Nir EyalSpeaker on Behavioral Science, NYT Bestselling Author, Former Stanford Lecturer

School System Kills

Name: School System Kills
Uploaded: 2026-06-03T13:02:36+00:00
Duration: 54 s
Channel: Nir Eyal
Description: In this monologue, the speaker argues that human beings are innately curious and that the conventional school system actively suppresses this natural…

3 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker argues that human beings are innately curious and that the conventional school system actively suppresses this natural drive. By forcing students to sit passively, take exams, and produce rote answers, schools create aversion to learning, homework, and entire subjects. The speaker highlights how poor teaching further erodes interest, using a personal reference to attending Penn as an example of potential wasted by bad instruction. The overall message is a call to recognize and preserve the innate exploratory instincts of humans, suggesting that the current educational model squanders human potential.

Chapters

Human beings are naturally curious. The school system makes students hate what is naturally already within us. What makes us such an amazing species is this big brain, this 3.5 pounds of fat that we all carry around in our heads, that constantly wants us to, to explore how the world works. I think that is a natural instinct. You know, babies put things in their mouth, they touch things, they, they want to see how things work. As children, when we're forced to sit in a room and shut up and I'm going to talk to you and you have to write things down and then barf them out on the exam, that's what makes you hate learning. That's what makes you hate doing homework. That's what makes you dread a subject. I wish for that to be over because we are taking what makes us so amazing as a species and we are blowing our human potential. You did well, you went to Penn. How many subjects were destroyed, your interest, because you had a bad teacher?