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.
