My love of learning at school lasted until the age of 16, when I studied a broad range of subjects, twelve of them in total — from Maths and the Sciences to History, Latin, Design Technology, German… and so on.
I enjoyed learning about all kinds of different things.
I led myself down a certain path when, at the grammar school I went to and the background I had come from, I thought my University/career options had to be Banker, Lawyer, Doctor or Dentist. I decided out of all of those being a Doctor appealed most, and so I chose to study Biology, Chemistry and Maths.
Suddenly, learning came in sheer volumes to pass exams, and I had to leave certain subjects behind.
It was implied that the sciences (including Maths) were the more important subjects, and certainly tied to those University/career options I mentioned above.
In Year 9 at secondary school we were faced with a choice between Latin and Drama. I never considered myself much good at Art. I found Music more interesting but didn’t feel good enough at it compared to the other, more “academic” subjects to continue to study it.
And whilst I had loved writing short stories and poems in English through primary and early secondary school, this then gave way to more of the study of the language which was interesting, but I lost out on the actual writing part. And so, I left the arts — the creative subjects — behind, in favour of the more logical, left-brained ones.
I think, in an ideal world, a blend of subjects at A-Level would have been nice. The opportunity to have studied more subjects, too, like some schools do as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in the UK.
Somewhere along the line, creativity was pushed to the side, to the detriment of creating a more whole and well-rounded version of myself.
No matter what our natural subject preferences are, I think a more whole education, in whichever school in whichever country, are what we need most as young human beings.
In fact, I would say we probably need the same as old(er) human beings, too.
from,
Jasraj