to things like credit rating and apartment hunting advice until I got a credit card/started looking for an apartment.
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but taiwan is a small country
taiwan is country? i didn't know that. always thought it was a province or autonomous region.
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Yup, it's got its own president, democratic elections, etc
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On August 31 2012 13:32 superbarnie wrote:taiwan is country? i didn't know that. always thought it was a province or autonomous region.
Depends on whom you're asking 
Oh nice job on getting this featured. Some of this is definitely great, though unfortunately while I see some of my own shortcomings here, I still don't know exactly whom I'm supposed to ask to get basic, fundamental information on managing my own money (for example). Probably my parents, as they seemed to know what they were doing.
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On August 30 2012 17:02 y0su wrote:
I'll try to respond more later but for now... I don't understand how NO ONE in the US tells you how to fill out a tax return.
My $0.02 on that particular subject - it's because no one really knows how to do it, even if they are a CPA with 20+ years of experience. Even the tax software makes me wonder. The actual tax code is an accretion of laws, addendums, special interest inputs, and spaghetti economic theories tossed on a plate of wtf. Even IRS agents can have issues detangling the mess. This is largely why I put my trust in software... because at least the math is going to come out pretty well.
On the wider topic of the OP blog...
I wish that I had been taught how very much I don't know, and may never know. While some people may find that a disincentive for learning (why bother if you'll never know everything?) I think it's extremely important to learn, as quickly as possible, that compared to all there is to know, you know nothing. That understanding that you don't know everything can hopefully keep your mind open to new things. Instead of saying "Well, that's just impossible because I know it can't happen" you can say "Wow, that's really strange. How did that happen? I should look into that..."
I look at the depths of my own ability to be wrong, and to just not know, and I see that there will always be something to learn. There is always something new, something to look forward to - and even when I think I might know it, there's still nuances or changes that could mean I can revisit the topic and learn something new.
... Except for higher maths. Calculus and differential equations give me a huge headache.
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On August 31 2012 05:44 Blazinghand wrote:
Part of the reason for bad teacher is the low compensation rate for teachers. I know some people who are great, intelligent, kind people who became teachers despite the poor wages for a job of that education level, and I also know people who are great, intelligent kind people who would have become teachers but would rather be able to make a middle-class living here in the bay area. I'm sure there are other factors but this is one of them.
A friend of mine became a high school teacher. (Science, if I recall correctly.) She lasted exactly one year. Her main reasons for quitting?
1) The parents.
2) The administration.
3) The parents.
4) The kids.
5) The parents.
6) Pay sucked.
7) The parents.
The parents and students alternated for about the next 10 reasons.
It takes a very special kind of person to be a teacher these days - especially in the 10-18 age range. I have a lot of respect for the people that do it, minus the hopefully few people that are mostly just babysitting. Part of my job involves training adults, and that is enough to make me eye a bottle of rum from time to time. Kids can be a joy and a trial at the same time, I understand, although I don't have any and probably never will.
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I really wish critical thinking, creativity, and initiative would be taught more in American public schools. Unfortunately I know this won't happen because the American education system is an incredibly massive machine designed to teach tens of millions of children at once. In order to accomplish this feat, all standards and materials must be standardized, all students taught to conform, sit down, shut up, and follow the teachers rules. If students were to question, to experiment, or to do tasks on their own this great machine would break down. Unfortunately in today's economy we don't need more workers who conform, who sit in meetings quietly and just quietly do what they're told. Corporations are drowning in college graduates who followed the rules and the "get a college degree" plan to the point where they don't even need to pay these workers in order to get them to fill entry level positions.
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I read this Memoration technique book couple of years ago, and I so wish I learnt it as early as possible in school.
So much more fun learning and remembering facts. Quite simple actually
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The most turbulent and eventfull time of your life
And it´s at that time you are supposed to mercilessly produce good grades
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+ 1 for Lies my Teacher Told Me. Although it's specifically written about the flaws in the US education system / textbooks, I took it as a good lesson for double checking the information you use to support your views in life. More people need to be self-aware as a rule, because progress only comes with those who dare to change the system, not fear change because it's different from what they're used to.
Great read, OP, you make a lot of points I agree with.
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Great blog. The section you wrote on history is something I have been thinking about for a while.
In just about anything, we are presented a series of facts, but the facts almost never tell the whole story. The way to make sense of facts is to give it a narrative, a story that connects the facts and gives them sense and significance.
It is up to us, though, to discern when we are being given facts and when we are being given a narrative. In history, as you pointed out, many times we are given a series of facts and then force fed the state approved narrative of those facts. The classic example in my mind is Christopher Columbus. Amazing how a narrative can become bigger than the truth about a person.
I see this happening with current events too. Most people aren't into cycling like I am, but (imo) the exact same thing is happening with Lance Armstrong. We were given a narrative about his story of overcoming cancer and winning all those bike races, and the narrative was strong enough to blind us searching out the truth. If you dig even just a little, he presents a very different image than the one we were originally given.
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On September 01 2012 17:41 ThePhan2m wrote:
I read this Memoration technique book couple of years ago, and I so wish I learnt it as early as possible in school.
So much more fun learning and remembering facts. Quite simple actually
HOW HOW HOW HOW
How?
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On September 02 2012 04:07 JieXian wrote:Show nested quote +On September 01 2012 17:41 ThePhan2m wrote:
I read this Memoration technique book couple of years ago, and I so wish I learnt it as early as possible in school.
So much more fun learning and remembering facts. Quite simple actually HOW HOW HOW HOW How?
I second this. I long for my 10 year old brain who could memorize anything, anytime.
I see that many of us see ourselves in this blog - travelling, putting things into perspective, questioning your thoughts. I have myself been obsessed for quite a while with the fallacious ways of the highly imperfect machine that is our brain. And find that what helps me question my own ideas the most is someone else agreeing with me.
School in my experience was quite fulfilling, as it is the case for most "gifted" students. I wish, however, that someone would have presented me with more discipline or challenges that would've helped me gain an autonomy that I lack today. Critical thinking was also mostly absent from the schools I attended, but I find that the most important point was a caring, devoted attitude among teachers. Kids tend to open their eyes when they feel loved and respected.
However, while I do agree that history was quite biaised, this bias comes from the republican ideal. It is a way for society to "generate" citizens that will support the state's action in a couple of years. Quoting a book I forgot about, "society doesn't only produce artifact things (industrialization), it produces artifact people (public education)".
Wether that is a good or a bad thing I do not know. We can always imagine the best and the worse outcomes in relation to our own opinions.
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I learned that "I might be wrong" when I found out what a quantum improbability is.
Which I found out from Hitchhiker's Guide, actually.
:D
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Thanks for this! And yea, the biggest one (I think) is just the "I might be wrong" - the ability to analyse and assess your own positions and arguments etc is hugely important and vital for any semblance of open mindedness. It's just super important for not making stupid decisions etc too
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I wish I had learned earlier(or I will someday learn):
How to cook.
How the state's apparatus work.
First aid.
Basic body functions.(in a practical way so you know wtf is going on with yourself)
Critical thinking. (impressively I was thought about this in school, none of my older sisters were)
Not everything is sucess.
Proper art classes(not history of art, I'm talking about taking children to a beautiful landscape and let them feel nature resonate through their small bodies while they draw whatever the fuck they want, it's astounding how people just don't ever feel like creating something when they get to later stages of their lifes simply because they are afraid to use a skill they never used before)
Critical thinking again.
Histories of asia and africa(we only get europe, usa and south america here).
Not to be an ass to minorities.
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On September 02 2012 04:49 Kukaracha wrote:Show nested quote +On September 02 2012 04:07 JieXian wrote:On September 01 2012 17:41 ThePhan2m wrote:
I read this Memoration technique book couple of years ago, and I so wish I learnt it as early as possible in school.
So much more fun learning and remembering facts. Quite simple actually HOW HOW HOW HOW How? I second this. I long for my 10 year old brain who could memorize anything, anytime. I see that many of us see ourselves in this blog - travelling, putting things into perspective, questioning your thoughts. I have myself been obsessed for quite a while with the fallacious ways of the highly imperfect machine that is our brain. And find that what helps me question my own ideas the most is someone else agreeing with me. School in my experience was quite fulfilling, as it is the case for most "gifted" students. I wish, however, that someone would have presented me with more discipline or challenges that would've helped me gain an autonomy that I lack today. Critical thinking was also mostly absent from the schools I attended, but I find that the most important point was a caring, devoted attitude among teachers. Kids tend to open their eyes when they feel loved and respected. However, while I do agree that history was quite biaised, this bias comes from the republican ideal. It is a way for society to "generate" citizens that will support the state's action in a couple of years. Quoting a book I forgot about, "society doesn't only produce artifact things (industrialization), it produces artifact people (public education)". Wether that is a good or a bad thing I do not know. We can always imagine the best and the worse outcomes in relation to our own opinions.
Read MoonWalking with Einstein- it's about a reporter who decides to study memory competitions and eventually gets really good at it.
Basically, since humans have really good spatial and picture memory, you do something like imagine your house with what you want to remember in it and then just kinda go through it. It sounds stupid, but do it with something like a grocery list, and place your items on some easy route around where you live (can be anywhere, like a school or friends house. I'm sure you already have a couple dozen of buildings that you are pretty familiar with). I can still remember placing a jar of pickles near the street sign by my house from when I read the book around 6 months ago.
If you want to remember numbers or something abstract, just make a system that makes sense to you, like using colors or elements or something. Use word play, lots of really weird things like winston churchhill in a tutu or something, and sexual things (we are really good at remembering those last two) and you should get really good. I personally just memorize "normally" because it's easier and it makes me feel like I have a better grasp of what I'm learning, but this system is certainly good for history, biology, and languages that you just want to learn vocab for.
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I wish they had taught martial arts at school.
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This is certainly an interesting read as someone who's finishing high school in 9 weeks.
I entirely agree with the part about teachers and it has made me realize just how lucky I have been. That said, an important part of my subject selection was making sure I chose classes with teachers that I knew I wasn't just going to fail with.
Interestingly, I did a special course called the International Baccalaureate which offers a class called Theory of knowledge where the how do you know question is asked.
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EPT
