On what is being taught, and what exactly, was “absorbed” in the learning process, translated…
If you asked a child what learning is? Their answers would vary from the different age groups. The elementary kids would usually say, “Memorizing lessons by heart.”, meaning rote memorization of material; and the middle school aged students would take a long sigh, “Learning, well, it’s gonna take forever to explain!”, which showed that they had, already, acquired a certain level of practical experiences in this area. As for the high school aged students, they’d barked back, “That’s something that’s annoying me right now!”, which made it, just as hard, to continue this discussion.
And, if you’d asked this same question to the parents, you would totally, get a different reply, for instance, “It’s great to learn!” “It’s very important to your future that you learn as much as you possibly can right now!”, and, from this, we can all deduct, that the parents had already forgotten (or are pretending to have forgotten), their own experiences in learning back when they were in school, that they’d said the same things that their children are now saying. But, we can forgive them, can we? But, as for if their children can forgive them, well, it would be, very, difficult to say!
Learning is, Getting a Better Knowledge of Oneself Through Curiosities and Making the Discoveries
Okay, but, what, are we, discovering?
In school, we’re discovering an assortment of academic knowledge, some lessons, some techniques we can find useful, and the goals of this being to gain a common set of knowledge, and the basic level skills. And, the knowledge ability test booklet is the method used, to evaluate whether or not the results of the discoveries measured up or not (in the idealism of education, that, is what it should do…because in reality, this book would often bring a ton of stress, pressures, to the parents, the children, as well as the school instructors!”
not my drawing…
Then, what of the joys in learning? What about curiosity? Along with other subjects? And, shouldn’t learning be about every single aspect of life? Ken Robinson said, that our learning system is based off of the foundations of academia. Reason being, that back then, when this system of education was set up, there was NO public schools, and plus, back then, the purpose of education is to fulfill the needs of the Industrial Age. And so, this system of education has TWO goals: the practicality, what was learned being put to use (productivity), needs to coincide with the demands of the schooling systems (this was set up by the college professors, and based off of their own images). This is still happening all around the world, in France, the emphasis is on the sciences, then the languages (French), history/geography, the languages, and at the very bottom, were the arts and physical education. This meant, that there’s this caste system of different courses in the academia.
And because of this, most of the times, only those students who’d performed well in the “higher-up” courses will get all the attention, because their abilities will help them out in the future in finding better jobs.
Looking back, for the students who’d shown extraordinary talents in music, art, or physical activities, were discouraged to not keep on developing their abilities, just like what we often heard, “How, will you become, the next Picasso?”
And, the bad results of this system is, just like Ken Robison reminded us, so long as the child didn’t measure up to the scholastic standards, s/he is labeled as a failure.
A ton of people with creativity, who have an extraordinary skill, and are outstanding don’t think that they were, outstanding, because what they’re good at, aren’t looked upon as important.
Learning is, Learning to Get Along with Others
Learning also including learning to get along with others, respecting the orders of the world, to make sure that everybody else, including oneself is safe and secure, learning the norms of the expectations of the societies. And, this sort of learning isn’t limited to the children, or the families that they were born into.
The school is the place where kids will need to learn about this area in their lives. Learning to live alongside each other, learning from watching someone else, establishing one’s own ability to relate, to communicate with others, even if the person we’re interacting with isn’t who we want to associate ourselves with. This sort of learning isn’t at all easy, in our views, it may be noted, as a very hard kind of learning.
Every time the kids came to the counseling offices, they’d asked, “Why do we need to go to school? I’d wanted to stay at home, I can log online, watch television, to learn things myself, or let mom teach me”, we’d always stressed, how the school functions to teach about relating to one another, that it’s a place to learn what is and isn’t acceptable in socializing. Only in school, can the children learn through game and repetitive practice, and train oneself to be a member of the society, to prepare themselves for working and living together in a group in their futures.
In kindergarten or preschool, the focus of learning is placed on “experiencing the world”, because at this time in one’s life, there’s really not that much that needed to be learned or taught academically. But once the child enters into the first grade, the focus of learning immediately shifts to the academics, or “knowledge-related” learning, because living in groups—although it’d still shown up in the texts—is already realized, as a learned lesson.
But unfortunately, we’d often, bore witness how lacking the education systems are on this area, this isn’t the teachers’ faults. The Department of Education didn’t set up the off-time between the classes as a vital part of socialization. The teachers who sought us out for counsel, because they couldn’t find an alternative method to resolve the issues, they’d felt stressed by it. This caused a vicious cycle, when kids wanted to resolve their interpersonal conflicts, they were made to resolve them on their own (“The teachers told us to resolve it ourselves”), or, asked the teacher or parents to punish the person who’d done us wrong, instead of getting something positive from the experiences, like we must be our own teachers in the areas of socialization!
they may seem like they’re playing, but they’re actually, learning something here!
We’d also found that some of the school teachers would quickly made the decision of who was right and who was wrong, believed, that “blaming it on the parents for not teaching and socializing their young well” (We’d even believed, that this, was very superficial). And this mode of belief would often cause the parents to feel very guilty.
There would be feelings of defeats, as mistakes are constantly being made, in a normal socialization, and so, they’d all become, obstacle that blocked the processes of learning, and, this entire process of learning, normally, don’t come to an end until we’re all, in our adulthood years.
So, how much longer, must we all wait, until the communication of group members, and living together in groups, these vital life skills lessons be, taking the place of those way-too-systematic, and lacking representation lessons in morality?
Let’s trace the word, “pedagogy” back (from Ancient Greek, meaning “guiding or educating children”), this word included the knowledge of education. It’s also, included, the teachings, the theories and the applications of theories in education, and, in order, to pass on the knowledge or the tools, you must have ALL to succeed.
So this, is on how education is still being done, halfway, isn’t it? And, because the adults (those wearing their tall hats, sitting in the offices of the Department of Education???) are the ones who set up the curricula, that those I.S.D.’s must follow, or, the funding would get withdrawn??? But, what about how much of what is taught is being absorbed by the students? Oh yeah, forgot, we measure THOSE in A,B,C,D, sometimes, with one more option, E, but hey, teachers, had you NOT realized, that life is NOT multiple choice all the way ‘til the end, it’s a lot more than that, there’s the experiences of children, and how they experience the same events differently, their various kinds of intelligences to consider too, along with a multitude of things to consider, so, this ought to be a warning for All educators, ALL parents out there, and yet, who’s gonna take H-E-E-D??? My guess would be, NOT very many, that’s how many!!!