Thinking too much.

It’s been a little over a week now that I’ve been working at an elementary school, and already I can’t help but notice something that feels off. There’s this constant rush, this endless push to cram as much as possible into the heads of children within the short span of a single day. The schedule is packed, the lessons relentless, and it leaves little room for breathing—let alone learning.

I watch as teachers move from one subject to the next, not because the children have truly absorbed the material, but because the clock demands it. It feels less like teaching and more like a race. The irony is sharp: the more we try to force into them, the less time they actually have to process, question, or make sense of any of it. Education, in practice, begins to look like memorization—temporary, fragile, and easily lost.

And I can’t help but wonder: why have we not built education around what research already shows us? Scientists, psychologists, and child development experts have spent decades studying how children learn best at different stages. We know younger kids thrive on play, exploration, repetition, and patience. We know older children benefit from critical thinking exercises and slower, deeper dives into content. Yet, what I see feels disconnected from all of that. Instead of applying what we know works, schools often seem to implement what administrators believe “looks” effective, or what policymakers think will produce numbers and results.

It feels like children are being asked to live up to the standards of adults—standards designed without truly considering what is age-appropriate, or even humane. They’re expected to sit still, pay attention for long stretches, and master material at a pace that would leave most adults exhausted. And when they fall behind, it isn’t the system that’s questioned—it’s the child.

But maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe I’m reading too much into something I don’t fully understand. After all, what do I truly know? I majored in anthropology, not education. My training is in studying cultures, not curriculums. Still, it’s hard to ignore what I see right in front of me—children being hurried through their childhood, as if life itself were a checklist to complete rather than an experience to grow through.