Higher Education

Higher Education

Education is one of the key ingredients to building a strong foundation for a successful future; there is not enough emphasis put on education at a young age. Another question arises though, how hard should we push our children? They are children after all. On the other hand an absence of interaction between student and teacher may cause our children to grow up to become mindless drones. There needs to be a student-teacher relationship, not a dictatorship. Students are not just vessels to be filled with knowledge; they are alive, and must be allowed to grow on their own. Without interaction and life experiences, the materials that are taught is stored, but not understood. We would do without thinking, feeling, and reacting without thought. The question to ask is not whether we are educated, it is: do we know how to educate?

In “The Banking Concept of Education” Paulo Freir states that “[e]ducation [has] become an act of depositing(319).” The banking concept is used to lead children to a pre-ordained destiny. That is, not a destiny that they themselves chose. The problem with education today is that teachers have lost sight of what is important. Many teachers have become more and more political; making sure that the material is covered and the students can regurgitate the information. Even if the student can recite the material, the problem is that, often they do not understand it. Standardized test such as the SAT(standardized aptitude test) and CIM’s (certificate of initial mastery) only promote this type of “teaching”. These tests only test in a single dimension it only shows what a student knows not what a student has learned. Life is not is not an equation that can be equated. There is not only one solution for every input; there are multiple solutions and multiple means to achieve a solution. No one way is more correct than another. If life was an equation we could solve, then we, as a race, would never survive, people would not be able to adapt, and we would be unable to make further progress. It is not ones ability to recall what has been taught it is there ability to teach it to others. It is those people who know how to use the knowledge bestowed on them that will survive.

In Dewey’s “Thinking in Education” he speaks a lot of knowledge; he states that “knowledge… [is] indispensable(305).” Dewey puts a large emphasis on how knowledge is gained through experience and not through reading textbooks alone. Experience alone is a slow teacher, though in order to gain knowledge one must have the proper foundation. That foundation starts with a proper education. Studying the past, learning from it, and being able to use it. Newton did not just sit under an apple tree and get hit by an apple to discover gravity. He used what he learned from proper schooling as a foundation. If he did not have proper schooling, Sir Isaac Newton most likely would have just been irritated for having just been hit in the head with an apple. Not that Dewey is wrong though, one must have real world applications for what they have learned. If you are able to apply what you have learned in a real life situation, then you are being taught properly. “No amount of improvement in the personal technique of the instructor will wholly remedy the state of things (303).” A teacher cannot be solely responsible for what a student takes away from a lesson. It is also up to the student to think carefully and apply what has been taught to real world situations.

It is only natural for teacher to test there students “[i]t is good that he should have his pupil trot before him, to judge the child’s pace (Montaigne 235).” Inquisitive minds want to know more; they are not content to fill there minds what has been laid out in front of them. A “[teacher must not] think and talk alone; I want him to listen to his[/her] [student] in [there] turn (Montaigne 235).” Education is tool used to challenge a student’s way of thinking, to teach them to think outside of the box. A student must question: for it is not enough for a student to be able to recite what has been taught they must also understand. The only way to truly understand something is to examine and study it in many different aspects, to be able to see what they have learned from many different angles not just one.

A teacher should not limit a student’s way of thinking. Many teachers have guidelines for teaching. They are just that though, they are guidelines. “It is not for [the teacher] to choose what [the student] shall know; what they shall do (Emerson 251).” Students should be allowed to think freely. A teacher should not be afraid of a student who expresses their thoughts; a teacher should be encouraging a student who is afraid to express their thoughts. Teachers should promote interaction and free