I kept so much opinion to myself when we were discussing about traditional learning. I was afraid that I might be too assertive and become fallacious or appear to be appealing to some form of anger. But there's so much more inside me...
We have spent around 6 to 8 hours a day for around 200 days a year in that cell-type room, wherein half of that life had already been spent asleep. As of now, that's more than 3/4 of our lives away from our family and friends, stuck in a cell, forced to absorb information which is most of the time irrelevant to our lives.
How can we consider the student factor when the child we're trying to blame is innocent. He was born into this world with natural curiosity and a faculty of wonder, almost all of the time accepting what is revealed to him in his environment: religion, culture, morality. Everything is a matter of orientation. At such a young age he was already made familiar to the cell-type environment. It was the bad text books, horrible teachers, unjust and intolerant punishments, standardized tests that encourage memorization and not learning, unnecessary censorship, disregard for individuality, non-liberalism and anti-libertarian doctrines, it was these things that destroyed his real love for learning.
Just a few days ago, we had this field trip with Lakbay Kalikasan for Ms. Sche's class. It was astonishing and I learned so much, more than I could have in a lecture in a cell with some boring history teacher. I am so thankful that Ms. Sche organized something like that and I believe and demand that all professors should be more like her. A percentage of the big tuition we pay each term should be for travel and outbound education. How I wish...
Anyways, above is a video by John Taylor Gatto. He has amazing replacement models to our current traditional education system. Although I do not entirely believe in all of his beliefs, I would have to say that he greatly influenced the way I think. I read this article about him before that changed my life. haha.. I think I lent it to a friend. I'll try to look for it then maybe make you guys read it if you want.
peace.
2 comments:
The video says that a child will learn better in the school and not thru his family or neighbors, which I disagree with. Parents fail to realize that it is not the school’s sole function to take care of their children: imparting values, disciplining them and making them learn. They forget that they play a crucial role in the development of their own children. Many cases a child returns home, misbehaving and what not, the parents then blame the school for not educating their children properly – but values formation starts at home, and the school environment may be good, but what do their kids see in their own household and surrounding community? A school cannot be entirely blamed for the problems that arise in the development of children because they have to take care of the general population and cannot focus on each and every need or problem of an individual student because of the sheer size of the student population. Learning and education only needs to be reinforced in the school. Standard schooling isn’t completely bad, but like anything else it has its weakness and room for improvement… We cannot blame the school, nor the teacher for the lack of desire to learn especially when the student is in the 5th grade onwards, because initiative has to come from the student. If one really wants to learn the desire overcomes the ‘bad situation’, he/she will push to learn new things on his own by extra reading and exposing himself/herself to videos/educational tools or immerse himself/herself in a field or hobby he/she is into. This is the primary reason why the parents have to be open to things themselves and be knowledgeable about things and of course wide readers, because if the home environment isn’t conducive and supportive to extra learning thru fun and exploration – then everything is fatal. If the school isn’t good, then at least there is a good chance for a child to love learning if their home provides such atmosphere.
It is true that most schools are very close minded and stuck in the dark ages with their teaching styles/strategies, and yes, the only measure they have for learning are standardized tests, which limit the students to the many possibilities of what they can do and become in the future, but think of it – let’s say you have a population of 30 kids in a class, how can you possibly make different lesson plans or modules for each kid? This is the main reason why big schools don’t work, small schools are able to tailor their strategies for individual students, that is why kids who come from small schools are more grounded, well-rounded, self actualized and confident compared to a student who is just one amongst 30-40 kids (invisible).
harry, this is my blogspot :) walang comments option sa page ko so you can leave your comments at the chatbox :)
Post a Comment