The history of public education in the United States is as convoluted, varied and hair-raising as the history of its party-politics. Every generation (sometimes between generations!) has its pop-star pundits, its monetary editors and its public pandemonium regarding the current rage of how the kids should be taught. Rarely does "how a child actually learns" reach the same pinnacle of interest.
How does a child learn?
What is "learning"?
Who determines this?
What content truly matters--across generations? States? Cultures and continents?
What massive effects, collateral damages and human-changing lessons have been created within the arena of public education?
Where is the defining information about how we, as humans, acquire the necessary skills to survive?
To thrive?
Does education of the rich further increase the suffering of the rest of the world? If so, how to change that? Will we change that? Will that change be stymied, thus increasing the widening gaps between rich and poor in the world?
Is access to information--real information--the key? What about access to opportunity? What about external challenge and sponsorship and "the old boys' club credo" and genetic pre-disposition (to interest in areas that are richly rewarded) and luck?
How does one create a hunger for knowledge; then, support and feed that hunger; then, steer the person into further halls of knowledge and out the door, into the world, into jobs and research institutions and social institutions that can make use of that finished human product, for the betterment of herself/himself, as well as humanity? What is the model of such knowledge? Its content? Who decides? Why is this important, beyond "profit for the few"? Again, who decides?
Where is "spirituality" taught in this plethora of knowledge? Or, is the spiritual unteachable? (What about Buddha and Lao-tzu and Mohammed and Moses and Jesus and all the other "teachers"?) What about the teaching of culture and the arts--beyond the collectable and decorative (that is, the profitable?) or entertaining? How does Common Core address these issues, where Common Core Standards are currently touted? I mean, in real, concrete, life-enhancing ways? Why does the current rage of pushing "non-literary texts" (that is, "informational" material, in all forms) seem so important when, by themselves, students of all ages are bombarded with "non-literature"? A seventy/thirty split, at the high school level, of non-literary reading vs. literature (poetry and classics, etc.) is going to make us a more productive, humane and intellectual society? Students can find this information on their own--from Africa to Tibet to the streets of L.A.--on the web, the Net, on their phones and in their hands. How to understand, appreciate, interpret and respect other ideas that are "foreign" to their own cultures, however, would seem to be the realm of the arts and literature; perhaps the spiritual exploration of our human history? Isn't it in these areas where we "tame the beast" and don't, simply, create "workers" and "consumers"? Don't create business people and programmers and investors, who are, at core, "workers" and "consumers"...?
Read and understand and explore your history of educational waves, America! We have begun to create industries, again, revolving, now, on "assessment strategies" based on "Common" fears of one generation's lack of speed with its children. We are creating businesses that prey on the overwhelm teachers feel from corrupted school infra-structures and lack of teacher training in basics--human basics involving what speaks to the hearts and souls of the children--or even to the adult learner.
We don't learn our own patterns and so, we all ride on the pendulum, forever simply strung-out and strung up.
It takes a village to educate a child. It takes a world, of balanced physical, mental, emotional and spiritual learning to create a human. Why do we keep forgetting that?
How does a child learn?
What is "learning"?
Who determines this?
What content truly matters--across generations? States? Cultures and continents?
What massive effects, collateral damages and human-changing lessons have been created within the arena of public education?
Where is the defining information about how we, as humans, acquire the necessary skills to survive?
To thrive?
Does education of the rich further increase the suffering of the rest of the world? If so, how to change that? Will we change that? Will that change be stymied, thus increasing the widening gaps between rich and poor in the world?
Is access to information--real information--the key? What about access to opportunity? What about external challenge and sponsorship and "the old boys' club credo" and genetic pre-disposition (to interest in areas that are richly rewarded) and luck?
How does one create a hunger for knowledge; then, support and feed that hunger; then, steer the person into further halls of knowledge and out the door, into the world, into jobs and research institutions and social institutions that can make use of that finished human product, for the betterment of herself/himself, as well as humanity? What is the model of such knowledge? Its content? Who decides? Why is this important, beyond "profit for the few"? Again, who decides?
Where is "spirituality" taught in this plethora of knowledge? Or, is the spiritual unteachable? (What about Buddha and Lao-tzu and Mohammed and Moses and Jesus and all the other "teachers"?) What about the teaching of culture and the arts--beyond the collectable and decorative (that is, the profitable?) or entertaining? How does Common Core address these issues, where Common Core Standards are currently touted? I mean, in real, concrete, life-enhancing ways? Why does the current rage of pushing "non-literary texts" (that is, "informational" material, in all forms) seem so important when, by themselves, students of all ages are bombarded with "non-literature"? A seventy/thirty split, at the high school level, of non-literary reading vs. literature (poetry and classics, etc.) is going to make us a more productive, humane and intellectual society? Students can find this information on their own--from Africa to Tibet to the streets of L.A.--on the web, the Net, on their phones and in their hands. How to understand, appreciate, interpret and respect other ideas that are "foreign" to their own cultures, however, would seem to be the realm of the arts and literature; perhaps the spiritual exploration of our human history? Isn't it in these areas where we "tame the beast" and don't, simply, create "workers" and "consumers"? Don't create business people and programmers and investors, who are, at core, "workers" and "consumers"...?
Read and understand and explore your history of educational waves, America! We have begun to create industries, again, revolving, now, on "assessment strategies" based on "Common" fears of one generation's lack of speed with its children. We are creating businesses that prey on the overwhelm teachers feel from corrupted school infra-structures and lack of teacher training in basics--human basics involving what speaks to the hearts and souls of the children--or even to the adult learner.
We don't learn our own patterns and so, we all ride on the pendulum, forever simply strung-out and strung up.
It takes a village to educate a child. It takes a world, of balanced physical, mental, emotional and spiritual learning to create a human. Why do we keep forgetting that?
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