The Examined Education | Questioning the Current State of Education
I was reading some philosophy recently and I revisited one of my favorite philosophers - Socrates. I thought of an interesting connection between his famous "Horse-Breeder Analogy" and the current state of formal education.
The Horse-Breeder Analogy, for those of you who don't know, is an analogy that Socrates used to rebuttle the accusations against him that claimed that he was "poisoning the youth".
The analogy claims that amateur horse-breeders will actually do more harm than good to the horses they are breeding. Thus, all horse-breeders should be questioned on their knowledge of horse-breeding. The professional horse-breeders will know how to properly help a horse and groom it to be the best it can be, while the amateur horse-breeder who is never questioned and determined to be an amateur will actually cause much more damage to the quality of the horse that is bred.
The Horse-Breeder Analogy is easily bridged to the idea of living an examined life that Socrates also proclaims - that is, a life of examination and questioning of the so-called facts, morals, and values with which we govern our lives. Socrates claims that an unexamined life is not worth living, but what about the unexamined education?
Is an education that is without the examination of the facts, morals, and values worth pursuing? Should we question what we are told by authorities in the education system - deans, principals, teachers, parents? Should we not only question who is teaching the information but what information is being taught, and how that information is being taught?
We are told not to question the education system, that the so-called adults/authorities know better than everyone else based solely on their age and self-prescribed “experience.” Socrates would tell us that this is a poor way of living and educating oneself. He would tell us to question and examine our "educators" and try to determine if they are an amateur educator - one who is not well-suited to "breed-students" (educate the youth).
If our current "educators" are not questioned, who's to say that they are not corrupting the youth rather than helping the youth be the best they can be? I’m not claiming that all formal education is bad and that all teachers are bad; rather that all education and all teachers should be questioned as to their true abilities as a “professional horse-breeder.” In conventional society, such questions are shot down and dismissed without review, just like Socrates in his questioning of public figures - politicians, doctors, lawyers, etc.
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Every response that answers the question will get upvoted. Upvote value is based on the quality & thoughtfulness of your answer. Thanks for your participation and I hope you guys enjoy this way of building the community and rewarding learning/thoughtfulness. If you guys have any suggestions for ways to improve this program, please let me know, as I’m always looking for ways to better reward everyone for learning! 🏆
QOTD: What is something you believe that is lacking in the current education system? Do you have any ideas for how this can be added? What do you think this might accomplish in terms of better educating the world?
I think creativity and freedom to explore the world and fail are a few things that are severely lacking in today's education system. Kids are slowly stripped away of their creativity from a lifetime of being told that average is not only ok, but that it is good to be just like everyone else... I think this is a severe hinderance to the long-term growth of the human race and I hope that we do something about it over the coming years!
Preach it man. Totally agree with you!
What is missing in education? First, original texts like the "Apologies" and the "Republic" from Plato and dialogs from Meno and the Republic and the Bible. Textbooks follow a designated curriculum telling students what they should learn. Then learning objectives are implemented supported by learning activities followed up by assessments and plans of action. After feedback is given teachers reconstruct the learning objectives and learning activities to help students overcome the learning barrier to accomplish the overall learning target. That sounds reasonable because these learning targets can be measured but questions of why are omitted leading to students who know what to do and how but have no idea why. Original texts allow students to make their own questions. Second is hands on experience. Learning is not memorization but practice. The best way for students to practice is by teaching others. In my classroom I surprise kids a lot and let them figure it out before explaining it. I give them the project and the instructions and a group of four and 80% of the time they get it done better than if I would have explained it and also come up with new ideas. The other 20% they come up after ten minutes crying, "It's ruined." That is the best education, failure. And that is third, schools need more opportunity for positive failure. We try and fail and then we learn. I know they can't do it the first time but with incentive they will try and fail. But in a small group mission oriented class students help each other and turn the failure into a creative success. Last is like the first, purpose. Students need a reason to study and when they find it they are wild about it and excited about the learning process in itself.
As Charles Schultz Linus says, “Well, I think that the purpose of going to school is to get good grades so then you can go to college; and the purpose of going to college is so you can get good grades so you can go on to graduate school; and the purpose of that is to work hard and get good grades so we can get a job and be successful so the we can get married and have kids so we can send them to grammar school to get good grades so they can go to high school to get good grades so they can go to college and work hard…”
And yes as Socrates would have said, "The unexamined education is not worth having."
100% agree with everything you said! You have some great ideas for a better education system, and since you're a teacher, your credibility is high as well.
Thank you for your insights!
You got it. Thank you for your summary. That's what my comment needed. Now I'm on my way to school to give these kids a piece of my own medicine. Thanks again for sharing and thank you for learning.
Nice Post!
Yes I have to wade in on this one. As a Band Director in the schools for 13 yrs & Music School Owner/Administrator for over 25 yrs I have some pretty strong views with what's wrong with education these days.
First, we have forgotten true purpose of Education.
The purpose of Education is to learn how to learn. It's that whole teach a man to fish thing, but primary to a successful education. And if you can attach a bit of love for learning in at the same time, bonus.
Second, we have too many teacher's teaching subjects rather than students. It's impossible to teach a piano anything but a student has far more interesting possibilities.
Third, I've seen too many educators, administrators mostly, focus on the politics and career ladder climbing rather on the needs of the students. It's that "gotta be number one" thing that capitalism colors.
Fourth, we put too much weight on testing the easy objective things like memorizing facts rather than the more difficult to evaluate, like the ability to reason, and formulate arguments and solutions.
Fifth. I am deeply concerned about the current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her "Christian" right beliefs that schools should be privatized for profit and curriculum dictated by Religious ideology. If this trend gains support it will take education in USA back to the 19th century.
Lastly. If I only had one thing to change in the system I would just put more qualified enthusiastic teachers in the class rooms so student teacher ratio is no more that 15 students per teacher. If we did just that and nothing more education would start to be an investment that would pay off in spades.
I agree with everything you said! The purpose of education has truly been lost and you've laid out many more issues that need to be addressed as well. I haven't heard of the story behind the Secretary of Education, but I am going to read up on that right now. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Betsy DeVos is from the Amway Fortune. She & her brother Erik Prince are evangelical "Christians". To know more about them and their kind read Chris Hedges - American Fascist.
He talks of Erik Prince who started the Private Christian military group called Blackwater. Often when you hear the DOD talk about private contractors in Afghanistan & Iraq this is the mercenary group they are referring too. All nice and funded by the DOD tax$$.
Betsy DeVos now Secretary of Education is promoting gov Tax $$ funding private "Christian" charter schools.
Along with Betsy, other politicians that align with this ideology are VP Mike Pence & Congressman Gianforte who was convicted of assaulting a journalist last spring. Gianforte has donated millions to a "Museum" that proves man walked with dinosaurs.
DeVos is a direct assault on the education of america. Unless of course you believe dinosaurs walked with man.
My sister and mom are both teachers so I know this issue decently well. They've told me they are boxed into teaching a certain way. There is no flexibility to teach with different methods, no matter how proven in other countries, and they aren't allowed to change curriculum at all.
While those seem like pretty big problems to me, I think the thing most lacking is proper lifestyle. Kids need exercise, quality food, and generally learn better from games or when they're having fun. Schools these days provide none of this, gym class and recess keep getting cut, food is trash in most schools in the states, and we cram kids into chairs, force them to do schoolwork and punish them for acting out. Other countries are leading the way when it comes to education. In the states we need to learn most real world skills and from unbiased info on our own. Luckily we have the internet.
Very well said! I agree that poor lifestyle is a huge detriment to kids, especially in the states. PE class and recess are jokes in their current forms. I think there's a lot of new health and medical research being released that needs to be imposed on these activities. Kids should be encouraged to do activities based on their interests and they should be rewarded for doing so. That also ties into the idea behind Steemit: rewarding good content. Thanks for your valuable insight 🙏🏽
:)
I have always been an advocate of a more liberal arts education with a philosophy component. The result tends to be a questioning of the system.
In Canada, post secondary education has become riddled with corporate interests and sponsorships with an emphasis on towing the line to get a good job. What happened to education for education's sake!
I think that we need to restructure the system to leverage learning how to learn in the digital age and to make education free for everyone!
Socrates was a philosopher king!
Agreed! Education needs to be tailored to the student. I also like your part about free education and education for education's sake! I actually think education should not only be free, but the student should actually be paid for their work, provided that their work is good. That's why I'm so obsessed with the Steem platform and the upcoming SMTs release... I'm trying to reward people for thinking and learning by upvoting comments, but with SMTs, I may be able to actually distribute tokens based on learning metrics. I'll be posting more about that in the weeks to come as I work to develop it! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I am glad that I have met you! You approach to learning makes complete sense! Funny that I was just thinking that we are at the dawn of micro transactions that interact with blockchain technology. Education is the perfect place for a combination of using microtransactions as a reward base (brilliant idea by the way) and AI to help direct the process to be suited to the personality type. An amazing time!
I am glad to have met you as well! We've learned a lot together and will continue to do so in the future! Thank you for your support! It is an amazing time indeed! 🤩
Man... School is too boring. That is why I stayed home today. I was happy to be sick. Can you believe they expect us to go to school the day after Christmas. That is savage. Actually I have friends there and that's good but like-- I don't know-- the teachers don't even want us to talk. I think the object is missing and the reward. I think I waste a lot of time counting the dots in the ceiling panel. Just my opinion. I would rather draw a picture or build Lego or do code or play basketball. My dad said to follow you. Maybe you know more about school than I do.
Savage indeed! Some teachers will suppress your creativity and try to keep you "normal" so that you can get good grades and follow the set path. I think you're already ahead of the game because of your dad. From what I've seen and heard from him on Steemit, he is very smart and capable and will always push you to express yourself and get better! Thanks for commenting and welcome to Steemit! P.s. your profile pic is better than your dads, but don't tell him I said so 😉
Welcome to Steemit John.
Thank you. I like your post. Thank you for watching out for me.
I having been in the teaching profession before, and I used to cringe at the way students were taught 'what to think' instead of 'how to think'. I fought a hard battle trying to de-couple students from dysfunctional learning mechanisms by impressing upon them Mark Twain's famous quote 'Don't let school get in the way of your education'.
If educators and institutions adopt the mindset that the pursuit of knowledge in more than just one prescribed form has the effect of empowering at least the next 3 generations of each child, then educators will be more mindful of the way they approach education.
Otherwise, it will only become a rocky world altogether with lots of copy-paste behaviour from the paper-wielding masses without the mind to rationalise, innovate, and appreciate.
Ahh I love that Mark Twain quote as well! Copy-paste behavior is exactly what we're seeing today and what has been evident in the past. New technologies like the Internet, Blockchain, Steem, etc. have the potential to revolutionize what we consider education. I think that the majority of educators working within the system have been taught to believe in the system too deeply to believe that there is something wrong with it... I think that it's going to take a complete rebuild to create a system that actually works. And even then, I don't think that only 1 system is enough, I think there needs to be a plethora of systems all designed with the individual in mind rather than the majority. Currently, schools emphasize being average and getting good grades and "lining-up". Lining up means being in "order" and following the rules, but it's also just the mindset they instill in children - that they need to line-up and do exactly as the adult tells them. This suffocates innovation and creativity and is terrible for the long-term growth of the human race. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Exactement! (French). I couldn't have said it better. People revert to copy-paste behaviour as they have been acquainted with only one form of learning -institutionalised learning.
This myopic approach to learning becomes archaic when weaving through the multi-faceted aspects of life, beyond the classroom walls.
I think that formal education is over-rated. I was in school for 12 years and I did well, but I barely listened to what the teacher had to say.
I didn't learn English from my School, I mean, I had English lessons, but I learned English by watching movies and playing online games.
I didn't learn how to make money in School, I didn't learn social media marketing in school, Everything I know right now - I taught myself.
I even know most of the flags of the countries. How? I taught myself.
A teacher once told me that if I'll change school I won't succeed. does that sound normal to you!?
I hate formal education. not only based on my experience but on others experience as well.
followed + upvoted.
Yes, I'm in a very similar situation as you, I've spent most of my life in formal education (I'm 20 years old), yet the majority of skills and knowledge I've acquired thus far in my life come from personal experience and using games/the internet to learn. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thanks for your support, I look forward to hearing more from you!
I'm 20 years old as well. 12.13.97 :)
And trust me, you will.
Very funny! I just turned 20 yesterday. 12.26.97!
I taught high school for many years in Canada; mostly English, History, Special Needs. I decided early on that spoon-feeding was useless and kids needed to be shown that it was to their advantage to think for themselves; not to regurgitate what they thought I wanted to hear so that they could achieve high marks. One year, in my grade 11 English class, I didn't give them grades on their writing; instead I had peer evaluation and my own comments on how to improve their writing. At first they were horrified: "but Ms. Coyle, how will I know how well I'm doing if I don't see and A, B, C etc or percentage on my work?" I told them my job was to improve their skill set, not to simply give them a mark. Over time, they completely appreciated the concept because they could focus on their work and not a number/percentage grade. I had them keep a portfolio of their writing throughout the year, and at the end of the semester, we saw amazing progress! Unfortunately there is so much emphasis put on grades, that students and teachers lose sight of the fact that education is about exploring, thinking, and learning. I never had a problem admitting that I didn't know something because to me, learning is a life long goal!
Nice thoughtful reply! We have forgotten that the only purpose of education is to learn how to learn while loving it.
you said it! and thank you!
I was fortunate to have worked in a Fine Arts where creativity was encouraged; I began my semesters showing students this video. If you want to see how education should really look like, check out Ken Robinson's videos. This was from a TED talk series years ago, but so relevant!
School
I will check this video out as well, thanks for sharing it!
You're welcome! He has a lot of great videos out there!
This Ted talk was fantastic! I recommend it to everyone!
Thanks! Yes I agree...I'm so glad you enjoyed it! All of his videos are wonderful! My school actually brought him in for a talk once; the students loved him!
This is a must view video in my opinion. found it years ago.
I agree!!