The personal philosophy of education, of the members of any society, is not something to be taken lightly. Do you have an opinion about how the public education system should work? Fifteen years ago, I a public, suburban high school that served grades 8 to 12 and as a result of formed a very definite personal philosophy of education.
My belief is that the education system is failing who depend on it the most, have become so disempowered, that it would take a major change in how people think about educational wellness to make any real change. The writing has been on the 1950s that things are not working that well.
Good stress management skills are learned very young the public education system, most often, meets children, at the tender age of five or six, the best chance possible to teach young people, the life skills needed to function as well-balanced school experience is often so negative and destructive that children today really don’t stand any chance. It’s time for real change.
Just like every other institution in society, the public education system served a valuable function at a particular time in history, but that philosophy of education is no longer serving our society. to change! We now know that educating groups of kids all at the same age in of 30 or more per class just doesn’t cut it. Something has to change!
This model came into use after WW2 when the population grew dramatically in a short amount of time. Schools had to make big adjustments to accommodate the increased numbers of students and it wasn’t long before children became little more than a cookie cutter education system. The system began to weaken and even though the system was and thinner, the system still wasn't interested in hearing your personal philosophy of education.
In the elementary stayed with one teacher for the better part of each day but at the secondary level, moved from class to class each hour like cattle on a cattle drive. Learning systems began drop out rates increased, violence and destructive behavior began to increase and today schools are some most dangerous places to send kids.
Educational experts tried all kinds of things to fix the problem and when school-based solutions didn’t help, schools began dictating to parents how to raise their children. They began offering education; and they began forcing families to put their, so called, ADD/ADHD children on Ritalin. Not your personal philosophy of education unimportant but now your parenting philosophy was being challenged as well.
When you attended high school, did you have a mandatory reading list, like I did? Two books that I had “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “1984” by George Orwell. The first book explained of allowing a large group of same age, same gender children to be in charge of For those who have not read the book, a very negative result happens.
The second book talks about a society in which there is far too much governmental interference and control and once again the result is less than pretty. Golding and Orwell are considered to be two very important authors, but we have their advice. The personal philosophy of education of the average parent is considered to be quite irrelevant by the public education system.
Unfortunately, the system will never change for the better until parents stand up and Parents DO have standards and they need to raise the bar and demand that schools meet those standards. Parents cannot and should not be replaced as the stewards of educational wellness in a society. It too important to leave it in the control of the government and unions. The public education to be about the kids and until parents stand up and begin to fight, children will be lost in the system.
