In the Cool unit, one of the conclusions that we made was that we all conform in one way or another. Although, we may not follow the dominant American Way of Life, we all live in our own subcategories that we share with other people. We all conform in our own cliques. But regardless of what clique we are part of, a vast majority of us follow one path- the path that leads us from infantry to school to career to retirement to death. Being that many of us live this life, it would important to understand why we live this life. Magnifying onto the school aspect, we see that there are many options given to us, even though they are there. We have the mentality that institutional schooling is the only way that we can succeed, because that is the only option that others provide for us. However, evaluating our current schooling situation and really looking into our experience in school, as opposed to passive acceptance, causes for some reconsideration of this path. And perhaps school is something that we should escape, as we approach other sources of education.
Background Info:
As I mentioned before, although many of us follow the life of institutional schooling, there are many other paths that most of us are unaware of. Of the less famous options, some of the more famous options are: autodidacticism, unschooling, youth work, or dropping out/getting GEDs. By definition, autodidacticism is: "is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor." Automaths are typically more self-motivated. They learn things on their own and whichever pace they’re comfortable with. However, one of the aspects of autodidacticism, that may be perceived as a flaw, is that autodidacticism is often correlated with isolation. Since automaths learn on their own, using books and the internet as their sources, they would not have an education-based, or commitment-based relationships with people, which most of do. So if they were to eliminate school as their source of education, they would also eliminate a main component of their social network.Unschooling is another alternative to education; one that centers around "allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play, play, household responsibilities, and social interaction, rather than through the confines of a conventional school." The whole idea of unschooling is that the traditional schools with teachers and professors do not work because of mainly three reasons:
- "Children are natural learners."
- "Children do not all learn the same way (or at the same pace)."
- "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated"
Although there are all these options that are available, many of us follow the path in which school is involved- a path which we did not choose. I don’t remember ever given the choice; whether I wanted to go to school, or become and automath, or do unschooling . From my experience, schooling seems to be “the” path- the right path. It is a default in our society, but the default settings aren’t always the preferable setting. So why is that? Of the people I know, a great majority are unsatisfied with their school experience. But if schools are supposedly for the students, then why is it such a nuisance in our eyes?
Argument #1: Breeding Robot Sheep
Following the same routine over and over, our lives have become countless repetitions of the same day with occasional twists. We run through the same cycles on a daily basis, going through one rectangular hole to another to stare and fill blank stripped pieces of paper. School has become (or always was) this institution that goes through the same process everyday, similar to a factory. And as schools are the factories, we the students are the commodities.
“Using school as a sorting mechanism we appear to be on the way to creating a caste system, complete with untouchables who wander through subway trains begging and sleep on the streets.” Gatto’s point is that schooling and education are not the same. The whole point of schools, according to Gatto is that they convert humans into obedient robots that will follow the system, and the path that the system sets out for us. “The truth is that school don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders.” By going to school, we learn that we’re in a position where there are rankings, and that we are to be subordinate to those who are “higher” than us (e.g. teachers). This arrangement gives us the mentality that we are all followers, hardly ever the ones to lead. And to be a leader would a goal we all try to meet. Gatto also makes the point that school is reinforcing homogeneity. Schools conforms us, being that we are all fed the same thing. When we finally attain that conformity and the obedience, we truly become robots.
One very interesting thing, to me at least, is that we think schools are for our education and us. And to some extent it is as we believe because the fact is that we are learning something, regardless of how efficiently we do it or how arbitrary the materials. But I think that being fed those tiny bits, we have a reasoning to stay in school and to let the school do as they wish, which according to Gatto is transform us into these “formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled.” But it’s not that we just follow along, but we passively follow along. The most we do is complain about tiny aspects of the school (e.g. “I hate homework”), but that’s as far as we go in terms of “fighting” the system.” And meanwhile, we are just these tiny sheep that are being herded “from cell to cell at the sound of a gong,” until we just become autonomous sheep, who habitually do what we are told, and follow the same motion that we followed for the majority of our lives.
School is an institutional that dehumanizes us and sets out a path for us. With minimal input, we follow that path, as it is in our perception that it would be the path towards success. However, since it is our lives and our education, shouldn’t we decide on the approach of it? Instead, we are trapped in a routine that requires minimal thinking that prepares us as proletarians. We follow this way of life, created by others. Meanwhile, we could be getting our education through autodidacticism or unschooling, where we would choose our own ways. Rather than being self-directed people, we living a life where we’re sheep being herded, going in whichever direction someone else chooses at whichever pace.
Argument #2: False Sense of Accomplishment
Any student would know that grades is a huge component of schools. We all strive to earn the highest grade we can. The qualification of an elite, or a person who plays his/her role as a student, is that A+ or that 90+ grade on his/her progress report, as they are the indications of somoene being “smart.” So in school, we the students are constantly striving to to get those grades, rather than acquiring knowledge, as those grades have become our definition of success.
In my interviews of family and friends about school, there was an overall motif. Everybody appears to have submitted to our current education system. Not only has everybody accepted it for what it is, but also they're arguing for it. Everyone said something along the lines of: school preparing us for the outside world, and although it may not be completely relevant, the stuff taught in school will create a foundation for us.
“Who is to say that we most definitely will not need outside of school?... Things may come out in conversations amongst intellectuals... We are learning these things because the government or the school system does not know what paths we are going to take in the future, such as career or lifestyle. Therefore it is always better safe than sorry to learn extra things.” (Lily M.)Being that we are/were students, we want to know that by going to school, we were on the path towards success- that our many years spent in school wasn’t for naught. We’re in school, according to these people, because we’re trying to develop our minds and a sense of the world (in enclosed , with a person talking at us for 55 minutes at a time). “Of course not, because a person may have had a life experience but without thinking about it or knowing the significance behind it its useless.” It seems that we believe our success and our intelligence are dependent on school- that until we earn those A’s or that masters degree, we are simpletons we do not understand our surroundings- that we need this institution to affirm us of our intelligence. Without schools, we would not have grades, and without grades that would nothing for us to acquire- nothing to indicate that we’ve done something with our lives as students.
“We learn about things in order to have an understanding of them. We may not use it in our life directly, but the process of thinking that we gain from learning the stuff that we don't need for survival could help in another way.” (Adam W.)
“It helps us when we are in those certain situations. It sets up a certain standard.” (Amanda Y.)
Similar to the , “The Class” or “Entre Les Murs,” our situation is one without any resolution. Due to the contradictions in the teacher role, which demands fomality and respect, and the student roles, which often is associated with chaos and attention, it seems like the students and teachers, at least in the films we watched, cannot live in perfect harmony. Being that there are such contradictions, if not for some sort of spark, the students and teachers would continue on playing their roles. And meanwhile, both sides think that they are succeeding, because the job of the teacher is to just go through the material, while the students’ is to listen, or pretend to listen. But just as it is portrayed in “Entre Les Murs,” those issues cannot be ignored. In fact, the whole film is about how the students and the teacher are in a constant brawl to get what they want. And just as it is portrayed in that film, nothing gets solved at the end, and there really are no success stories. Both the teacher and students just go through everyday, pretending like that accomplished their goals, because they did what they had to, and wait until the year is over and can forget about everything.
As Freire says, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hoping inquiry, human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” However, he argues that schools aren’t like that at all. There is no “invention and re-invention,” just a lot of depositing. It’s just the teachers filling up students with the stuff that they learned as a student. Society is supposedly growing constantly, with humans becoming smarter and smarter everyday. But how much progress can a student make when they can only be as smart as the teacher that taught him or her on that subject, if that? Even so, how many of us are actually trained to transcend all others and invent/re-invent? It seems like we’re more trained to become proletarians. And rather than training us to expand the knowledge of the world, schools seem to be preparing us to expand the wealth of the wealthy. Meanwhile, the whole time we believe that we’re going to school, becoming smarter so that we can prepare for our future, and have our own success stories. For some, that might be true, but for the rest of us, we’re only enhancing another person’s success story.\ Although I am not sure, since I’ve never tried it, autodidacticism and unschooling may be a path that works towards your own success. There are no grades, so the automath’s perception of success may be the actual experience of learning the the knowledge that is gained. And since there are no binding institutions, the automath isn’t really appealing to anyone but himself/herself.
Argument #3: Hierarchy
Yes, school might be teaching us how to be book smart, and each unit it’s something different. But one skill that schools have us develop over the course of our entire schooling career is the ability to follow orders. Ever since we were three years old, going off to Pre-Kindergarten (and even before that, with our parents), we are taught to submit to authority. We learn to do what we are told, and thus we are prepared for the working class. In school, we are
No comments:
Post a Comment