Schools & its relation with Education
I realise the more I read on this topic, the deeper, complicated it seems. I am grateful that this week’s topic — “Can schools make a difference?” from this course, made me ponder further.
However, as of today, I am not in a position to conclusively tell if schools do a good job at educating students and if they don’t what could the possible solution be. I am a bit lost.
My reasons.
- When I was listening to this week’s classes, one thing was mentioned frequently and that hit me hard. Socio-Economic backgrounds of the students have a huge impact on the student's performances and eventually the school’s performance. So my idealist thought of giving a quality pedagogy to resolve most of the issues is a bit flawed, I realised.
- My idealist thought of access to equal quality education to all, is also flawed I learnt after reading this article. Earlier I believed that kids of all sections of a society should be able to learn from the same type of school, however, it might not be successful today, looking at the conditions around. So it is better to have segregation in schools? But then how would we achieve equality?
- Are the best models or countries in the world that boast about best education systems, uni cultural or have societies that are more or less socio-economically uniform?
- And personally, being the mother of a 3-year-old, I am in a big dilemma to send or not to send my daughter to a school after 6 years. I am very particular that the schools/teachers/parents/ society shouldn’t condition the young kids' minds. They should rather be facilitators in kids exploration and expression. And similarly, every parent might be having some strong opinions about somethings. Can a school system, cater to all the needs of parents?
- In the modern era of online courses and online degree, do the traditional mortar and brick school system hold significance?
- And then there is another challenging narration about modern education. There is truth to it too. An ideology shared by entrepreneur Naval Ravikant.
“I have to believe that we can change the system, but you never change a system by taking the existing thing and reworking it. I’ve been in Silicon Valley and tech business long enough to know that you’re better off changing it just by creating something brand new . . . To that end, what I would love to do is create a very low-cost, very rugged, easily powered, cheap Android tablet that’s hard to destroy and basically distribute them around the world with prebuilt learning applications so that you can literally fire one up and it works with you interactively. It lets you dive into and learn anything you want that will make your life better. It always keeps pushing you. Then you can network in all the teachers of the world. Anyone who wants to be a teacher can contribute. Essentially you could network-connect all of the teachers of the world and all of the students of the world using tablets and do it at the pace and level where it is essentially customized for each child.”
On the other hand, I am amazed at the stories I read about a few schools, their missions, the impact they have had.
So yeah, I don’t have answers yet.
Anyways, coming back to this week’s question, which is also the purpose of this blog. “How has your experience of school shaped you as a learner, and as an adult? In what ways do you think your own schooling could have been improved, and what priorities do you think are the most important for schools today?”
How have my school/colleges shaped me as a learner?
I am really proud of myself today for the person I have shaped into but can’t pinpoint what my school/colleges specifically or differently did. In fact, when I look at my school/colleges days, I feel a bit restless and ask questions more about “ why were things that way & why couldn’t they have been better”?
However, any day I am grateful to them, as I got to be part of a few of the premier schools/colleges by a certain standard. The biggest contribution these educational institutes have had on me was to bring people into my life. I think I have met a few of the beautiful people in my life in these places. Many of them are my friends now from whom I learn or learnt a lot. The emotional support they give in different and particularly the difficult times is something one can’t readily find elsewhere in life. Especially in modern times, when most of us live in nuclear families or family relations are sometimes too traditional, friends at schools/colleges give us that comfort or acceptance I believe.
Another, thing for me about these institutes was that I felt very very safe and used to long to go to these places. Maybe not just to learn or maybe I was learning indirectly. There was never insecurity. Nowadays, when I read a certain news article about a girl student getting raped by a male teacher, school buildings getting collapsed, school meals being adulterated etc, I feel a bit concerned about these places. Quality of education, standards etc can still be debated, but they ought to at least guarantee safety, which is fundamental I think. So yeah, that safety inherently adds to one’s confidence and contributes immensely to one’s learning, which I am glad the institutes I was part of, did to me.
In addition, these places did arouse in me the ability to question. Presented at different times through different means, diverse ideologies, opinions, that shaped me what I am today. I am indeed very grateful to that.
What could have been better?
That list would be quite big if you ask me. However, I would like to mention only a few here.
- More opportunities to discuss, debate and to exchange ideas.
- More opportunities to collaborate with other students, other classes, seniors or juniors etc.
- More relevant life skills like managing personal finances, looking inwards etc.
What should be the important priorities of the schools today?
As mentioned earlier I m a little confused about this. But will try to mention a few
- Schools should at least ensure the physical safety of kids.
- Schools should give the opportunity for kids to be heard, to speak, to express, to explore freely without fears.
- Schools should equip kids with some fundamental universal skills like managing personal finances, basic cooking, basic cleaning etc.
