The continual force exerted by education on a child's life over many years has an immense effect on individuals, our society and the world in general. This must put education amongst the most important priorities in any attempt to create a world-wide change.

While some people may hope there will soon be a big automatic change in world consciousness, I'd rather not trust that idea and try make my part in life now and work for positive changes to happen ("trust in god, but tie your camel's legs". So if appart from personal development, becoming more sustainable, we could also work towards an ideal educational system to help the world, how would that be?

What characteristics would it have?

A few things I think are really obvious: less memorizing and lopsided intellectual imprinting through repetition, and more understanding and balanced development of different levels of one's being (intellectual, emotional, physical, interpersonal, meta-cognitive, etc). Also more practical and hands-on work like having a school garden, learning by doing, more examples connected with real life, etc.

What other aspects can you guys think of?

Would classes be divided in years? Would kids be separated by their age, or would it be more about affinity to certain areas of knowledge/development? or both?

Anybody has studied in an alternative system or had good experiences in general? What experiences in school really made you learn?

Definitely!

I was homeschooled most of my life...We were allowed to pick out our own reading materials for subjects like Science or Reading. I was allowed to go outside and study nature/collect bugs. We were also using standard public school books to back up our "self-taught" curriculum(e.g. Saxon Math)

I have to say the absent social-drama that is usually associated with public schools has kept me pretty balanced.

Also, I was allowed to get my GED at 16 and go on to post-highschool education at 17.

I definitely think that allowing kids to go at their own pace and pick things they are interested in, would help alot.

Im busy becoming a teacher in a school. And im thinking quite often about how i can teach (show) youth to think and find out for themselves who they are, and where we are going. Just telling them what to do, how to behave etc wont help. I must present the message in such a way that they searh and find answers for themselves.

And i will learn how to do that. I will learn how to integrate philosophy (epistemology, ethics) into and in between the regular lessons. Sure there will be some quotes of Spinoza in my classroom : )

“I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them”

Thanks for the input stev how do you feel your socialization and interpersonal skills are, having had a more separate education?

edit:




Awesome Im also working towards this aim of contributing, but as a psychologist working with education. Out of curiosity, what kind of teaching are you going to do, to what age group and subjects?

Pretty much equal, I enter-acted with a lot more adults than kids at first. When I was a teen-ager I could go out and do sports or whatever I chose(at the local gym/recreational area) I would often goto dances at public schools with my girlfriends.

Most of my life I have felt "older" than most people my age. I hung out with kids that were older or more mature than the "average person" so to speak.

There's really not a big difference in social-building skills if the parents want to allow their kids to get involved around the community. I often see homeschoolers out there doing just that, they want to shelter the kids from the outside world for some reason. I think this is the wrong approach.

Good subject and responses, something that very much interests me (I'm pursuing a graduate degree in education). Have any of you read Aldous Huxley's novel "Island"? It describes this ideal though practical society that's loosely organized around Eastern and psychedelically inspired philosophy.

A positive educational system should aim towards educating the entire being and preparing it for healthy existence regardless of what life situation the child may find perself in. Huxley describes this as "amphibious" education, one that prepares the child to thrive in any environment. Huxley's system groups student by age, and I think this is how it should be done, but efforts should be made to allow students of different ages to interact in areas of common interest/developmental level.

I studied in a public school though I was separated early on for the "gifted" track. I feel that I was very well prepared for a successful career in industrial society, but I feel that my interpersonal and emotional skills were not sufficiently addressed by this form of education.

The guiding question for me is: what should be the goal of a proper education system? To prepare students for a "successful" career, or prepare students to be life-long learners and all-around thrivers? Or both?

Well, i will have to study (in the evenings) for two years before i am a qualified teacher.
And its going to be about biology. So that will leave me some room to implement philosophy in a disguised and playfull way : ) Ofcourse i will have to tailor the message, so to fit actuality and what goes on their world. I want to teach adolescents about biology and life. I will give them what they need (to know.)

I think self education is becoming more popular now that we have so much access to information.
After elementary school I spent 6 years in different schools on different paths but today my income is all from something I learned mostly by myself online and through life outside the educational system. And I earn quite good. Probably around double the average where I come from.

Agreed, and more power to self-education...in a solid education system Graduation Day would be considered the first day of an education, not the end of education. The problem is how do we help students develop learning/educational skills, foster individual gifts, and in general help them to develop the skills that will take them to where you are, DMTripper?

Thanks for the input all. Keep them coming! Ill certainly have more to talk about this, its one of my life's passion

BTW, I highly recommend checking out about Francisco Ferrer i Guardia. He developed a school system (Escuela Moderna, or Modern School) in the early 1900s in spain that was revolutionary. He eventually got killed, of course... Damn injustice!

I love the way he wrote, there's this short book he wrote about his system and his attempt to put it in practice, I read the original in spanish but there is also english version online:

http://dwardmac.pitzer.e...right/ferrer/origin.html


here's a quote I really like, for example, in the chapter 'no rewards or punishments':

Thanks to this topic I remembered a video I saw years ago. The video is about video games and learning but I found it to be eye opening how tangential learning has affected my life. I had teachers mention a random interesting fact about the subject we were studying which made me curious to go and learn more on my own. These were the best teachers I have had.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s

Also I think that a well rounded education should train both right and left brains. I regret never taking art or music in high school.

I think it would be better for it to be an affinity to certain areas of knowledge. A stepup level of knowledge based on where the student is at at the moment. Some will progress slowly, some will progress quickly...but no student should be held back, or propelled ahead until he is ready.

I also think that all knowledge should be available to children as early as possible, some will be able to grasp more difficult concepts and can bring a child like perspective to things. This may induce new modes of thinking and perception of topics that heretofor does not exist.

They are the future, and it is just possible that adults have as much to learn from them, as they from adults. They should not be sheltered from the knowledge that is out there.

I'm friends with an instructor at a Reggio influenced school, in a low income area. Hearing the stories of transformation from many of these extremely young children living in circumstances I would wish on no one consistently stuns me. I was in a Montessori school until 1st grade; the transition to a normal school system went very horribly. The teachers hated that I would complete their assigned work so quickly, even though I was happy to read quietly after finishing. I maintained an edge throughout that I believe the Montessori-style greatly contributed to. Being aware of how much more I would have been capable of, with a sane educational system makes me weep for children who will know nothing but drop-out factories.

I find this talk at ted excellent (and the animation that accompanies too), very relevant to this topic:

http://www.ted.com/talks...education_paradigms.html

Great Topic.

I think to create a more sustainable society we should educate children with vital knowledge and skills.
Vital knowledge and skills are knowledge and skills that are nececairy to run any Human Community.
Knowledge and skills like basic Health & Medicine, basic Farming and basic engineering/mechanics.
This way people can learn how to grow their own food, Heal most of their own ailments and fix most of their own broken electronical equipment( Fridge, Electric Stove, Electric watercooker..etc)

What we see now is millions of people worldwide buying their foods and drinks in grocerystores with no idea how it's made and where it's from. Millions of people worldwide paying electricity bills with no idea about how this electricity was generated. This mass-consumption lifestyle is unsustainable.

We need to move towards a way more self-sustaining lifestyle. People need to stop expecting large corporations to provide them food, electricity and drinkable water like a helpless baby that expects it's mother to feed it. We need to be making people aware of the essential knowledge and skills required to live a free and proserous life.

We need to stop overloading people from early childhood with massive loads of non-essential knowledge and skills. Instead we need to make people self-sustaining.
More able to sustain their own life. By teaching every human basic, medical, farming and electro-technical knowledge & skills(+ off course Language, Reading & writing and Counting & basic math) from early youth.

By giving people this essential education. One piece at a time. Not in a rush. And when they have learned all basic knowledge and skills they can sustain their own lives.
Then, if they wish, they can choose to study more subjects or specialise more into knowledge and skills they've learned the basics of before.
But none of that should be forced. Only the basic education should be mandatory.

Any deeper studies and possible experiments & undertakings into specific fields of work should be voluntairy, spontanious and inspired by idealism.
First however, the Capitalist system needs to properly die and wither away. Under it's current control our educational systems are wasting away and brainwashing masses of people into mindless, workaholic, compulsive-consumption zombies.

i'll make mine short. You all have wonderful ideas, as i have heard many in the past. But i can only speak for America and what i see here. Whats sad is you can ask anyone about their views on education, and though you may get different methods, all tend to say that education is important, because its obvious that it is. Smarter people make smarter choices.

But what i find odd, is despite every voter in America knows this, our education gets worse and worse while our schools hold a policy that no one agrees with, which is no kid left behind. Which means, educate the rest of the class at a level of the slowest student so he/she dosen't feel left behind. Its hard to not believe conspiracy theories of an out of control government.

I agree with cheetos last post-the standard of education should be levelled up rather than down;those kids who struggle should be given more input rather than 'holding back' the rest.Education needs to be strongly encouraged by the parents but as wage-slaves (should they be employed) often dont have the time for such encouragement.

On a slightly different point, I think the ability of children these days to master the fundamentals of reading, writing and maths is being adversely affected by over-reliance on, or the distraction of computers.

It seems to me that to a large degree Western education simply aims to churn out more cogs for the machinery that is the Western economic system; those who seek a more holistic education will be disadvantaged by seeking this route because they make less effective cogs and unless exceptionally talented in some sphere or other its likely that they wont 'succeed' in life-success here being able to achieve the 9-5 grind, big car,house and TV etc.

Thanks for the replies, everybody! I'll touch on them later on, but first I want to answer enoon on this thread:




Yeah I definitely have been forming some ideas and am right now working in some related projects.. For education to work I think one must think of all sorts of different areas.

Theoric base

Thinkers and professionals old and new that have very relevant things to say regarding developing critical thinking, teaching for autonomy, incorporating diversity in the classroom, taking in account the student's previous experience and preferences, etc:

Paulo Freire
Edgard Morin
Francisco Ferrer i Guardia
Roland Tharp
Neil Mercer
+ others (I have quite a big bibliography but a lot are not in english )

Through the help of their work, we can establish certain criteria of what is good education. Having this established, one can start working towards achieving it:

Curriculum/educational material

While nearly everything can be educational depending on what kind of use you give to it, the design of educational material is very important because it can either naturally favor or create barriers for generating broad learning.

A lot of text books used are based on a uni-direccional view of the process of education, where kids just consume a ready-made knowledge. New educational material needs to be developed and/or good educational material existing needs to be compiled while it needs to be much more dynamic, where kids have the possibility of reflecting about their work, creating things. There are some publications that give criteria for what a quality educational material is, and one can use it to help analyzing the material and seeing if it has good standards, and proposing constructive changes for it.

I have some experience designing educational material and activities, and feel that one of the most important parts is at the end of each activity, create a big-group discussion where everybody shares their experience and discusses about what they learned. Proposing intelligent questions to help guiding the discussion is a good tool to help teachers.

Design of activities/groups

Activities need to be multi-layered and not simply based on linear progressions. IME it is very beneficial to follow themes or work by projects that look at a certain phenomenon from different perspectives, where one periodically returns to the main theme to re-analyze it after new things are learned, so that one builds up the knowledge in a coherent way.

Dividing kids in the same age in some activities is beneficial for socialization (and suggesting an opposite would generate resistance from society), but it is important to insert a certain percentage of activities where kids learn with those of different ages, based on common interests. This helps generating empathy and connection between different age groups, helps developing patience and interactional abilities.

Establishing a tutor/"Brother" system with older and younger kids can be one strategy, where certain kids are assigned a partner of a younger age that they can help out.

Collaborative work is incredibly powerful and can generate complex learning that would not happen if one only learns individually. A good amount of activities in small groups where kids have to find consensus and generate joint material is very important. Interaction between peers also needs to be analysed by teacher to make sure there is collaborative work happening and not just division of labor or expression of lead-roles and submissive roles. There are publications with criteria for this too.

The use of information and communication technologies can be very beneficial but this is not the same as buying a lot of technological material. If the practices arent changed, technologies help in nothing. Reading a text book and doing its activities or reading a text book on a computer screen and doing its activities is the same. The design and use of technological material and online platforms needs to be carefully thought. Again, there are publications to help with this.

Work that incorporates different subjects and that takes in account the previous knowledge of kids, instead of isolating each subject and being totally ready-made, is much more easily considered meaningful for kids.

An online platform for teachers to share their experiences with others and give feedback on activities that were designed is an important idea. Im currently working on this at the moment.

School structure

The space of the school can also be educational and help with learning in a broad sense. An ideal school needs:

Green areas / gardens for kids to plant
Comfortable big common spaces for teachers and kids to favor interaction between different areas of knowledge/teaching
Recycling/selective residue pick up
Favoring sustainable designs and materials as opposed to wasteful constructions.

Teacher training

It is indeed very important to think of the teachers, as enoon correctly asked. If teachers have outdated paradigms and just follow bad practices, it doesnt matter how nice the educational material or school is. A document (such as our attitude page here) where teachers agree with a joint mission is an important first step. Offering different training, workshop and courses on relevant themes is a must, specially if there are incentives for it (paid training, counting as work hours, benefits for those that do, etc).

Establishing educational quality criterias, analysing curriculum of universities where teachers are trained and suggesting changes is also a must.

Teachers need to have an institutional space to relate to each other. They cannot be isolated in their themes, the school needs to establish a certain amount of collaboration between teachers, with an agreed minimum amount of activities or projects where they work together. Also reunions between teachers with the meeting 'acts' being written down and available online so that they can easily check what has been talked/agreed about in last meetings.

Parent-school relationship

It is absolutely essential that there are mechanisms to help inserting parents presence and voice in school, as well as making present the culture of the different families in the educational system. Researches show that more participation of parents is correlated with better performance of kids in school.

Government-level measures such as laws that allow parents a couple of days off each year to visit their kids school is one step (this happens in some countries).

Utilizing the internet to incorporate parents presence in school, homeworks that allow for parent participation (telling of stories, etc), and using the time of drop-off and pick up at school as a moment for interesting productive short interactions are a few ideas regarding this.






There are a few more things, this is just a quick brainstorming about it, but I should go working instead of posting here haha. If you guys have more to add, feel free, I will do it some other time.

Rudolf Steiner

Waldorf Education


Much Peace and Compassion

big up to you for willing to investigate so much energy in this very complicated matter, endlessness!!

I think individuality is the key..each kid has it's own tempo, and needs, and deserves respect.
My experience with school is that it was all too general, and kids that were slower then others did not get the support they needed.

An ideal educational system helps the kids to discover their talents, their strenghts and weaknesses.
They should not be motivated to 'follow the leader' (like ordinary school system)

I'll think about more, but now i have to go and look after my 4 year old