I’ve blogged about this a few times before, but the subject popped up in my head again. Prepare for a disorganized rant about the school system and its failings…Why waste time on standardized tests in schools? EOGs and EOCs are not true measures of intelligence. I believe that every child is intelligent and has a natural willingness to learn, but not all children learn in the same way.To learn something, that concept needs to be applied to the real world as much as possible. Like math, for instance. We are taught algebra, geometry, and perhaps even calculus, but how does that really apply? Why are we memorizing all these formulas for anyway?Why does school have so little to do with the real world? We spend so much more of our lives out in the real world than in school, so why can’t school teach us real world concepts – or at least present abstract concepts in a real world way? In the real world, we aren’t going to sit in a room and take multiple-choice tests. We’re not going to sit in a room and listen to someone lecture for an hour.Why do so many parents rely on teachers and the school system to raise their children for them? The child’s first teacher is always the parent. If the school is not giving the child realistic skills and experiences, then it’s time for parental intervention. There are so many things that only parents can teach: religious/spiritual values, sex ed., manners and etiquette, and many other facts of real life that will never be discussed adequately in the school, due to government or other restrictions.