We have got to stop using the word "education" when what we really mean is "schools," or "the school system." They are not synonymous. If we treat them as if they are, we cloud the role of schools (and often expect too much of them) and disregard the responsibilities of the larger society in the growth and learning of our younger generations.
Nobody believes that the "education" of a person is limited to only the time spent in schools. We learn what it means to be a person in our world through our parent figures, peers, and the stories we hear, see, and live. This learning is certainly not restricted to our schools - almost the opposite is true. As students, we spend much of our time anxiously awaiting the "real world," where authentic learning will take place and we will truly begin to live our lives.
This is not to say schools are not important. Knowledge is power. Self efficacy is integral to later success, and this is largely established in schools. Certainly schools are educational institutions. The thing is, so are churches, movie theatres, parks, billboards, subways, courts, delis, and on and on. Does not learning happen in all of these places? And can we be confident, even, that it is not more learning that happens in these other institutions?
Sure, at school learning, and teaching, are intentional. That's exactly my point. By confusing the issue, by equating schools with education, we've come to forget that we are responsible for the teaching of our youth in every corner of society. Schools are responsible for academics, communities are responsible for learning. Schools are a part of the education system, they are not it's entirety.
1 comment:
Couldn't agree more, Panda. Conflating education with schooling is an epidemic misconception, most troublingly among educators. While we will deny that education=schooling in theory, our actions and the airs we adopt betray our inflated self-importance. The immediate respect we expect to be waiting for us in the classroom upon certification, for instance, as opposed to earning it as competent, compassionate educators. Why should our students believe we have anything useful to impart? Tellingly, our degrees, certificates and 'book knowledge' are worthless from their perspective if we can't relay it. We need to come off our pedestal and realize that our learning STARTS the day we are entrusted with our own classroom. Students - at least those in the type of schools you and I taught in this year - don't care about our credentials. In my experience, they respond to the currency of compassion, patience, encouragement, tolerance; a very different array of skills and traits than we were groomed to develop.
Glad you finally posted again!
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