I would really like to share this article and all the links with everyone I know! This myth that countries around the world need american/western education erases so much of the communal structures and wisdom that is embedded in their cultures. Why do humanitarians believe "poor" countries need our education systems? Why are people like Malala shouting for education? Because they are under oppressive religious regimes, most of which I do not understand. I have read the schooling the world article. A good read. I'll have to go back again. I also just listened to Silvia Federici's book, Witches, With-hunting and Women (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39090931-witches-witch-hunting-and-women) where she talks at length about the way Africa and India's land grabs are hinged on the degredation and hunting of women. It is a complex inter-generational demonization of elders and ancestral wisdom for the sake of "progress". As young people globally are being educated in the western ways, they are leaving behind their communal structures and land care. How much are we willing to sacrifice to the god of capital gain? As you said Fran, the discussion is quite endless and worth a deep dive!
To answer the title of this post: who are we to refuse free schooling? We are the hardworking parents of our children who recognise what’s actually going on here, that’s who we are!! 👏 great post!
I have a degree in elementary education, and my favorite work in university was researching the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and the learning process. Thanks to fMRI, there was new information about what actually happens in a mind when someone is learning, and as excited undergraduates working toward teaching licenses, my cohort talked loads about how to bring this new research into practical pedagogy.
Then we all did our student teaching (internships) in real schools and learned that no one, from the administration to the minimum-wage aides, cared at all about new research -- or OLD research. We were literally told to "forget all that." Not only was the public school system backwards and not based in research; it was abusive. (As a 21-year-old, I didn't know enough to name it, but I witnessed actual abuse. At a middle-class, suburban school with a good reputation and funding!) The school was causing both passive and active harm, and the root was not a burned out teacher or two, but cultural and systemic.
It's telling (and tragic) that no one from my bright-eyed cohort continued more than 2 years into a teaching career.
Wow thanks for sharing that. I wish this is the only similar story I'd heard!! It's so incredibly sad for people who go into teaching with all the knowledge and all the best intentions and then are met with what you describe. No to mention how sad it is for the actual children!
You wrote this so well!! I would especially underscore the research/ evidence based part. 2 years ago we moved to a county with a "better" school district, supposedly the best in our state. I have only minimal knowledge of education and childhood development research from my liberal arts college days, but I was SHOCKED by what they were doing and not doing in the classrooms. Teaching techniques, discipline, and testing that I knew had been rejected by decades of research were the norm.
I would really like to share this article and all the links with everyone I know! This myth that countries around the world need american/western education erases so much of the communal structures and wisdom that is embedded in their cultures. Why do humanitarians believe "poor" countries need our education systems? Why are people like Malala shouting for education? Because they are under oppressive religious regimes, most of which I do not understand. I have read the schooling the world article. A good read. I'll have to go back again. I also just listened to Silvia Federici's book, Witches, With-hunting and Women (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39090931-witches-witch-hunting-and-women) where she talks at length about the way Africa and India's land grabs are hinged on the degredation and hunting of women. It is a complex inter-generational demonization of elders and ancestral wisdom for the sake of "progress". As young people globally are being educated in the western ways, they are leaving behind their communal structures and land care. How much are we willing to sacrifice to the god of capital gain? As you said Fran, the discussion is quite endless and worth a deep dive!
It is endless!! And thanks for sharing that recommendation, I'm going to take a look!
To answer the title of this post: who are we to refuse free schooling? We are the hardworking parents of our children who recognise what’s actually going on here, that’s who we are!! 👏 great post!
I have a degree in elementary education, and my favorite work in university was researching the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and the learning process. Thanks to fMRI, there was new information about what actually happens in a mind when someone is learning, and as excited undergraduates working toward teaching licenses, my cohort talked loads about how to bring this new research into practical pedagogy.
Then we all did our student teaching (internships) in real schools and learned that no one, from the administration to the minimum-wage aides, cared at all about new research -- or OLD research. We were literally told to "forget all that." Not only was the public school system backwards and not based in research; it was abusive. (As a 21-year-old, I didn't know enough to name it, but I witnessed actual abuse. At a middle-class, suburban school with a good reputation and funding!) The school was causing both passive and active harm, and the root was not a burned out teacher or two, but cultural and systemic.
It's telling (and tragic) that no one from my bright-eyed cohort continued more than 2 years into a teaching career.
Wow thanks for sharing that. I wish this is the only similar story I'd heard!! It's so incredibly sad for people who go into teaching with all the knowledge and all the best intentions and then are met with what you describe. No to mention how sad it is for the actual children!
This is amazing!!!
You wrote this so well!! I would especially underscore the research/ evidence based part. 2 years ago we moved to a county with a "better" school district, supposedly the best in our state. I have only minimal knowledge of education and childhood development research from my liberal arts college days, but I was SHOCKED by what they were doing and not doing in the classrooms. Teaching techniques, discipline, and testing that I knew had been rejected by decades of research were the norm.
Yep, sounds accurate!! It's shocking how there is so much research and yet it is largely being ignored, at all levels of schooling.
yes! yes! yes!
🔥🔥🔥