The Factory
In life, a person would be seeking success, one form of success comes from being efficient in life, while it may vary for different people, success is often perceived as having a good job, great diplomas, a family perhaps, bottom line money, because money is what one needs to survive in the world. Being a child, it is the parents’ duty to lead the child to become that successful man/women in the future, so the parents need to plot the child’s life. The most common (and maybe only plan in Lebanon) is the following: Kindergarden, School, High School, College, Degree, Job. But this path is not always the correct one. This article is about discussing the current system and help find an alternative system.
The current education system has a few valid points. If a student studies, then that student will succeed, while that is most notably true, we are still hammering knowledge on the child in a way that he is receiving and the teacher is giving. He is receiving what the teacher, and other people decided it was good to learn and finally after alot of years of studying and dedicating time for what other saw best. While this may work out for most people, it certainly does not help educating a child but why?
You cannot teach anybody anything. You can only help them discover it within themselves
- Galileo
Every human being is born unique, unique in his eyes, hair color, shape etc. but also unique in his thoughts, his curiosity, his creativity, nonetheless a child wants to explore the world, wants to take what he/she can from the parents and environment. School does not provide the correct environment (the way it is going now), the student is put into in classes with a lot of other students, forced to move at the pace of his classmates, forced to study whatever the teacher gives him. While I understand that the basics are a necessity, a child need to be taught basic math (1+1 =2) and basic spelling and pronunciation hence I clearly understand that the child be put in school to a certain age (8-10 year old perhaps?) but I also understand that these basics stuff can be taught by the parents still. What we are actually doing with our schools nowadays is just force the child at an “average” pace to learn what we deem necessary for a child of that age to know, not what the child wants to know, in accordance denying the child of his freedom, curiosity and individuality and if the child do resist then he/she gets punished, a perfect way to help the child fear knowledge and not seek it.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal
- Aristotle
But then you would be wondering: “How will the child learn?”. Well in fact a child has plenty of ways to learn, if we only restrict those to school then we would be terribly making a mistake, and a big one, we are not expected to put a child blindly at school like raw material, and expect that by the end he will be shaped correctly just like in a factory, we cannot blindly trust the school to form an adult out of the child, basically because most schools are biaised and focus on very restricted points (like Math, Science) they do not expose the child efficiently to other type of stuff like Arts, Litterature (while it is true that most offer this kind of studies, yet it is not as in much hours than other stuff and are not weighed equally hence biaised) out of need for the student to graduate (no place in the Lebanese curriculum for such studies). The parents play the biggest role in the child education and if parents only count on school, then the child will emerge as another drone (no offense to anyone) their child will “know” as much as “any” child his age, therefore being non-unique, non-human. The parent’s role is to expose the child to everything through activies: pic-nics, field trips, toys (construction), drawing, allowing self-expression, attempting to give responsibilty for the child (yes a Child can handle more if you trust him with more), then the child will develop all of his aspects and discover his way. The second source of “education” comes from the knowledge, in our world today “information” is provided everywhere and at very low cost: books, internet (even free!), libraries, interaction with people. Limiting the child’s potential to interact with children his age, learn from schoolbooks only, learn what the teacher judge appropriate for him, abide by the law and having no say, is very unjust and inhuman, and will in no possible way, create a better a independent human being but a an efficient working drone, and we do have machines for that.
To control and sort young people for the sake of institutional efficiency is to crush the human spirit
- Ron Miller
An intresting education system is available (maybe not in Lebanon), it is called the “Sudbury School Model” named after “Sudbury Valley School” which pioneered it. The system works from a different perspective, students are not “forced” into following a curriculum, they are not grouped by age, there is no grading, and they take as an equal part as the teachers in making the decisions inside the school. The school provides the student with all the tools and material needed to acheive whatever need that student wishes to learn, being non grouped by age, the student discuss matters that intrest them with other fellow students regardless of the age (eliminating the current age prejudice: at a certain age a child cannot understand stuff , which is totally wrong), teacher are not there to teach, but they are there to assist, in fact, the attenders of the school strike deals with either other students, if a group wishes to learn something from another person (or teacher) a deal is struck where they state their terms: what they want to learn, and if the student or teacher accept that he becomes a “teacher” and the others “students”. The model is quite successful, a high percentage of alumni get decent job offers, and there is plenty of positive testimonies from students themselves (check further reading for sudbury valley website).
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child
George Bernard Shaw
It is time for a change, we have to start educating humans and not teaching machines, not thinking for themselves is why machine fail to become human, why do we seek to make humans machines with perfect obedience ? The only way there can be breakthroughs in science, philosophy, creativity is through breeding self-autonomous beings and respecting their choices, casting to a certain mold, will make stagnation and not progress, for new things to arise we need new mentalities.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
- Mark Twain
Further Readings:
- Sudbury Valley School
- Who wouldn’t be school phobic?
- Taking Children Seriously
- School Survival
- Quotations from notable Nobel price winners on the issue of Schools
- Life at Sudbury School (Testimonies) [Must read]
Filed under Education, Society | Tags: Education | Comments (10)
10 Responses to “The Factory”
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I couldn’t agree more DUDE !! Couldn’t agree more !!
this year just as last year, i noticed something about the education in lebanon,our french teacher just as all the teachers that passed in my life said that the educational system in lebanon sucks! it teaches kids how to become robots, like in french they teach you since u start till u finish the same things, finally it gets to the students heads and they start answering automatically to those question without thinking too hard, and our english teacher said that they treat kids as if they are in prison, you can’t stay hours in your place, focusing all ur attention on the teachers for hours… she said it would be nicer if they can give the students more freedom like let them eat or drink when they want, make them listen to some music for at least half an hour a day, give the student a chance to do a thing he/likes…
in the end just as you said, they are raising robots not humans, i never knew there was much more to know and much to more to seek, if i never had that curiosity love of knowledge, i never knew that i don’t know anything
you are so good in writing, it is all simple and objective and clear! and you always choose gr8 subjects, subjects few of us talk about
Gr8 article , exquisite writing skills mate and very good arguments . I see it in everyday life , The “Robots” phenomenon and its really a shame :/ , hopefully the school system in lebanon will get better (it’s farfeched though :/) , for God’s sake ! My School now has camera’s installed in classrooms :S ! Talk about oppression …
Very well presented issue, good evidence, but mostly authority…
I see ENL 213 did you some good after all
yeah could be a “Rogerian” argument, though I just like to write, you classify the way you like it =P
As to putting camera’s in classrooms I see as a double-edged blade, I mean, the student is under control and surveillance and so is the teacher, so mostly this could seriously affect the way a teacher acts in front of the class imo. Though the whole concept is not that well made, I mean watching students, looks more like a prison with surveillance.
Let the child enjoy learning ^^ and not hate it, meh the environment affects greatly on how the child, if we treat them like in prison, they wouldn’t enjoy learning
Sometimes I wonder if the Lebanon I grew up in is the same Lebanon other Lebanese people grew up in. This article makes me lean towards a no. Which is very unfortunate. I was lucky to have teachers (not all of course) who were mentors. By mentors I mean the type sort of mentioned in the paragraph about the Sudbury Valley School, where the person is a guide that shows you the way and let you traverse that path on your own pace. And I think have 2 or 3 of those mentors throughout the different stages of my education was enough for me. The teacher is the person that makes the difference. Of course the system can help or hamper. But with both a good or bad system, the teacher is the messenger and his delivery is what makes the difference.
)
And don’t think I’m disagreeing with anything that was said, in fact I’m totally for it. I just want to express that there are places in Lebanon where things aren’t so bad! (i like positivity
@Youssef: Well it may be true that some teachers do this, however structurally the system does not allow it, every student is graded put with a certain group, where globally he has to take in everything that he did not choose, perhaps this is necessary for smaller classes since we can assume (although id rather not) that the child does not know whats best for him at a young age.
The damage here is that the child enjoy playing and doing “extracurricular” activities that interest him more than school, and goes to school because his parents wants him to, hes subconsciously coerced to go, but sometimes you see that in sign, when a holiday comes in and so on, the child is usually more happy… one could question the reason of this sudden happiness, perhaps because he/she can do whatever he/she pleases? of course some other children would praise school and like it very much that they would study happily and enjoy it. What I am discussing is that this becomes a “choice” rather than a “duty” or “culture obligation”
Well yeah things aren’t that bad in some areas, but it can be terrible to “some” and to others “good” since this is also relative to the kid hence why I am debating it becomes a “choice” and that is valid to be “choice” and not an “obligation” as it is currently perceived.
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Again, wealth of ideas & information there Tony. I like the general gist of your proposition. Come to application, I wonder whether my 2 adolescent children would make it in such a highly competitive world.
Leave the child to his/her whim, & you’ll find that ALL the hours are spent on chatting, playstation, or the TV
They still don’t know how important it is to expose themselves to a variety of activities to be selective from.
The current schooling system has many flaws. Then again, I am with the exposure to the variety of material (math, other sciences,….) This exposure enables us to discover our true passions. some schools incorporate a variety of other activities (photography, social services,…..) that mold the child besides acedemics. And that is great. still exposure to acedemic stuff is very necessary. Look at you. you have this amazing talent to write & express yourself. I bet your schooling system encouraged tis tendency. If you were left to choose what to learn, you might have not been able to build that talent.
What I am suggesting is that the variety of material children are exposed to equips them with enough knowledge to succeed in the domains they choose at the university level later on. Of course, their journey can be made more fun if ALL teachers knew the impact they have on generations. Unfortunately, it is those teachers sometimes, that make sure we hate the material & the whole schooling system. For me, educating the educators might be the first step needed, not the change in the whole schooling system
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