THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION
In the most prevalent model of education, learning occurs when there is a teacher, and there is a student, or many students, learning from the teacher. In this model, the teacher teaches what they know while the student(s) learn that which the teacher knows.
The upside to this model is it is efficient. Born and perfected in the Industrial Age, this model consists of a factory line of students passing through, being fitted with the ‘cog’nizance that has been previously installed into the teacher to im’part’.
The downside to this model is, the student(s) learn only up to, but no more than, what the teacher teaches, and the teacher, for all intents and purposes, stops learning while teaching. Thus dry, dead, and out-of-date packets of data are passed on year after year; never really up to date with the latest research or newest ideas, but always static information that is dated to the moment the teacher stopped being a student and became a teacher. Thus striations in education could potentially be followed back through decades to the packets of static knowledge-givers if one had the analytics available and a processor powerful enough to process it all.
A few days ago I conversed with an elderly man who had studied Anthropology in his youth. I told him of my goal to someday write a book entitled, ” From Stone Age to Drone Age” in which I would examine how human activities common to all ages throughout history have changed depending on the social values and mores of each era. For instance, eating in the Dark Ages was an expression of conquest, involving ripping carcasses apart with bare hands and bared teeth, while eating in the Age of Information became an etiquette’s dream, involving dozens of identical utensils to choose from, differentiated only by size or placement, but each having distinct and unique purposes, demonstrating that age’s value of accumulating trivial knowledge. No, the elderly man insisted, correcting me vehemently, Anthropology only studies how activities change due to physical limitations, such as spices added to foods due to lack of refrigeration. I insisted that societal values can be as restrictive as physical limitations. After a few examples and back-and-forth idea exchanges, he narrowed his eyes and declared that I was an odd one. Yes, he confirmed, I was quite odd…
I most certainly hope so! To be stuck for the rest of eternity looking at one, and only one, cross-section of an entire branch of science would be … stifling, to say the least!
A different model of education I would propose would be where the lines between students and teachers blur, and all become students, learning together, from each other. Why would we be elitist about where our learning comes from, and ignore what is available to be gained? Why an aversion to learning from the students? Do we ignore their insights and perceptions . . . because they’re short? Because they are compact “little people” who have not been thoroughly indoctrinated into the canonized packets of dry, dead, out-of-date packets of data that consist of the perceived body of knowledge available to learn? Or do we fear they will refuse to learn that which we wish to teach, thus threatening the status quo of our comfortable place within our oh-so-uncomfortable society?
And further, what happens to the student who is seen and never heard? How do they evolve into the self-expressed adult who is always exploring, always learning, and unafraid to take steps to right perceived wrongs? They don’t. They become the silent guardians of a static society whose only path is to become so rigid it eventually crumbles as so many have before.
My wish is that we all become perpetual students as we are also empowered to become perpetual teachers, able to receive and share without censure, that which we have learned. Only by allowing the full evolution of each individual will our collective species be able to fully evolve as well. Here is to all of our futures, and to the future of our entire collection of races…
By cindy
2/24/22