I know several people who are intelligent, highly educated, skilled, and socially aware, but who never obtained a college degree.
One close friend, before he finally decided to drop out of college, spent an entire year reading stacks of books in the UP Diliman library and learning various crafts outside the campus, while he hardly attended his classes.
When I asked him why, he gave a reply that was really the battlecry of an entire generation: “Never let your schooling interfere with your education.”
Many people, especially the youth, instinctively rebel against the stifling air of traditional schools. In our hundreds and thousands, we are expected to march to the beat of a unified academic calendar and class hours. Daily, we jostle each other into big buildings, listen to the same set of instructors, read the same books, and take the same tests.
The knowledge we are supposed to need later in life are neatly packaged into school courses, which are learned only through a regimen of classroom study guided by trained teachers. We are offered a hierarchy of such packages – starting with elementary and high school, going through vocational, AB or BS courses, then onward finally to MA or MS and PhD.
Should we get a low score, we don’t pass. We can’t go to the next level unless we repeat and pass. We are nothing but colored chips in a board game. We become unthinking robots operated by software. We turn into well-trained rats finding our route through the maze.
With an educational system like this, children and students grow up into adults with few real-life lessons in hand. As adults, we will continue to believe anything written in a textbook or on a blackboard. We will nod to anything said by a stern-looking professional behind a lectern.
We don’t need schools that produce high-performance rats and robots.
A young and fast-growing nation like the Philippines will need formal education as provided by elementary and high schools, yes. But post-secondary education need not be very formal and structured.
What we need is a broader concept of higher education. We must evolve alternative educational institutions that are decentralized, rooted in ordinary people’s daily lives, and integrated into the social structure of communities. We must promote learning that urges citizens to be creative, active, and critical.
In place of traditional schools, we need community-based networks of more informal educational facilities, where ordinary people – whether young or old, rich or poor, of low or high academic attainment – can access the learning that they need and want, and can share with others what they know.
In such facilities, a teacher is not simply an instructor. Instead, she is a peer or elder who counsels her students on how they can best learn the knowledge and skills that they need and seek. If a student wants to speak better in English, learn to write computer programs, or study Cordillera history, a teacher-counselor in the community should be available to help him select textbooks, study methods, places for apprenticeship, and resource persons most suitable to his chosen topic, capacities, and personal situation.
In an article I read about education in socialist China during the 1960’s and 1970’s, young people went to work right after high school. They were evaluated and promoted not based on the academic degrees they attained, but on their actual work attitudes and performance. Only after years of practical work experience would they accumulate tertiary education.
Which is as it should be: living and learning should unfold in tight interaction. People should not merely aspire for college education to land a good job. Instead, their community should provide them educational opportunities throughout life, to broaden and enrich their social roles.
Imagine a social system where communities, homes, workplaces, and schools blend imperceptibly into each other.
People from all walks of life could volunteer to offer lessons and hold classes in the things they know and love. In their spare time, peasants and workers could provide urban and white-collar folk with farm and factory skills. Professionals and workgroups could offer apprenticeships in their offices and shops. They could take in youth from the neighborhood as helpers, and thus turn a large number of workplaces into semi-schools.
Old people, specialists and scholars based at home could give seminars and tutoring lessons on whatever their life work and special interest has to offer. Older children could teach younger children. Teenagers could organize and operate their own study-and-travel clubs. Universities, libraries, and museums could evolve into “marketplaces” of higher education, open to people of all ages, and where anyone can offer a class.
When all these vibrant learning centers are taken together, we can see that they can actually form the bones and flesh of a gigantic learning institution that is the community itself. The community can survey all these school-like arrangements, describe them, publish them into a catalog that is nothing less than a living curriculum.
Such an alternative educational system will still be ruled by economic transactions – perhaps with students paying a community tax which is spent to maintain the facilities, or directly paying their teacher or tutor by the hour or day, or through some non-monetary exchange.
Whichever mode of payment is adapted, this “school of the future” will surely revolutionize the ways by which the knowledge and lessons of previous generations are passed down to the next. #
I wrote this about two years ago, and made a couple of slight changes for this blog. Tingin nyo mga tol, pwede na ba?
tao posted on Jan 12, 2007
| views: 379
Comments
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Lioness said on Jan 12, 2007....
Ahemm, medyo heavy yata ang topic natin for the day tao, nag-iisip tuloy ako, kung wat gagawin. Dapat bang i-critique yung sinulat mo, o punahin lang yung pagsusulat mo ng ingles?? -
yani said on Jan 12, 2007....
Tama ka Lioness, medyo nahilo ata ako ng konti sa mga sinulat mo 'tol. Hindi lang ata ako sanay na umingles ka :)Anyway, I definitely agree with all those things that you mentioned above. Though the ideas seem very farfetched, but with enough will power, I think it can be done. But where to begin? That, is something I don't even want to think about. With the kind of people that our government is headed by, the above-mentioned school is an impossibility.Nice post. Nakakapagod nga lang basahin. Parang abutin ako ng dalawang taon sa pagbasa. Hanep! -
Lioness said on Jan 12, 2007....
Hi yani.. andito na naman ako.. manggugulo, walang tao eh! hehe... yes, kahit ako, di din sanay basahin ang english post niya.. pero in fairness, he is good at it huh... sobrang serious nga lang, parang naka-ICU.
Este, tao, can I ask a favor?? Pwedeng paki-translate in tagalog??? =) -
tao said on Jan 12, 2007....
ayoko na. sabi ko na kantyaw lang aabutin ko sa nyo e :-p balik na ako sa sulat barok!
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yani said on Jan 12, 2007....
Lioness, hellow!
I swear kapag pinaunlakan ni tao ang request mo at i-translate nya ito sa tagalog, matutulog na lang ako, hindi ko matatapos basahin yun :)
San ba ang tao dito?
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yani said on Jan 12, 2007....
Tao: Sori po :) Nagbibiro lang po. Ang ganda nga ng sinulat mo he he -
Lioness said on Jan 12, 2007....
ay.. haha... may tao pala yani... ngeh.. {{{hiya}}}
naku wag na pala, mukhang magiging 4 years ang basahan kung ganon! =)
tao po.... ay mali, tao rin po...
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fucked_up_girl said on Jan 12, 2007....
HAHA astig ka dude! napaka-intelehente naman ng topic! pero true true! hehehe. rock on! -
queenparanoia said on Jan 13, 2007....
oh....my.....god.....nag english ka??? tapos ang lalim pa??? grabe dude highest level ka na talaga!!!bow down na talaga ako sa iyo!!! bilibs na ang lola mo!!!charing!!but i totally agree with evrything that you said. education is learning to be a better person not to be a better robot. did i make sense?keep up the good work and keep on blogging!!! -
tao said on Jan 13, 2007....
tenkyu sa nyo lahat ha? lam ko naman na di kantyaw yung mga koment nyo. mahaba lang talaga yung artikulo. tignan ko bukas, baka kayang ihabol ang kenkoy na pagtransleyt sa noypi.
meron pang isa... abangan mamya mga tol. kung weirdo para senyo e2ng idea ng kolehyong pulpol, mas mawiwirdohan kayo sa susunod kong imumungkahi.
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mr_right14 said on Jan 13, 2007....
From your post...yep that's one hell of issue that our government can't resolve. Even in other countries
Common in an exam when you apply for a position in a company, particularly the flanagan industrial tests, a psychological test I think; is about the problem of ineffective teachers, also the lack of superiors to adapt or grab some ideas. Coz they're afraid of changing their routines. But actually, routinely doing responsibilities or jobs makes it boring. Yet, it slows down the development and improvement of the skills of these subordinates.
Talking about education, yeah being a student were like being a puppet of the puppet master (the teacher). When I was a student, I was making my own. I criticized my professors and teachers and even challenged them to prove themselves if they're good enough to be recognized as a teacher or mentor.
When I was in college, I was able to expell one of our professors due to incompetitiveness. What can we learn if I'm greater and more knowledgeable than him huh!
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drifting_traveller said on Jan 14, 2007....
many years after college hehe old na no? well, i learnt this. the lessons of life and our success will not be determined by what we get from our class cards.what one studied is not necesarily what one learned. life is not learned hindi lang sa class room. if we are open and seek understanding, anything and everyone can teach us something. -
tao said on Jan 17, 2007....
pano mga bosing bukas na lang uli mga koments ko ha. antok na ko e. ikokompos ko maigi ingles ko, naks.
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kruuyai said on Jan 19, 2007....
just tagging so I can come back and read this when I have more time. -
Ormocanon said on Jan 21, 2007....
This post is highly informative.
I happened to read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and he has a similar point of view, more or less, with your friend.
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queenparanoia said on Jan 22, 2007....
talaga??? i'm planning to buy that book...
hmmm maybe i should!
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kruuyai said on Jan 23, 2007....
tao, thank you so much for these wonderfully thought-provoking posts. I agree with you and I'll take it one step further. Not only do we need to revolutionize "higher" education, but education in general. I think that sitting in a cramped desk for hours every day, listening to a teacher drone on about something, cramps a childs interest in and desire to learn from an early age. I consider myself very fortunate that I've never taught in a "school" except for my own (until now). I was always free to find my own ways to teach, and my teaching (usually of adults) was always (I hope) tuned into the students' needs. If I could see that what I was doing wasn't reaching them, I shifted gears, and tried something else. I never resorted to lecturing about grammar, but tried to make the lessons as experiential as possible. If they were learning about food, they had to taste, smell, chop and cook it.. etc.I won't bore you with the details of my teaching method... but one thing I did notice with the few kids I taught in the US was that the ones who were the most enthusiastic about learning were the kids who were homeschooled. I know that most parents don't have the time to do that, but I've heard of parents who did homeschooling, and every aspect of daily life was turned into a lesson... science was learned by being out in nature, and in the kitchen, and in dad's electric shop. Math was learned by shopping or laying carpet.... I'm sure you get the idea. The acquisition of any subject matter is always facilitated when it's directly related to our real life experiences.And I think a lot of stress could be taken out of the learning process simply by eliminating testing. I never gave exams to my students, but I "tested" their understanding constantly by keeping them active about 90% of the time during my language classes. And I always knew how they were doing... I didn't need a test score to tell me that.Now, I'm teaching in a "school".... also a home based business, but I'm not in charge, and I have to teach the way they tell me to. My boss lady is from the old school... translate everything, grammar lectures.... In these "English" classes, I hear 80% Polish and 20 % English spoken,,... and I don't see tremendous progress in the kids. I do see some progress, but I think they are learning in spite of the way we are teaching them, and not because of it.I agree that colllege or university shouldn't necessarily follow immediately on the heels of high school. I took four years off after high school, and i still ended up changing my major after two years in the university. Then, I only worked for 8 years in my field after I got my Master's degree. Then, I got tired of that (geology) and decided to open a foreign language school and start teaching languages... without a degree in either education or any of the languages I was teaching. It takes a while to figure out what you want to do with your life and what you're good at. I agree with your friend... don't let school get in the way of your education.I like the idea of older children helping younger. I saw that in action in Thailand. THe kids there are very inclusive, and they want each other to succeed. I think, in those types of cultures, the kind of education system that you are talking about is feasible. I doubt that it would work in the US, because most people are so competitive.Have you read a book called "Superschools of the 12st Century" by James Asher? I've been wanting to read it for years, but haven't gotten it yet, so I can't say whether I'd recommend it, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has read it. Well, enough of my rambling. Thanks for bringing up a very important topic. -
mr_right14 said on Jan 23, 2007....
kruuyai
I like your comment and I agree with that.
As the technology increases, the demand for expertise also increases.
But the education are being left behind.The teaching method should be revolutionized and be ahead.
This is the foundation of every individual.
How can they be a very competitive professional if they're foundation is so weak?
Imagine a building that's so elegant and eye-catching.
But its foundation, even a 2.0 magnitude earthquake can turn this buiding to ashes.Yup learning together with real life experiences is more important.
Learning without knowing its applications and doesn't know how to do it?
Crap!Oh I still remember this.
"If you see it, I forget it.
If you read it, I remember it.
If I do it, I know it!" -
tao said on Jan 24, 2007....
ms. kruuyai: thank you for sharing your own experiences. a few years ago i read about us-style homeschooling. some of the ideas here came from, of all people, architect-philosopher christopher alexander. they say ivan illich's deschooling society also runs along the same lines of thought. but i have not read it yet, although i have one of his other books, tools for conviviality.
pareng kanan14: gleng-gleng mo rin pala bosing!
ormocanon, reyna: pag tapos na nyo basahin yung rich dad poor dad, peram a? :-p
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kruuyai said on Jan 24, 2007....
Hmmmm, more stuff to put on my reading list.
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