I overheard part of a discussion in a pub last week - the kind of conversation I wished to join, but didn't, due to good manners on my part.
One person was saying that her son was made to feel stupid because his results in Maths were so poor. This single remark made me reflect on a major aspect of schooling, so major it is hardly ever challenged.
The curriculum is still far too academically biased. Why should we have to prove ourselves on paper? Testing is another issue in itself, but there are many different ways of testing. To judge someone on the basis of what they could remember at a particular time, and how they felt on that particular day, is bad enough, but to judge everyone on the basis of a written examination, is damnable. Countless millions have labelled themselves stupid because they couldn't handle written exams.
Some students are academically minded and that should be offered as well. But many are gifted with their hands, e.g. plumbers, builders etc. Many are gifted artistically, e.g. actors, composers, painters. Many are gifted with social skills, e.g. carers, hospitality workers etc.
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As Elbert Hubbard said: "A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life".
Granted that resources are limited, but if the will was there the curriculum could be widened to include: how to build a car, how to administer CPR , how to dance, how to cook very well, how to speak a variety of languages, how to swim well etc. etc.
Vocational 'education' is now more recognized than in the past, but still too many feel inadequate if they can't do well on paper, and the likes of Oxford and Cambridge Universities still attract far too much adulation for being the 'brightest and the best'. Intelligence is more than memory.
A good friend in Canada, an ophthalmologist, once said to me: "Of what use is knowing the height of Mt.Everest when someone is having a heart attack in front of you and you don't know how to save them?"
It's numbering children. Grading them as a class of person. In the school system a teacher will be doing well if he she can have their students accept their grades, it teaches nothing but to have students accept their place or rank in a social order. preparation I think for adult life. But numbers rule in business and children are schooled to accept numbers equals performance equals profit. What can be made to be measured will be and used to define ones performance. So numbers are crucial to the preparation of children into the service of working life.
ReplyDeletehow cruel is it though that children should be numbered according to their ability to remember. Unfortunately children will subconsciously rank themselves among their peers and position themselves as better or worse as a person. Where in the curriculum can a child's character be measured, their ability to lead others, or challenge the norm and that Lindsay is crucial. The school system does not want to breed new leaders especially leaders that challenge the status quo. A generation like that would pose a threat to the establishment? Free thinking, critical thinking, individual Entrepreneurs. Just imagine.
Incidentally, my son brought home from school the same stat belonging to Mount Everest. I was not especially impressed, so set about giving some context to 29000 ft. We measured the rise of a stair at home and worked out how many stairs would equal a successful accent of Mt Everest. My son teamed up with his sister (Sherpa). She packed a back pack filled with biscuits and cake and they set off up and down the stairs. That was 120 weeks ago. My son Jack has worn through 9 pairs of slippers. If his sister can keep him fulled on jaffa cakes he reckons he should be back down stairs for Christmas. But in a serious note, we did have a more engaging discussion about the character required to climb the worlds highest mountain.
ReplyDeleteElbert Hubbard?
ReplyDelete