Dominoes

Education: a word made up of nine letters; a word that plays a role in every single person's life whether it's no education or the best education. Of course, when one hears the word “education” it goes hand in hand with the word “school” because that's what schools are for: education. School is, also, a necessity, a must-have element in life. It is place where you learn the ins and out mathematics, proper grammar, scientific methods, and historic events. When a student arrives home he practices such studies by preforming the wretched task called “homework.” Now, of course this all common sense, everyone knows that education is found in schools, however, perhaps I were to say that it was not. What if I were to make a bold step forward and say that education is a process, praxis; an ongoing process that only ends at death because that ongoing process is life. Education is the reoganization of each and every experience, inside and outside of school, connected and leading into the next experience forming one's mind and character accordingly. We see education in such a different light because that is how society has created it to look like. But that is not the case at all. Education is life; it's every moment every breath compiled into one experience creating you, but society dimishes that incredible revelation into a 8 hour long school day creating within a dread for education.

In Democracy and Education, John Dewey argues that education reaches out and into every corner of life. Work and play, method and application, school and life are all education are all life. Not only are they life as whole but they are identical. Dewey argues through out the book that education should be connected. If I were to choose two words to sum up Dewey's two most commonly used points they would be “connected” and “experience.” Our experiences in education should have a snowball affect. What one has learned in the past connects to and impacts what and how one is learning which connects to and impacts what and how one will be learning.

As I've already addressed, education reaches farther than school and academics. When Dewey makes the statement that education is life he isn't saying that education is a means for life or that it is what one's life revolves around but that it literally is life. Just by living we are learning. We learn to speak. We learn who our parents are. We learn how to interact. We develop a culture, a character well before schooling even begins. Each experience we encounter is preparing the way for the next experience to follow through. Babies learn how to lift their heads up which leads into lifting up in to crawling positions. Education literally is life. But why is this concept so mind blowing?

We grow up with the idea that school is not fun. The teachers don't even want to be there. They make count downs until winter break or summer break. They celebrate Fridays because that means no school for two days. Students are taught to dread education. For eight hours straight they sit in a desk and listen to someone teach them what they've yet to learn. They see on there favorite television show when their favorite character is dreading going to school. They see hear it from their parents when they say that they know school isn't fun but that they have to do it anyway. It's all a form of oppression; educational oppression. Our teachers and parents don't mean to oppress. They are just doing what they've been taught to do because at one point they were a student and their parents and teachers did the same. This is how it is. One must just go with it to be successful. That's the midset that's been set. That's just how it is and how its' been. How can we change it?

Paulo Freire uses the word “praxis” in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He defines as the process in which one reflects and acts upon the world in order to transform it. Praxis is stepping back and looking at the reality or the oppression and acting upon it by making changes. Praxis is like using the periscope method of looking at idealogies that we find in Hope in Troubled Times. Periscopes are used on submarines. Pilots use them to look above the water and see what's around them. Periscopes turn in a circle giving the viewer an all around look at what it around them. That is was praxis is. Looking all around at the oppression and changing it. It's not a revolution. We shouldn't go riot against our education system, but we're all teachers. Whether we've got licensure or not we are all teaching someone. You can be the basketball coach, a nurse, a secretary, a parent. You're teaching someone. But for those of us who are licensed teachers, how can we change our curriculums and classrooms to break the mentality society gives our students about education?

If education as life is connecting past experiences to current experiences then education in school should be the same. Rather than approaching our lessons as “This is what's on the curriculum next,” we should create a lesson plan that connects to what the children have learned previously not just in the classroom but in life. The word Dewey uses is “interest.” Students have to feel like they can connect with the topic they are learning and if the educator can connect the lesson to the students past experiences then the students can feel a connection to the topic. For example, the “Engage, Connect, Launch” portion of the lesson plans shouldn't just have creative games that demonstrate the topic at hand but dig deeper and connect it to what they've already experienced whether it's a previous lesson or riding a bike or playing an instrument. If we can create this kind of connection within our students then they can carry that on to their children or students. It's like a domino effect. We effect of students who effect their peers and their children and so it goes.

When we approach education as a continuous effect, as life, and we acknowledge that life is experience we can rearrange a students view of learning. Our philosophy of education should be that education is living and that each and every experience connects and leads to the next. Education should be like Christmas lights. Each bulb is unique and a different color, but they are all connected and are a part of one strand of Christmas lights. If we can give our students that kind of mentality we can show students just what education looks like and help them to see it in their own lives inside and outside of school. Thus should our philosophy be each lesson and experience brought together to form one life. Let's create a domino effect.