I like this video, as it describes a lot of the problems in our educational system. There definitely a problem with educational systems of all countries, and it's a fundamental one. This speaker is not the first to propose the view that the traditional way of doing education is wrong. However, while he's full of metaphors and nice examples of what's wrong with education today, his advice on what to do about solving it is very vague and not particularly practical.
- The whole idea of unleashing creativity in kids, and liberating their minds is all fine and dandy in theory, but what does it really MEAN and what would it really TAKE, to make that happen?
- The production-line model of education is easy to criticise, but if we agree that we have to put EVERYONE thru school, then we surely have to put students in SOME kind of boxes.
- Standardized testing is too easy of a target.
- It's easily succeptible to the robot / machine / factory production line metaphor, it's easy to criticise for being dehumanizing, and not fostering the students' creative drive
- But the truth is, standardized testing is also a fantastic tool, because it allows us to catch students who are falling thru the cracks, and figure out which regions / schools need more help with the basics, and which could use resources to not bore the more advanced students.
- For not boring the more advanced students, almost every country has specialized or "magnet" schools. Those usually have better teachers and help take care of the problem of some kids having more potential than others.
Raising the quality of education requires good teachers. Overall that's difficult to get, since teachers come from the general population and aren't not always the cream of the crop (see, for example Future education majors score below state average ). So it's a problem of the chicken and the egg. It's always possible to attract good teachers with higher pay to this or that particular school. Better teachers tend to go to private schools, or higher education, so we have a brain drain of good teachers out of the public school system. How do we ensure that EVERY student has access to better teachers. This is a VERY expensive solution, because this requires both attracting better quality teachers into the public education system, AND making sure that the teachers that are already in place are trained to be better. Oh, and by the way, who is going to train them? Who is going to make sure that a poor physics teacher knows his or her material and can challenge his or her students? Who is going to do quality control on their teaching? There's not enough people in this world to police the educational system, and make sure that
- The right material is being taught
- The right teaching techniques are used
- The children are learning and enjoying the process
One of these days, I would like to see a solution that is practical enough to be implemented on a large scale (at least a small country or a state), which would address the problems with the educational system the speaker has pointed out.
2 comments:
Well, one obvious solution for better learning would be to not leave everything up to the teachers. Parents too, should have an active role in their child's education. This includes asking their child what he/she learned that day, helping with homework, and refuting things that they know are untrue (e.g. intelligent design theory).
I think creativity too, has more to do with upbringing than education. If a kid grows up watching mindless TV all day, he's not gonna be a creative adult. Creativity is fostered when a kid learns and plays on his own. So let him play outside with other kids, give him legos instead of video games, and let him figure out how to get to the cookie jar without your help.
"But I'm working all day, who's got time for that!" And therein lies another problem. No one is at home to take care of the kids, hence we leave everything up to the teachers. When I was young and my parents worked 24/7, my grandma took over the difficult task of raising me into a decent human being. However, nowadays most grandmas work or are outcast into nursing homes. Without a good Babushka, it's no wonder why kids grow up so messed up.
So here's my solution to the education problem:
1.) Bring back the Babushkas!
2.) Spend more time with the kids.
3.) Have them play outside, or with toys that require brain power instead of sticking them in front of a TV.
4.) Monitor what the kids learn in school so they don't grow up thinking that dinosaurs are extinct because Noah forgot to put them on his Arc.
~Ms. Anonymous
I think you bring up a good point about the role of the Babushkas and the parents. Of course they need to be a supplement to the formal education they get in school, and not the other way around. So regardless of what we do outside of school, we still need to fix the educational system. What if the parents are too dumb to know the Noah's Arc is not real? Then hopefully the educational system will teach the kids the right stuff despite the parents' ignorance.
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