The True Purpose of Education
We Are Bankrupt!
"Nothing Ventured - Nothing Gained"!
The Best Man for the Job
A Parting Tribute to Mr. Holland!
An Enterprising Reform - Harnessing Individuality At its Finest Hours by Bernie Slepkov
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"The aim of Education is to teach us how to think, not what to think!"
(Anonymous quote)
Excerpts from the movie 'Mr. Holland's Opus' reminds us of the true purpose of teaching and being taught any subject or curriculum. "Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart. It's about feelings and moving people and something beautiful, and being alive, and it's not about notes on a page. I can teach you notes on a page. I can't teach you that other stuff. Do me a favour. Pickup your clarinet and play with me. And this time no music 'cause you already know it. It's already in your head and your fingers and your heart. You just don't trust yourself". When his superiors challenged his teaching methods, Mr. Holland justifies them stating with confidence... "Mrs. Jacobs. Tell them (the school board) that I am teaching music, that I will use anything from Beethoven to Billy Holiday if I think that it will help me to teach a student to love music". The very essence of my message is that Mr. Holland not be the exception but the rule! That music not be the exception - to the curriculum- but the rule! That the odd student not be the exception but the rule!
The following has been formulated with little to no references to any other qualified sources.
Our societies' education systems have become as archaic and ineffective as many others. Clearly, as with any venture that is consistently loosing money, thus becoming a liability to society, the point is reached where new approaches are essential!
While contemplating what an effective, self-sustaining educational system might look like for the SEED - Socio-Economic Enterprise Development - Institute, an organization I am designing to fostering it, I read a considerable amount. Mostly I focused on goal setting subjects dedicated to motivating and inspiring adult readers into becoming dynamic achievers. What really stood out were the commonalities with what I am proposing here. Tragically life-skills and life-long learning have not been instilled in our youth even though they display the capacity to grasp these principles from an early age.
In all my preparations and formulations thus far, nothing has excited me as much or has given me the confidence of success as this has, well aware of the source of my enthusiasm and confidence. Not only have my musings been inspired by the thought of stimulating change within systems that failed me - but motivated by those highly regarded that validated my arguments. What these writers instill in their readers and motivational speakers in their listeners uphold the realities of my claims. How can our Present not improve and our Future not be glorious if these very basic human principles such as found in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, were applied and taught starting with the earliest grades?
Is the aim of Education not intended to create future achievers?
We Got Just What We Paid For
Historically the purpose of education was to instill in our youth the values of our community - thus society and it's place in the known world. Upon completion they would take their place within the community - immersed with the essentials required to become productive members. There is no need for this to change; only the means and methods demand reform. Students live and are educated in a society based on principles of free enterprise yet the systems in which they are taught enslaves and demeans an individuality, robbing them - and us - of base essentials to our evolution. As a result, students feel, behave and react not much differently than slaves have historically been known to do.
We have failed them miserably! We have cheating them! We have deceiving them! We are raising generations of rebels who only contribute successfull, to the ills and ultimate downfall of society! We now realize that we have cheated ourselves, as well as them, out of prosperous futures that every one of us must now fight to rebuild. If it is not the intention of our education systems to give youth the wherefore to integrate smoothly into society; then I must yield and admit to being out of line. Having the conviction that this is not the case however, I continue, asking the reader not to twist my metaphoric arguments. The True Purpose of Education
The principles of a society built on 'Free Enterprise' are sound ones. Enterprise is where products and services are generated and sold to the members of a community in order to make profit and thereby be sustained, without enslaving individuals or "the human spirit" within! In order to exist, the enterprise must offer something consumers need or want enough to be willing to pay the asking price for.
Investors foreseeing potential gains, extend services of money in the hopes of realizing financial growth and greater security. To contribute (money) in order to generate more (money) is to make an investment. Whether or not the investment will contribute to an investor's overall security or sense of well-being is always a matter of risk. That is in essence enterprise and it cannot exist without individuals willing to drive it.
For argument sake, educational systems are funded by long-term investors in the form of taxpayers and/or parents. These educational systems could be equated to companies producing products and services in the form of productive members of society. the students in effect are future products and services under development. In enterprise development stages tend to demand the greatest amount of investment. A successful investment has been made when the product ultimately goes to market and generates sufficient revenues to not only repay investors back for their initial investments plus a fair profit, but to recover the costs of the research and development stages.
It is in society's best interest that investors succeed since their contribution to the community's commerce would be realized. They can then go on to make further investments, and pending degrees of success, create even more investors.
No well-informed investor invests all his money into a single venture, especially where the risk factors appear high. When investors lose, society loses. This is particularly true where products - or as in the case of this analogy, individuals - become liabilities that undermine the community's well-being.
Everything to date seems to indicate that we have chosen to turn the majority of our youth into liabilities. We Are Bankrupt!
A vast number of individuals in society today are more like companies producing products that we the consumers have no alternative but to buy - and at outrageously high prices! The basic laws of enterprise, investment, and product development have been blatantly broken. The facts speak for themselves:
- Education systems ignore the needs and learning style of the majority of students.
- Most individual are not happy in their chosen fields.
- Student enthusiasm within school systems is extremely low.
- High chemical abuse and crime rates inside and outside the school are the 'order of the day'.
- Meaningful employment opportunities for the number of students graduating from every education level are scarce!
- Canada is suffering a 'Brain Drain' and unprecedented student bankruptcies.
We are making unsound investments, perpetuating an annual generation of increasing liabilities. At this rate, on what will rest the future prosperity of our societies within global markets? Time does not appear to be on our side! "Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be, whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain. Two statements may be said concerning this individual. One is that he suffers from defects of spontaneity and individuality that may seem to be incurable. At the same time it may be said of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this earth." - Eric Fromm An appeal to cut our losses and find sounder investments!
In keeping with the spirit of enterprise where investments are made on promising ideas, I believe I have some to sell to the reader. Lets equate students to future companies with valuable products or services to be offered society. To assist in realizing worthwhile products or services our companies, the students, are going to market upon graduation, the educational system must rethink its approach. If the same determination applied to taking wo/men into space was applied to education, think of what a glorious future our children could provide to the world.
I just remembered the public outcry heard over decisions to reach for the moon; outraged by the vast sums spent on the uncertain venture. "How can we justify spending billions trying to reach the moon when there is so much that needs to be done right here on earth." In light of the contributions made to improving our quality of life by those expenditures, our education systems it certainly seem worth the same risk.
The apparent advances made through life-skills and self-directed learning could productively contribute towards the healing of society in ways never before imagined. As a matter of necessity, this will be realized through the involvement and collaboration of industry, professionals, members of the community, and the students themselves - with or without governmental support.
We need to provide every means available to inspire and nurture these companies so that they become capable of marketing whatever they will have to offer future consumers - their individual, and group, talents and strengths. "Nothing Ventured - Nothing Gained"!
What if…we were to make investments such as those made in the exploration of natural resources of oil or minerals? Would such gains not justify the risk? We have all these souls hiding extremely precious resources. Which resources? We don't know. As in oil exploration, we use those tools specifically devised for isolating the areas in which the fields are likely to be found. We use the best equipment for drilling holes. Several holes! Very deep holes! And just as when oil is struck, we too can expect to rejoice in the exuberant release of energy. Searching for minerals, the process is quite different - different tools, methods of exploration, areas of search, the means of extraction and refinement.
As in the case of agriculture, crops must suit the soil in which they will be grown, using the proper fertilizers, defenses against the elements, means and methods of harvest - again different for each.
So! Let's Go Exploring and Sowing Seeds.
"What then, if thousands of seeds it scatters?" (Anonymous quote)
Not yet certain what to expect, we don't want to force revelations out of the students - or bore them to distraction - while we search. We may stumble upon multiple 'finds' per individual. And what we do uncover should define just how we go about extracting and refining the revelations. Each find yields a different potential - yet each yield can enrich the student, h/er family and the greater community! The Best Man For the Job
What we aim to accomplish is to give each student a natural sense of drive and accomplishment - to raise and maintain levels of self-esteem and confidence. The earlier in the life of the individual that this can be accomplish, the stronger our society will become, filled with emotionally healthy, stable individuals with the knowledge and tools needed to achieve their own personal dreams and aspirations.
Essential to those objectives, teachers must be allowed a large degree of flexibility in adapting on the role of facilitator or mentor. Their enthusiasm and insight should encourage a love of learning. We now know from our own life experiences the teachers that had the most positive influence on extracting our best facilitated growth. More importantly, we also know that most of those lessons were learned outside formal education systems. This was displayed in Mr. Holland's Opus. He nurtured and facilitated what resources he detected hidden within each student. A Parting Tribute to Mr. Holland!
At the end of Mr. Holland's Opus, a ceremony was given in honour of his accomplishments. The student he had first inspired to overcome the difficulty in playing the clarinet - having gone on to become the state's Governor - presented the keynote address. She tells of how Mr. Holland had never achieved the riches and fame he had dreamed of in writing his own symphony, too dedicated to his students' lives. In her words are found the aspirations of anyone accepting the role of mentor! "... I think he has achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched. And each one of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your Opus. And we are the music of your life."
Mr. Holland must not be the exception but the rule! For in that rule, Mr. Holland only facilitated the extraction and refinement that was the student's to begin with.
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© Copyright 2000. Bernie Slepkov - All Rights Reserved.
bernies@mergetel.com
http://mergetel.com/dreamteams