Memorization+vs.+Education

**THIS I BELIEVE:** **Attention Getter:**I don't know what to say about education that can't be said by the general population of human beings. Yes, education is obviously important, and true, education is the ultimate doorman of opportunity, but what details could I embellish upon that you wouldn't already have in the corners of your brain? The only thing left for me to do is nit-pick. While I believe my high school education prepared me the best I could ask for, I still feel like a gingerbread-man, just cut out of a mold, no different from any of the other fourteen hundred that graduated with me. **Thesis:** We all write according to rules, regulations, and outlines that have been branded into our frontal lobes. I want to be able to think past geometry formulas, Spanish verb conjugation and one introduction, three body paragraphs, and one conclusion. **Preview:** "Think outside of the box," my teachers would say, as they passed back a rubric with exact specifications, laid out in outline format.
 * ** I. Introduction:  **

**Topic Sentence:** On the rare occasion students would be creative, philosophical, or different they would be reprimanded. **1.** “You have the whole 45 minutes to write a reaction to this apple, go!” said my high school philosophy teacher, my perfect assignment, I finally a chance to think without boundaries. “ What can I possibly write about an Apple? **a.** Apples are red, apples are fruits? Apple! Apple! Apple!” I thought. Then a thought came to me that made me think, actually made me contemplate. A is for Apple, right? Just one more thing that has been drilled into my brain, Apples are red, green, or yellow top-heavy fruits, but says whom? **b.** “What apple?” That was my response, 45 minutes well spent to me. The holder of the thick-tipped, red marker who branded my response with a circled letter ‘F’ disagreed I guess. **2.** All my teacher did, was confirm my principle, I am being graded on guidelines.
 * Body Paragraph 1: **

**Conclusion:** Bullshit, that is what I did through my entire high school career. Every assigned task, I would scoop the algorithms I’ve been taught out of my head and put them on paper. This I believe, my 4.0 GPA measures my ability to regurgitate. ||


 * Related Articles:**

[|Memorization vs. Learning]

[|Schools Stifle Creativity]