All my posts this season are “inspired by” a letter of the alphabet!
I come from a family of teachers, and have been immersed in education in one form or another throughout my working life. So here are a few reflections.
In a progressive as opposed to regressive society, education must surely be one of the most important priorities, if not the most, alongside healthcare. Both are basic human rights.
So what do we understand as education?
From the Latin, meaning to bring up or to train or guide, education as a term in English is generally understood to mean the acquiring of academic knowledge from school to university. In the broader sense, it may also refer to cultural experience and learning. Interestingly, in Spanish, the word is also used to mean manners, in the sense of knowing how to behave, and if we go back to the Latin root, clearly to bring up would also involve both parents and educators teaching what is acceptable or unacceptable behaviour.
To begin with, if we consider the academic setting, teachers have one of the hardest jobs of all. And let’s be specific here. They are responsible for a class of let’s say 30 pupils, all with different family and socio-economic backgrounds, a diversity of cultures and often languages, not to mention academic strengths and weaknesses. And of course on top of that is each pupil’s unique personality. How in the name of Zeus does a teacher get through the day, let alone the school year? How is it possible to attend to the needs of every child adequately, without some falling behind, and others being bored?
Because it’s not just about the curriculum. If it were, teachers could simply work through a book and tick off topics covered on a list that matches the ordained study plan and Bob’s your uncle. Sad to say, some teachers do follow this method. But often through no fault of their own. There is so much bureaucracy and pressure on teachers to get students through exams that it often feels there is little time for anything else, and it is that anything else which for me is the purpose of education.
And here I come to my next point. Children these days, I imagine all over, but definitely in Spain, are subject to pressures that I don’t remember having as a kid. And I’m not even going to start on the pressures outside of school. I suppose no education system can ever be perfect, but here, the focus on exams is shocking, in my opinion. I remember doing coursework, assessments, and exams too, but the ones that counted were at the end of the school year. Children now readily admit that they are constantly studying for exams, the information falling out of their heads the following day in a rush to study for the next one. Surely that’s not what education should be about. I don’t pretend to have a solution, but maybe we could start with getting children on their feet in class, instead of slumped in an uncomfortable chair looking at a textbook. For example, reenacting a moment in history they’ve studied,… playing games that require collaboration and integration… putting scientific knowledge into practical situations. Nothing interesting works until you find a way to make it work. While some teachers do this, it can be exhausting and they may be criticised for not “getting through” the whole syllabus, regardless of whether said syllabus is all worth covering.
Then we come to the system of schooling. Without going into too much detail, principally because I’m not qualified to talk about it in much depth, public schools in Spain, the equivalent of a state school in the UK, are government run and funded. However, apart from private schools, there are also concertados, which are schools that are privately run, but receive funding from the government in order to provide an education for everyone, and this is free for pupils, as is a public (or state) school, though any extra-curricular activities for example, are fee-paying. That said, because the responsibilty for education falls to the autonomous communities, and not the central government, those in power can choose to provide funding for públicos or concertados, which means that a lack of equality in services, or indeed infrastructure and equipment, over and above basic educational requirements, can ensue. Why? Because money talks. And with money comes power and influence. And so we come to the point. When services that should be available to all are denied to some pupils arbitrarily, who suffers? Who receives an unfair advantage? To my mind it should go without saying that the priority of education be the students. And yet so often, money interferes.
A perfect education system is perhaps a chimera, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be constantly trying to adapt and improve, and remember why it’s so important. The responsibility lies with teachers, yes, but ultimately government. Less focus on profit, more on equality. Less focus on exams, more on the ability to question, contextualize, find patterns and analyse. Less learning by rote, more application of the knowledge acquired.
A lack of effective education, of culture or social skills has real-world consequences for generations to come. Just look at our society, consider where it is lacking, and ask yourself why. Fundamentally, it all comes back to education, in all senses of the word.
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