@mishapurser7542

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I loved History in High School, but in Sixth Form College my Modern History class involved having to memorise a lot of dry, uninteresting information. And if I hadn't continued to pursue my interest in history in my own time I might have been put off the subject.
The education should be about learning how to think and learning in order to understand the world and have engaging and interesting conversations. And it's a shame that you don't get to experience that until university.
I have been really enjoying my Philosophy and Sociology course at umiversity.
@Tijggie82

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Way on the late side, but one of the reasons I believe so many people want to have a college degree is because it is NOT free. Therefore it has a certain prestige if you say you went to college, because people know it's expensive. It adds to the social status.
@The.Cat.Eye.Cabaret

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Not sure if anyone is still going to read this. But I don't care.
I'm currently tutoring a bunch of kids in English. They all say the same things: "I hate reading", "Lit sucks", "I think I'm dyslexic", and, what troubles me most, "I don't feel like the examinations match the way the subjects are taught" and "Exams stress me out". I know, I can only talk from personal experience, but I think many people relate to those statements.
What I often try is to find connections between the interests of the students and the curriculum. For most, that makes it a whole lot more bearable or even fun. I once took the time to recite Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser to a student, to then discuss the meaning of their works and interpretations that were possible in the framework of the Renaissance. Trying to solve the puzzle. My student is coming back with more poetry and prose every week, even indicating she found logical flaws in The Lord of the Flies by William Goulding. She had literally said literature sucked and she preferred logical things that made sense. Her mother said I was a miracle worker, her daughter is actually reading and passed her reading exams top of the class! Much humbled, such wow. All I did was show a different side.
I'm afraid that once I grow older, I won't be able to find such connections. I want to become a teacher, and the curriculum is so strict there's hardly any room for personal input. I realise as a tutor I get the extra time a teacher would want to engage the students with the material. So right now I'm taking all the time I need. I follow the memes, the trends, I try to keep up with what they enjoy. I make sure that we at least laugh our asses off once every class. It helps students to take the material less seriously, and so it scares them less.

Every student, when I first meet them, has vacant, tired eyes, no motivation, have all kinds of assumptions about themselves or the subject. Some are so stressed out they start crying, because they feel dumb. It's painful to watch. How do we even dare to think this generation will be a strong building block, when we rush them through their development? When everything has to be a competition, both your personal issues and skills included?

Thing is. It frustrates the shit out of me that I can't always help. Some kids get mad at me, because they got another bad grade, or because I cannot simply make them feel smarter. Other times I have to advice a student to do a lower level of education than they initially wanted to do. But sometimes, I realise there are students who have more potential than they show and I can't help them show it. But I shouldn't have to. Because many of these kids are a victim of the educational system, not of their own inabilities, but the current system kinda makes them believe it is their brain that's wrong.
I ranted. Social constructs tell my I should apologize. Not really sorry though. Things really do need to change. disclaimer: any typos or grammatical flaws are entirely the fault of my rushed phone-typing and general tiredness from work and college Bye :3
@lauramorrisonpibel

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I agree with you on the core classes and how they actually are helpful. I'm an art major (graphic design) so chances are an Astronomy class isn't going to help me much in the long run but I still think it's interesting and I still think there are skills that I learn in that class that can be applied to something. I always think about Steve Jobs who took that calligraphy class and nice looking text a large reason why Apple products appealed to the consumer.
And in general, I think some of that core knowledge is necessary to know. At my college, it's VERY white and a majority of those white people are very privileged and unknowingly say racist things. Because of that, the Social Work and Ethnic Studies departments are trying to make one Ethnic Studies class mandatory for all students. I think that's helpful for everyone in the long run because a lot of those classes help you be a better person to POC which hopefully most people want to be regardless of their major.
@ABPmusic

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I think you'd enjoy reading Alfie Kohn, he writes a lot about education and he could spark some ideas for your future videos.
@AlexTalArt

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

(england) when i was in school i was kind of discouraged from what i am good at (storytelling and illustration) and encouraged to pursue science (which i enjoy but never saw a carer in for longer than a month) it wasn't until i failed my A levels i realised i wasnt happy and switched to art.
@gannonkendrick9343

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I became okay at high school with practice- graduated honor roll (barely), took advanced courses, did well enough on my ACT to get out of a few things in college.
Then I went to college pursuing pre-med, because I thought that was the dream, coming from a lower-class single-parent family. I thought it was the best way to put myself to use while also making a decent living.
Then I realized that it wasn't for me and changed majors, switching to English Lit. I couldn't decide what to pursue, but my writing was what was most important to me. I was good at school sometimes and awful at school others, sometimes having all A semesters and a few times having all Ds and Fs. For me, it was about the education- I liked learning, and was passionate about it- and not about the end-of-semester grind. I became a pretty good writer, but I still had a ton of anxiety.
Now I'm almost a year out of college, making below poverty, and still teaching myself other skills, because I want to. I'll find a career soon, after a year at the job where I work, but I value what I'm learning on my own terms.
I sort of feel like education should be for people, not for states and the government. This dick-measuring contest we have going on with other countries has to stop. I was astounded by the number of people in my later classes, who were just coming in, who didn't know how to write an essay anymore, and were never taught in their English classes. They were exclusively taught to take tests, and had no idea what to do in a college English class. I can't imagine how much those people would struggle through college.
I also sort of feel like tests challenge education unnecessarily. I think education ought to be personal, and that you should be able to process as much of a course as you like, because ultimately it's for you, not for your administrators.
@JAM35137099

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

you might like to read 'building a better teacher' by Elizabeth Green' it's a book detailing the main flaws in the American teaching system and why reforms have failed in the last 50 years. it's very well written, engaging, and if you're interested in teaching (in general) give it a read, it is fantastic!
@EmilyCarter-sj7in

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

lol maybe if some of america's money went to education instead of war

until then, they are gonna teach people in the cheapest and fastest way
@doomfan12345

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

You're like Shikamaru, a slacker genius.
@Leslie48

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I remember numbers, I remembered being fascinated by them. I remember looking at problems and noticing the motion of numbers. Numbers had Movement to me, and I intuitively understood it. Depending on how they were arranged and what the symbols expected of them they had Movement that I could track and predict and bwaaaaah ANSWER!

Then they started teaching me Math. I HATE Math. Math is 'Show Your Work, Show Your Work, Show Your Work' because that's how it was taught to me, this tedious make-work task of documenting every little step that the textbook says you should have to go through. I went from loving the intricate dance of numbers to, "Out Out Demon Arithmetic! Out from my Brain!"

I used to be fascinated by SCIENCE. All of it. Biology, Chemistry, Physics.. I wanted to be a Scientist when I grew up. Then somebody said being a Scientist involved a lotta math and I went, "What? Math? (ShowyourworkShowyourworkShowyourwork) How tedious and terrible and boring, and here I thought Science would be fun. Screw being a Scientist, I guess I'll just have to take-up Welding."
@MaricaAmbrosius

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I think you are expecting it to be deeper than it is, if you think school at any point is about learning how to learn. Much as there are memorization methods like loki (no relation to Thor) I had to read up on that on my own in my late teens. No teachers ever cared to give me so much as a tiny association technique, and it can't be because none of them knew.
Simply put, I think they enjoy watching us struggle to rote memorize boring pointless stuff. Or if they don't enjoy it, they must have been trained to do it like that. Yeah, okay, trained seems more likely.
Knowledge base can be gotten at home, from parents, books, and tv.
@dreadieandy2601

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I really feel like I'm doing all of my schooling for nothing, I can't imagine doing the same job every day of my life and I damn sure don't want to be anyone's boss either
@ahoymh7858

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I am currently a grad student who has two semesters left before graduating. The problem I have is that my entire degree is online (solely because it saves costs on dorming and any other travel-related stuff). Online schooling, particularly at the school I am attending, feels so half-assed. Professors recycle curriculums with modules that are outdated. I know more universities are utilizing online courses because it cuts the cost of having classrooms and supplies, but upping the tuition + half-assing programs makes the education system feel more profit based than, well, educational.

Another problem I face is that now knowing this two years into my program, is that I am hating it. I find myself really not motivated to finish and the money to be not worth spending it on. By the time I graduate, I'll be in roughly $80,000 in debt. It doesn't help that my degree is dependent on my teacher's way of critiquing my work (I am majoring in design) to standards.
@DendyJungle

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

The way the Irish history syllabus is set up, dates aren't very important. The crucial part is that you know what happened and what effect it had. Maybe you would have enjoyed that a lot more
@pogobat

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Excellent take, as always. Thanks so much for jumping in with me feet first here. Lots of little things I could respond to, but I'll just pick one for now:

You mention that elements of extracurricular activities could be integrated into regular curricula. There's some truth there, but I worry that might mitigate some of what makes extracurricular activities powerful in the first place: that students choose to be there.

Much of what students dislike about school comes down to context. It's not always the material itself that frustrates students, it's the idea that they're being held against their will, forced to do something. Reducing the number of specific curricular requirements and replacing them with some minimum number of extracurricular activities could go a long way toward making high school students feel more in control of their educations.
@Animette

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Is there anywhere I can message/comment on Zane's video because I wanna talk to him?
@displacerkatsidhe

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I had a lot of issues with the education system when I was younger, and as an adult I still see younger friends, siblings of friends, and now my friends children beginning to step into that world.
Putting the cost of college on the back-burner for a sec, the things that for me, someone with a learning disability, teachers are either stellar at understanding or completely miss it. My thing is "ADD" which I think now has been lumped into "ADHD", I was in classes with kids who had a plethora of different issues, when my problem was that focusing, even on stuff I liked, was very difficult for me, there were kids in my class who would have emotional outbursts on nearly a daily basis, or a violent outburst. (As funny as it is to see a 7-year-old hulk out and throw a desk, not the best for the learning environment). On top of all this, some teachers assumed we were all dumb. Before taking the, what we had in New York, known as the Regents exams, the teacher that was supposed to prep us spent the entire year telling us that we'd fail and would have to take the dumbed down version of the test. She never went over samples with us, she never properly prepped us for massive essay writing, nothing. I actually went over her head to the school board with my concern that she wasn't prepping us properly, and they ignored me.
I'll never forget that.
Happy ending, I aced that regents exam.
@moisme1040

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Are you going to continue making videos like this where you discuss various topics with your viewers? I love your videos, but I think this is the best thing you've done so far. It's very engaging and interesting to see so many different perspectives. 🙂
@Muaahaa

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I think part of the push towards college we have experienced has to do with decline of manufacturing and other labor jobs in North America. It is just not very easy for many people to find a good career path anymore without (even with) a college degree. A lot of people now end up in dead end service jobs 🙁

And on a side note, learn programming. You can do it on your own time for super cheap with online resources and with enough dedication you can get a great career out of it.
@Ard3m

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Man this topic is the money. Most people should be able to relate in some way for sure.
I didnt go to university, but I frequently listen to lectures from Audible. Such a good website. Theres one about critical thinking which blew my mind called 'Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills'.
Why isn't that a class in schools?
@MrBuns-yi2hk

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Yeah I did extremely well on testing and I cheesed pretty much all of elementary school, and middle school.
@RSmerlinRS

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

hells yeah man. History was crap, unless they actually tried teaching you something interesting. Okay, the civil war might be interesting for some, but bore people that would gladly study WW2 or something more recent.

But nobody hates math.. they just hate learning math 😛
@Conformist138

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Yeah, high-five for the slackers who are natural test-takers! My past teenage self hates me right now, but screw multiple choice or true/false questions! Someone like me can crack a lot of tests when the answer is always A, B, C, or D. Forget the subject being tested, taking a multiple choice test is a talent and task of its own. I got the highest SAT score in my class (of 30) even though I played video games with friends all night before and literally fell asleep at points during the test. Unfortunately, 'really good at knowing things when the answer is literally already written somewhere on the page' is not a skill that translates into much of anything in the real world.
@kaycosette

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I am currently in grad school studying to be a history teacher. It kinda hurts my heart to hear that you hated history because it was boring. It's shitty teaching because you should be engaged in learning and it should be an awesome collaborating activity.

I disagree with the boy saying that he shouldn't be learning history when he's in school for programming. College education in a liberal arts school is supposed to build a good general foundation that your major then builds upon. This whole "go to college to get a good job" has really cut short the entire reason why college was founded: to expand your mind. Also, history deeeefinitely can be used in programming… ever heard of a little game called the Oregon Trail? That is history knowledge used to build one of the best games of all time!
@Jesses001

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I actually loved high school. I feel I learned a great deal. High schools seem to vary greatly in quality though.
@luciusfluff

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I made a video response to this (or just a general statement about my experience with the school system). Here, if you please: UbZDteLi1uQ
@jamiecourtney730

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

I've had a similar experience with history class. As a child my teachers were really motivated to get all their students excited about learning. I even remember reading my history text book for fun in the sixth grade. I'm a senior in high school now and completely avoided having to take another dreaded class of chugging in miscellaneous historic information which would eventually be forgotten within twenty four hours. It's truly a shame.
@MuhPlastic

December 14, 2025 at 4:32 pm

Let's be real the reason they make you take classes you don't need is money. College in America is all about making money not really educating people these days.