14 January 2013
Systems of education.
*long rant
I was midway through a popular mobile game in which hostile birds destroy little green pigs, when I received a random text from someone I had went to uni with. His name was Charlie, and despite taking different classes, we had met in my final year of uni and his first year starting art history.
Through our shorthanded text conversation I learned that Charlie had switched courses and was now "takn a fnance degree". When I asked why? His response was ‘’my rents said ill neva gt a job wiv art’’.
After pondering if a smiley emoticon would be inappropriate, I asked;
‘’Do you like art history? :)"
"Luv it"
‘’Do you like finance?’’
‘’No’’
‘’Then why are you taking it?’’
‘’Itz mo importnt thn art’’
Strange I thought, I’ve never thought of one subject as more important than another, though I do concede it is perhaps more important to be at least ‘literate’. But that’s the strange thing about education, it’s not uncommon when meeting someone new to have their education shoved down your throat. GCSE’s and A Levels and degrees and scholarships, brandished as awards of intelligence. Though (at least to me) education is not a sign of intelligence, a public education is simply the acquiring of skills and knowledge that the system have deemed to be valuable to the workforce...That’s not intelligence. And just because the system deems it to be valuable, doesn’t mean it is.
I can’t say I was surprised however, about Charlie especially since we’re now living in an age where a degree means little. Jobs that formally required a BA now require an MA, we take courses just to take more courses and are then thrown into an environment where we are chastised for our lack of experience. But for Charlie, finance is a safe bet…A bet which means sacrificing his passion and creativity.
I guess I found it interesting after hearing a conference given by Ken Robinson in which he argued ‘’Schools kill creativity’’. Do they? I wonder.
Robinson talks about the school hierarchy, which in most cases and especially in the western world is the same. We have things like maths (or ‘’math’’ if you’re American), languages, and science at the top. Then we have humanities below that, followed by the arts. I get it, maths and languages are incredibly valuable but who are we to say other subjects are less important?
In my eyes, having skills that are more likely to make you employable do not mean they are more important...or valuable.
We’ve all heard it before ‘’don’t take music, you’ll never be a musician, don’t take art you’ll never be an artist’’.
Essentially public systems of education were built around industrialisation, teaching subjects and skills that would be needed for the workforce. The problem is the world is modernizing at such a rapid rate, no one can be certain what skills will be valuable in ten years let alone five years. We are taught what is deemed to be valuable, and often grow up to find out that some of the things we’ve been taught were completely inaccurate. I remember when I was told by my teacher that the solar system consisted of nine planets...(She also said if I did not pay attention, I would be banished to Pluto) How wrong she was...
But the great thing about childhood is the lack of fear of being wrong. Children can have a go at answering questions to things they have no idea about. Though as we grow older, we lose this capacity. Raising our hands less as teenagers to answer questions we doubt slightly and fearing ridicule from others when we get things wrong. As we grow older we are penalised for our mistakes in our later years of school and college and this of course carries on into the work place. There are no ‘A for effort’ praises in adulthood.
So we follow ‘what we know’ and what’s been tested and tried, but as Robinson says ‘’If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original’’. And how can we come up with anything original when we have our creativity side-lined for what is deemed to be more valuable?
The result? A generation of workers with the same skills and education, and in many cases the same pattern of thinking looking for work in already overpopulated industries. Coupled with a generation of graduates who’ve fallen victim to academic inflation, taking degrees to qualify for even further education, BA’s for MA’s and MA’s for PhD’s. The system supposed to prepare us for the workforce and life in the adult world is magnificently outdated (at least in my eyes).
I’ll finish with a short and cheesy story Ken Robinson told about Gillian Lynne, I’ll paraphrase to keep it short.
Those of you who have heard of Gillian Lynne will know she is a choreographer who has worked on major musicals like Cats and Phantom of The Opera. When Lynne was a child her mother took her to a doctor to discuss Gillian’s disruptive behaviour. As Gillian entered the office with her mother, the doctor sat Gillian down and took her mother outside of the room to discuss something in private, but before he did he turned on the radio.
As soon as the doctor and Gillian’s mother exited the room, Gillian got up and started dancing.
The teachers advice? ‘’She’s a dancer, send her to a dance school’’. And that’s exactly what her mother did, and years later we have a very famous, wealthy and accomplished ballerina, dancer and choreographer.
This happened back in the 1930’s. If the same thing had happened today, maybe a doctor would have said she had ADHD and chosen to medicate her instead.
I wonder?
An Education. • Opuss № I