It is interesting how our desire for learning and knowledge is met by
our schools and universities. Actual Educational System fails to grow
excellent people even though here are so many people that do really want
to know more. Average result is an average person with average
education that have average desires and produces average results so that
he can live an average life. Instead of moving toward excellence this
system is focused on mass production. This is easy to understand if we
remember why this system appeared: to produce qualified workers for
industry. This happened a couple of hundreds of years ago. This system
is outdated, but we keep using it.
We keep putting a bunch of kids to stay at their desks and listening
what teacher is saying. They have to read and remember things from
textbooks and retell them to the teacher. Also they have to obey the
teacher and do everything he is saying.
In their desire for better results teachers put more pressure on
kids. They ask them at lessons, give tests to see what they know and try
to influence their behavior by giving marks. High marks for accurate
results and low marks for poor results. Tests itself are a great tool
for development. As any other tool, we have to know how to use it.
Main reason why we have to take tests is to see how well we know
something. So first thing teachers should do is to find efficient
strategies for teaching. By using such strategy any student can achieve
great results. I know this for sure because every person is able to
achieve great results. Maybe in different areas, but all people can
achieve great results. Do you judge an ostrich by it’s ability to fly?
Never. So we should think about each other. And the great art of a
teacher is to develop the best abilities of his students.
Old way of teaching is helping us to train our memory so well that we
can remember entire textbooks long enough to pass examinations. It
helps us to use old patterns in the same way. It puts in our mind tons
of information that apparently have no connection. It teaches us to fear
mistakes. The last one is maybe one of the most counter-productive
thing that we can learn from school. I know, nobody likes mistakes, but
we have to understand that mistakes are showing us that we don’t know
something well enough. When a good teacher see that his student have
made a mistake, he should kindly ask. He should kindly ask questions
that will help that child to find out for himself the right answer. He
should ask and ask and ask. All people make mistakes when they are
confused. Many relevant questions will bring clarity and the right
answer will come out.
But teachers have to have patience. They have to leg go the mistakes
that are made in the process of learning. They have to let the kids to
express themselves at their best, and guide them by giving questions so
that they can learn to give the complete answer. However, understanding
of a matter is more important than remembering of textbook definitions.
In my vision a great classroom is more like a discussion forum
(except test periods). It’s about giving basic explanations and starting
endless discussions with tons of questions and various answers. It is
about explaining concepts and letting details to follow. It is more
about using what you know than knowing what you use. It’s about playing
with different stuff and choosing the best. It’s about having fun with
boring stuff. It’s about letting textbooks at home and waiting with
enthusiasm the lesson to begin. It’s about stimulating student’s
curiosity and desire for knowledge so much that the first thing he do
when he comes home is to open the book and hungrily search for the all
the answers that he wants. By doing this an average person can learn any
subject in three months (or even less).
pS: The most important thing is to not make a big deal out of all
this. Accept it as it is now and expect the best to come. And let the
mistakes to be a great part of a process called learning, so that
teaching can be the guide through this process.
