George Carlin's profound comment on Education and Why it won't change !

One might laugh on what comedian Gorge Carlin says in the following video but I think it is one of the most profound statement I've come across on education. What he puts so simply and in such light manner is a very grave problem that we are facing today.

" Education is never going get any better, because the owners of this country - DONT WANT THAT ! "

It  is quite a hard to accept fact to accept what George Carlin says  - "You've no Choice. They (corporate world and politicians) own you ! "

Do we really don't have a choice ? Are we just being deceived that we have freedom while in reality we have none ?

If one would look close enough, the answer unfortunately comes out to be - "Yes, It's true - We don't really have freedom, we don't really have choices ! "

What freedom does education has if the sole aim of it is to provide labor (sometimes referred by proffesionals, scientists and other attractive terms) to the capitalist giants ?

What choice does a student and his family have if they know it well that if they don't do "engineering" and learn computers - they might just not be able to find a good job ? (Pretty much the scenario in India ! )

I absolutely agree with him that we really don't have choices and freedom ! But...But - if one has got passion inside - it is possible to fight for our freedom and claim our choices or even invent newer ones. The world is full of such individuals and communities who fought for what they deserved and claimed their right in spite of a stronger majority.

Che Guevera and Education Revolution

I am a pessimist when it comes to educational revolution that'll introduce radical change, simply because noone seems to be wanting it badly enough.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Che Guevara"][/caption]

I am reminded of one of most famous rebel Icon of our times, Che Guevera and his time in Bolivia.
Although neither I am a historian or an expert on this subject but according to my limited perspective - one of the most important factor of failure of revolution in Bolivia was "People of Bolivia, actually did not want any revolution ! " They were too blinded by whatever the system was, doesn't matter how unfair or rotten ! They were fooled by a partial pseudo revolution (agrarian reforms of 1950s). Che Guevera and his fellow rebels hardly got any support from locals. Ofcourse, there were many other issues but certainly one major factor for failure of the revolution was - "People did not value the revolution at all or just didn't trust it ! "

I feel the same is the case with Educational revolution in our modern World. It is bound to fail because the people don't seem to be wanting it ! Only handful of people go on shouting the need for revolution but unless the locals support it - it is just gonna fail. Majority seems to be satisfied with the pseudo revolutions (the so called educational reforms).

Just go around the city and ask a few kids in schools - what changes do you want in your education ? They don't have an answer, and if they have one -it's just a reaction. They might just demand little more time, space and freedom.

Go and ask the parents - What changes do you want in your child's education ? They'll certainly give some second hand answers like "Make it more child friendly." , "Make it more fun..and practical.." Most don't have a mind of their own for they care least.

Go and ask Teachers - What changes you want in your system ? He/She'll respond from his own little frustrated stand in his/her school. " Give me more freedom to experiment." , "Give us more tools and resources."

Go and ask Politicians and Corporate Leaders, What change you'd like to see ? , They are most likely to respond - more employable youth, more workforce - so that they can keep the game of economy going.

No one wants a true radical change in education system, Infact we are all avoiding it.
The moment we propose a radically different way of living, way of educating - very few actually wanna try and trust.

Conservatives might argue that without a solid alternate system, noone will shift grounds and a revolution with no clear alternative is useless. Perhaps ! But to have that better alternate education system there has to be a unrest with current system. There has to be a deep sense of rebellion against current system. It is just so funny to observe the world around and find no trace of it, in spite of the fact that current system has produced nothing but a divided humanity and a selfish man.

Nevertheless, I like the approach of Che Guevera. Keep fighting if you know why are you fighting ! Winning and Loosing, left to themselves. I wish the Che Gueveras and rebels of educational world can prove history wrong and bring about a true revolution inspite of the blinded majority.

Educational Research : A dangerous weapon

As a new educator - the most important thing I wanted to avoid was distorting the reality by my own beliefs and conditioning. I think an educator who is not aware of his own biases and conditioning is the most dangerous creature walking inside the schools walls. He'll try to (and not even realize it) poison the young minds.

So, how shall a new educator like me go about forming my own judgement about various issues related to education ? My scientific background suggested me to follow - "Educational Researches" and stay upto date with latest findings in education sector.

To my disappointment, there isn't enough quality and true researches available in the field of education. We know a lot more about "How to sell a stupid product to an intelligent person ? " than we know about "How to educate our kids ?" .

Most of the education researches are just biased opinions. Politicized propagandas or Individual experiences.

To Lecture or Not to Lecture :

A website called "Education Next" (www.educationnext.org) has few articles/researches that have been discussing this point.

Look at the comment below :-

"No matter how much scaffolding, coaching, guidelines and requirements I set for the child centered activities, the students do better after direct instruction. Is this disappointing? You bet." - James Wohlgemuth in: comments on Eighth-Grade Students Learn More Through Direct Instruction

Is it not trying to say that better be a strict commander rather than trying to be a friendly child centered educator ? (which is the commonly held belief).

Above article is a good read if one just takes the research with little pinch of salt.

Here is another research on the same website - http://educationnext.org/more-lecturing-more-learning/ which says - More Lecturing means more learning. It puts lectureship over activity based learning. Here is a snippet from the conclusion :-

"Given the limitations of the data, our finding that spending increased time on lecture-style teaching improves student test scores results should not be translated into a call for more lecture-style teaching in general. But the results do suggest that traditional lecture-style teaching in U.S. middle schools is less of a problem than is often believed.

( conclusion from : http://educationnext.org/sage-on-the-stage/) "

My Take on Educational Researches

They are Dangerous. Education is such a vast topic and a very important issue of our world. It requires a very delicate treatment. It is equally if not more important to Health. We can't risk our health with some A,B,C researches unless they are proved by multiple sources or multiple researches. We cannot decide our action based on few limited researches. Education researches must also be taken equally seriously. WE NEED TO BE VERY CAUTIOUS !

Remember the infamous - Jewish/black people scientific research to prove them less intelligent ? We must keep it in mind everytime we come across any educational research or findings from related fields like developmental psychology, child psychology, educational philosophy etc.

Is it not possible that above two researches (from education next) trying to prove that the old style is better are just politically funded researches to calm down the parents and teacher communities demanding educational revolution ? Quite Possible !

Why I disagree with National Knowledge Commission ?

In 2009, I had an opportunity to interact with Head of Knowledge Commission and Personal Advisor to The Prime Minister - Mr. Sam Pitroda.

[caption id="attachment_129" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="With Mr. Sam Pitroda "][/caption]

The discussion was on the topic- "Educational reforms in India". I was taken aback by the low quality of discussion in the room. Here we had the best of the brains from across nation and the man who has the power to allow policy change and most of the questions discussed were just too superficial. How to improve evaluation, curriculum, how to make school kids more employable and so on. To me it was not a discussion on how to improve education and life of our kids but on how to improve education to improve life of corporates and capitalism.

Finally, I gathered the courage to interrupt Mr. Pitroda and ask - " Sir, What do you think is the place of Values ,Morals, Character  and things like Civic Sense, Education of Environment damage and other such softer skills in Education ? " . He looked at me a little upset for taking the discussion tangentially away and said - " I am not here for all that. I do not have solution for all the things. " And He was right in his place. Most of the educational policies, educationalists, schools are not concerned with the question I raised. I was in wrong place and they were right !

I followed NKC because I really had great hopes from them and I expected some real change in Education post NKC publishes its reports and findings. Which is why I also participated in the National debate on "Making Vocational Training compulsory in our Schools."  I thought that was a crazy idea just to get more manforce for the factories. I went against the motion and was the only one ! I couldn't find one more contestant fighting against the motion. The top 3 winners were all who supported the motion. Below is the link of my Video response to the debate :-

 

An Essay on Education in India

Knowledge Commission of India organized a National Level Essay Contest on themes related to Education few years back and below is the link to my entry :-

Click here to read my essay :

Collaborative efforts for education, Collective benefits for our nation.

Click here to read other award winning essays :

http://www.knowledgecommission.gov.in/contests/essay.asp

 

Must Read Books for Educators : Part I

What really amazed me when I came across some of the works of educationalists of past was that some of them were really ahead of their times and their works actually contain useful insights to find solutions to current education crisis. The sad part is there have been lot of talks, most of these books have become best sellers but not enough has happened on the grounds. Anyway, I hope these books will be useful for all educational leaders and revolutionaries. Here are first three recommendations : -

1.) Instead of Education : John Holt

[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignleft" width="196" caption="Instead of Education"][/caption]

 

My favorite part of this book is the difference which author makes between "Schools" and "schools" , "Teachers" and "teachers" and how beautifully uses these terms to convince us of uselessness of "schools" and the need of "Schools".

Here is a quote from the book :-

"Next to the right to life itself, the most fundamental of all human rights is the right to control our own minds and thoughts. That means, the right to decide for ourselves how we will explore the world around us, think about our own and other persons' experiences, and find and make the meaning of our own lives. Whoever takes that right away from us, as the educators do, attacks the very center of our being and does us a most profound and lasting injury. "

"In this book, I find myself speaking to minority of people who believe that children (like other people) will live better, learn more , and grow more able to cope with the world if they are not constantly bribed, wheedled, bullied, threatened, humiliated and hurt..."

"Today what "education" has become, I am wholly against it. People all around talk about how to reform or humanize it (education).....but to make it more effective and efficient will be to make it worse, and to help it do even more harm. It cannot be performed, carried out more wisely or humanely because the purpose itself is neither wise nor humane."

 

 





[caption id="attachment_114" align="alignright" width="184" caption="Deschooling Society"][/caption]

2.) Deschooling Society : Ivan Illich



Ivan Illich's hair raising comparison of schools to churches and schooling to being baptized is what I loved about this book. He presented a convincing case which some of us might find exaggerated but undeniable. He was an insider of Church in his early life and hence the insights he brings in comparing education and religion are truly shocking. A small but a powerful book, must read !

His argument on "Why we must de-establish schools ?" provides a really critical view of our education system. Here are few quotes :-

"Many student know what schools does to them. They confuse them to process and substance...The pupil is therefore schooled to confuse teaching with learning, graded environment with education, a diploma with competency and fluency with ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value"

" Schools have failed.....the exhaustion and pollution of earth's resources is above all, the result of corruption of man's self image.."

"Everywhere the hidden curriculum of schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent. Everywhere this same curriculum instills in the pupil the myth that increased production will provide a better life. And everywhere it develops the habit of self-defeating consumption of services and alienating production, the tolerance for institutional dependence, and the recognition of institutional rankings. The hidden curriculum of school does all this in spite of contrary efforts undertaken by teachers and no matter what ideology prevails."




3.) Summerhill School : A new view of Childhood by A.S. Neill

[caption id="attachment_115" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Summerhill School : A new view of Childhood"][/caption]

 

A.S. Neill established Summerhill School and this book summarizes his journey. Summerhill school is usually refered as "Free School" and it lead to establishment of many other so called "free schools". This is our misfortune !

Shouldn't every single school be "free school" , a place where student get first taste of freedom, where learning takes place in a free rather than a controlled environment. As it turns out , we are all afraid of giving freedom to our kids. In this fantastic book, the author proves how freedom can transform the entire process of learning and education.

" A free child is a happy child...Function of a child is to live his own life - not the life his anxious parents think he should live.."

" This has been my experience at Summerhill.....There are no problem child - only problem teachers and problem parents. "

" When we trust children, we give them freedom which is their right and they deserve - they feel responsible for their actions, for their learning and for their life. ...There can be no respect when their is no freedom."

" We have to make a school fit the child not child fit the school."

"Obviously, a school that makes active children sit at desks studying mostly useless subjects is a bad school. It is a good school only for those who believe in such a school, for those uncreative citizens who want docile, uncreative children who will fit into a civilization whose standard of success is money."

 

Enjoy Reading and feel free to share your thoughts with me ,I'd be happy to discuss !

How you teach Matters, Who teaches - doesn't !

(Following is the summary of an article published on an interesting research) -

Publication: The Times Of India Mumbai;  Date: May 15, 2011;

Section : International;  Page: 18

Teacher stop the preaching, get innovative tools

Washington: "Who’s better at teaching difficult physics to a class of
more than 250 college students: the highly rated veteran professor
using time-tested lecturing, or the inexperienced graduate student
interacting with kids via devices that look like TV remotes? The
answer could rattle ivy on college walls. 

A study by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist suggests that how you
teach is more important than who does the teaching. He found that in
nearly identical classes, Canadian college students learned a lot more
from teaching assistants using interactive tools than they did from a
veteran professor giving a traditional lecture. The students who had
to engage interactively using the TV remote-like devices scored about
twice as high on a test compared to those who heard the normal
lecture, according to a study published in the journal Science.

The interactive method had almost no lecturing. It involved short,
small-group discussions, in-class “clicker” quizzes, demonstrations
and question-answer sessions. The teachers got real-time graphic
feedback on what the students were learning and what they weren’t
getting."

Related link - Click here to read another full article.

 

Now, does it really requires a scientific research by a nobel laureate to tell us this simple fact ? Is not this an obvious fact that we all know experientially ?

This is our misfortune in the field of education that we don't trust the obvious and don't execute the common sense.  Thank God (just an expression) ! that there are people spending their lives in proving the obvious to the masses.

Don't we know that we learn better by doing ? From Holt to the researchers till date having been shouting this and we know it for ourselves as well - STILL we don't object when our schools still go on emphasizing rote learning, lecture methods and theory.

Don't we know that we learn better when learning is fun ? But our schools are still disguised churches and our teachers - damn serious creatures.

Don't we know that competitions lead to undue pressure and don't always aid learning ? ( If you don't agree with this one, you just need to find few more researches proving the obvious ! ) - But still our kids are told to compete at all the places in all the times !

Sometimes ,I wonder do we really need a revolution in education or just restoration of our common senses and simple observations !