Education is about much more than gaining knowledge.
Last week I officially completed my first master’s degree course (I am only taking one course at a time right now). To say that I am excited and proud is an understatement. The name of this course was Education in Context: History, Philosophy and Sociology. This course was a powerhouse of information regarding education and its context in the world and history. The eclectic content of this course made two impactful concepts very apparent to me.
The overwhelmingly prevalent western education system of today is a relatively new system of education in the context of human history.
It isn’t serving the vast majority of those in our society.
These statements may not be surprising for some, but let me digress into some specific examples that support these concepts.
The overwhelmingly prevalent western education system of today is a relatively new system of education in the context of human history.
I will first mention the First Peoples of Australia. Their society, like many indigenous societies, survived and thrived for thousands of years and successfully educated their youth in all of the information, survival skills, societal structures and knowledge of their people and land. They grew to know everything necessary to support, and be part of, a thriving culture. And, yet, most of this was lost in the 19th century when the English arrived and brought their western method of schooling with them (Heffernan, 2016). According to the Western culture, First Peoples are considered primitive, unsophisticated and even un-intelligent. However, in his book, Free to Learn, Peter Gray says of the hunter-gatherer education system that “These abilities included physical skills, honed by years of practice, as well as the capacity to remember, use, add too, and modify an enormous store of culturally shared verbal knowledge about the food materials….the efficiency of hunter-gatherer women to gather and process foods increases up to the age of about forty, just as the men’s skill at hunting does” (Gray, 2013). In short, hunter-gatherer societies did not necessarily have to learn less than the western societies. Instead, there is every possibility that they had to learn more information than the average western raised person today! Not to mention that they continued to learn until about the age of forty!
Another previously thriving First Peoples culture are the Inuit people of Northern Canada. Regardless of the extreme temperatures in what is now called Nunavut, Canada, inhabitants have been recorded in this region for at least the last 4,000 years. These nomadic people moved with the seasons and relied on trapping, hunting and fishing for survival, and they lived in igloos, animal-skin tents or semi-subterranean houses (Rea, 2024). They were entirely self-sufficient and thrived in an extremely difficult place to live. Their form of Education was rooted in the idea of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, which means “Inuit Traditional Knowledge” in Inuktitut. This idea encompassed the entire Inuit worldview - their very grounded interactions with nature, humans and animals. “It is meant to encompass the Inuit way of doing things – the past, present and future knowledge, experience and values of Inuit society” (Education for Reconciliation, 2019).
This traditional knowledge was passed down from elders to youth and symbolized that circle like nature of life and nature. There was no set schedule or specific time set aside for education. The little ones learned by observing and following the example of their elders. The elders would teach the children for as long as their attention lasted, but the education was continual and ongoing. Learning was considered to be found in individual attention, observation and effort (Education for Reconciliation, 2019). In this way, there was no classroom, set schedules, grades or academic competitiveness. Children mastered skills at their own pace and with individualized attention from their elders. This form of education seems not only successful but enjoyable.
Now, how does this apply to us today? While the amount of content necessary in our society might not vary from that of First Peoples societies, the type of content varies greatly. Our society requires a great deal of literacy, writing, science and math, and our society isn’t structured in a way that every child can learn those things at home. So, while I am not saying that we need to restructure society, I do believe that we can make some essential alterations based on the way mankind has learned throughout history. One of those concepts would be the child’s enjoyment and personal motivation toward their education.
The western education model isn’t serving the vast majority of those in our society.
It is apparent that many, if not most, children dislike school. Peter Gray asks that poignant question, “How did we come to the conclusion that the best way to educate students is to force them into a setting where they are bored, unhappy and anxious?” (Gray, 2013) Shouldn’t it be obvious that an environment that one hates is not an environment where they will learn to be healthy, supportive, invested, and functioning members of society?
In the book The Self-Driven Child, the authors point out that, “Education leaders and policymakers aren’t asking ‘What do children need for healthy brain development?’ ‘How do they learn best?’...Rather they seem to be asking, ‘What do we need this child to be able to do in order to meet our school, local and national standards?’” (Stixrud & Johnson, 2018). And, often, the consensus is for there to be more school, despite the many experts stating that opting for less school and more autonomy would be a better place to start (Gray, 2013) (Stixrud & Johnson, 2018).
Our children are neither happy nor self-motivated, and it is the consensus of many that more autonomy, less restrictions and less time spent sitting still would be a great stride in the right direction. And, from everything I have learned in my first master’s course, I found that voices speaking for progressive education reform have been part of this conversation for a very long time. The works and words of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, Rudolf Stiener, Maria Montessori, Peter Gray, and many others have brought these ideas to the table, but they have been largely ignored over the decades. These voices have been crying for education reform to include:
Lessons that meet the child where they are developmentally
Lessons that involve much more hands-on movement than sitting still
Classrooms that are student-centric, not teacher-centric
A learning environment that is more progressive, open-ended, child-led and autonomous
Learning that is built on intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation
Thankfully, now, I believe that there is a rising tide of parents, educators, programs, philosophies and schools who are ready to throw out the textbook school models with the textbooks all together. This generation is not thriving, and change is long overdue.
(And I will be writing much more about the above ideas in future posts.)
Education is about much more than gaining knowledge.
With all of this in mind, I want to add that a more progressive education alone isn’t necessarily the answer. In his article “The Purpose of Education”, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals…We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” Mr. King further made a deeply personal and distressing example of his point when he mentioned that Georgia’s former governor, Eugene Talmadge, was a brilliant man, but considered Martin Luther King Jr. an “inferior being” simply because he was black. Clearly education alone can’t hold a candle to the deep importance of moral values and goodness.
A favorite education pedagogy of mine, Waldorf education, is one pedagogy that highly values the moral development of students. Jack Petrash, a Waldorf teacher of 30 years, stated, “It is imperative that education directly touch the hearts of children, to help them care about their fellow human beings and reassure them that there is beauty and goodness in the world and that they play a role in preserving that beauty and goodness” (Petrash, 2002). Our kids need to know how to be and to preserve the goodness in the world.
Surface level policies will never make the difference that must be addressed in the interpersonal and heart level of each human being. Our kids need connection, love, acceptance and goodness in their lives as much as they need a better education system. They must learn how to value each other and the earth around them.
Final thoughts.
As I move forward from my first master’s course, I think back to the eager indigenous children learning from their peers and parents alike on how to thrive in their world. I look at the sad and stressed grade school children coming home in America today with backpacks full of homework and backyards that rarely get used. And I think of the inner hearts and emotions of children that are not noticed or considered in the education system that looks only for outward conformity. These are the things that I want to change, if only for a few, in my small field as an educator.
References
Education for Reconciliation. 2019. Foundation knowledge: conversation guide. Empowering the Spirit. https://empoweringthespirit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Inuit-Part-1-History-and-Culture.pdf
Gray, P. (2013). Free to Learn: Why understanding the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life. Basic Books.
Heffernan, T. (2021, May 26). The history of education in australia. Oxford Research Encyclopedia. https://oxfordre.com/education/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-1459
King, M. (1947) The purpose of education. Stanford University The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education
Petrash, J. (2002). Understanding Waldorf education: Teaching from the inside out. Gryphon House, Inc.
Rea, Kenneth John. (2024). Nunavut. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Nunavut/Settlement-patterns
Stixrud, W. & Johnson, N. (2018) The self-driven child: The science and sense of giving your kids more control over their lives. Penguin Books.
