Ever since middle school I gave the same answer to the question "What do you think about school?" I feel Socrates said it best with "An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all." I said this to someone once and they said "so you're for free education?" I can not stress enough that though I feel education is way too expensive my issue isn't so much with the price that is on it.
I was in Mosaic, formally known as the Christopher Program, in the Columbus Ohio area when I was in high school. That is a perfect representation of what I think school should be. An education shouldn't be something you get from reading a book in some cold, cement room lit by florescent lights. You should learn from the community. The best teachers are your neighbors, your ansestors, and your peers. If you want to learn how to build a house don't just take a bunch of drafting classes. Learn from someone how to draft a house but after that go out and build the house!
Mosaic was not a school that I went to it was a family that I grew through. I learned more from my short time in Mosaic then I did in all ten of the previous years of my education. The point was to go out and learn from the world and from each other. We learned about religion at my high school, Gahanna Lincoln High School, and it was all cramed into a chapter of my history book. While in Mosaic we actually went to visit multiple religious centers. My mother was a pastor so I was raised in the church and up until Mosaic I felt the way religion was taught was just a sad joke. I'm not the least bit religious but I believe it should be respect and with that taught acuratley.
I realize to this point my thoughts may have been rather scattered, brought to my attention by a close friend, so I will try to restate my points in a much more structed fashion.
First elaborating on the quote. Yes I think education should be free. If you disagree great I'm glad you can think for yourself but that isn't what this article is about. My point with the quote is that you can learn as much theory as you want but you never really know something until you experience it. For example I was raised in what I would consider a lower middle class family possibly bordering on the high end of poor at several occasions. A friend of mine in college told me a few months ago "I now know what it's like to be poor after being in college for a few months." That made me so angry. She obviously doesn't know considering I am lower middle class and would kill for the situation she has found herself in. A couple of months later I found out she had a coke habit and said to me "I'm about to get a hotel room so I can actually study I can't focus here." She has no grasp on what it is to be poor and I feel a big part of that is the education failing to show her how the poor live. Now I don't mean display the poor like they are animals but you can better understand someone through helping them and I think that should be a part of everyone's education. Granted community service was "required" at my school. I use the quotes because you could easily get out of doing any real service by donating things or if you were lucky like me the teacher just would leave that project off of your final grade. At least I have to assume that's what happened considering I got an A in the class and didn't report a bit of community service even though I did it. My point is educators need to use experience to teach because theory isn't cutting it.
Teachers are another downfall to education. Don't get me wrong I love teachers and in fact in the right situation I would love to be one someday. The point is they need to not be called teachers. EVERYONE in the world is a teacher just like EVERYONE in the world is a student. They need to be called facilitators because their real job should be to facilitate your education not govern it like the term "teacher" would suggest. A facilitator of your education should guide you to the situation that will teach you the specific subject whether it be through talking to a religious leader, visiting historical sights, or seeing art. The point should be to lead us to the water not shove the hose down our throats.
Our education system is incredibly dated and needs a complete reform. The point when it was founded was to give us enough education to be decent workers but more importantly to teach us to follow directions from whoever the appointed leader is. It's a ridiculous concept that I think needs to be completely changed. First off no more of this last name stuff. I have respected five teachers in my life. Four of those teachers I always addressed by their first names. We are all equals and because of this we shouldn't address each other in a formal sense. The most important thing is to realize that you need to listen to the students. A question I like to ask most intelligent people I meet is "When did you realize you were smarter than your teachers?" Most of them can actually tell you when it happened. For me it was when I had to correct my 6th grade teachers pronunciation of Persephone. The way we have it set up now you are taught to not question your teacher and accept everything they teach you as fact. How can you do that if you know they're wrong and more importantly how in the world can you have respect for them if you're told just to accept it. People are sent to school and conditioned to no longer think for themselves and that is one of the saddest things in the world in my opinion.
Community is the most important thing when it comes to teaching. I'm sure you all know the quote "It takes a village to raise a child." Well I agree with that a little. I think one person can raise a child just fine. I think if you want that child to be respectful, intelligent, and an actually contribution to society then yes I would say that takes a village. While in high school I went to a meeting to discuss the future of the education system in Ohio. While there people were talking about how to bring the community into the school building but keep it separate from the students. What's the point of that? I feel the community should be the school. Forget about actual school buildings. Teach in churches, libraries, coffee houses, or anywhere else that will have you. Those are all places I have gotten Mosaic lessons at and they were all better than sitting in a class room being lectured.
My point is the school system is broken and because of that we are killing ourselves. I hope all of you reading this are the lucky ones that took the hose out of your throats and learned how to find the real water sources.
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