A Generation Left Behind: Faults On Modern Education?

Masses of students all cross the gates of the campus building, adhering to the mandated uniforms, standardized backpacks, carrying identical textbooks. They celebrate by improving scores, trapped by the assumption that they are becoming smarter. However, when they walk out the gates, they end up less intelligent than when they entered. We have, until modern day, continued to assume that more education leads to smarter individuals. While this may be true to how modern society defines individuals as ‘smart’, this begs the question: Who defined this intellectual virtue? What makes it so people continue to be myopic, and let themselves be fooled by society?

Now, schools are extraordinary at teaching students academic knowledge. There's no doubt students demonstrate significant progress in algebra, history, physics, and so on. The benefits certainly cannot be disregarded. However, the reality is that there’s so much more to education than we perceive as necessary. Academic intelligence is only one chapter in the larger book of human potential.

Now, intelligence is defined in many ways, and so are its categories. Education teaches you to be academically intelligent, but emotional intelligence, and social intelligence are easily ignored. You aren’t praised for possession of such attributes, as they aren’t measured by report cards. Leadership, creativity, and entrepreneurship have fueled innovation and built billionaires, yet society remains fixated on the prestige of “elite” education. Instead of nurturing these virtues, schools frequently resort to cramming, spoon-feeding, and enforcing exam preparation with near-militaristic discipline.They recognize, but not appreciate the other sides of human intelligence. 

Education That Makes You Dumber

Furthermore, it is undoubtedly factual that materials inside education are faulty too. Allow me to elaborate. According to the post uploaded by a parent in the learning community website BenjaminKeep, we can notice how the education system forces students to think, and act a certain way. The writer explains how his son solved his homework of circling 24 circles with the attachment below.

Doesn’t seem incorrect, but the teacher docked points. Why? He circled the wrong 24 cubes. This is what she expected of him to circle:

His teacher expected the kids to categorize the cubes into tens and ones, and group the cubes separately. Drawing an inefficient shape was not a valid option. Both solutions were obviously correct, but the right solution is the one that the teacher expects. Pleasing the teacher and following the rules are more important than the right answer. Although this was a minor example, the students, with years of this propaganda-like education system, learned not how to get the correct answer, but how to please the teacher. “They get used to being pedantic. They get used to paying attention to the wrong things. They get used to following rules. And they get used to privileging form over substance.” The parent stated in concern. 

Locating the Problem: Common Misconception

Now, in the subject of modern education, we don’t just mean institutions facilitating education. It involves parents, teachers, and communities who guide students toward what is labeled “success.” However, a common misconception made amongst them is that in order to achieve success, you have to get good grades, graduate and attend universities, get a diploma, and get hired into a high-salary job. The deal is simple: Follow the path and be labeled as ‘successful’, or stray away and be marked as a failure. From early on in our lives, we are imprinted with this message, and the result are dreamless students who only answer questions and perform assigned tasks. With modern society, the meaning of education is very limited; students are only taught how to act a certain way, without introducing the other paths. Consequently, their creativity is stifled. Society is completely oblivious around the

lurking truth that grades do not define geniuses. 

Changing the World Without Perfect Report Cards

Contrary to what the world believes would happen if students strayed away from the path of learning, the most innovative minds of society today have struggled with modern education. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, dropped out of Harvard University to focus on his web development. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out for similar reasons. Richard Branson, billionaire entrepreneur, investor and author, was a high-school dropout suffering from dyslexia. Lady Gaga, a legendary singer, dropped out of Harvard to focus on her music career. Although they all turned their backs from the ‘right path,’ they ended up just as, if not unfathomably more influential than most of the world’s population. Demonstrated by all these brilliant minds prove that education isn’t the only road to achievement.

Education For Our Generation

Education should not enforce belief or obedience. Most of the time, it hinders the student’s own ability to think critically and confront challenges himself. There is more to intelligence than we perceive; creativity, adaptability, and originality should be more recognized alongside academics. In this modern society, what leads to success is not memorization of notes, but rather thinking outside the box and breaking traditional boundaries to make wonders. The people who made an impact in this world were not the ones staying by the textbooks; they dared to escape out of it. The message is clear: Education doesn’t just teach. It is liberating. Until we embrace that fact, our generation will continue to be left behind.

Works Cited

“10 Ways Schools Are Making Children Stupid and Depressed — My Thoughts.” Jeanawinter.com, jeanawinter.com/10-ways-schools-are-making-children-stupid-and-depressed-my-thoughts/.

Ellen. “6 Successful People Who Failed at School - the Shona Project.” The Shona Project, 20 Dec. 2023, shona.ie/successful-people-failed-school/.

Keep, Benjamin. “Education That Makes You Stupid.” Benjamin Keep, 3 Aug. 2023, www.benjaminkeep.com/education-that-makes-you-stupid/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2025.

Muse, The Masked. “School Is Making Kids Dumber and Nobody Dares to Talk about It.” Medium, Write A Catalyst, 15 Aug. 2025, medium.com/write-a-catalyst/school-is-making-kids-dumber-and-nobody-dares-to-talk-about-it-5590396e7f7e. Accessed 6 Dec. 2025.