Education Manifesto

School, it consumes our life. Some would even say that school is their life and for most people this statement proves to be true, for 12-16 years of their life. There are 365 days in a year and about 270 of those days are spent in school, with 7-8 hours per day in the classroom not including the amount of time spent outside of class on homework.  Our lives quickly begin to revolve around school; for 12-16 years our thoughts consist of grades, homework, projects, and tests. With all of this time spent in school that must mean that society sees it as an importance for each individual’s life. Although the age old question still remains, “what is the purpose of education? What is the expected outcome?” I believe that the purpose of education should be for individuals to learn how to become critical thinkers, having their own views and opinions. This means that they should have freedom in their thoughts. Through critical thinking they will be able to find meaning and value in their education.  

            As a college student I believe that my vision for education is more applicable. In the earlier years of schooling sometimes it’s frowned upon if an individual has an entirely different opinion then the majority. In my current education experience I believe that my vision is seen as a good thing. Students are asked to think more critically. It isn’t enough that one knows the answer to a question but to go deeper, being asked the question why. Students shouldn’t be afraid to challenge themselves in their thinking. I’ve discovered that being asked the question why is a scary thing because many times the answering the question why takes a lot of critical thinking and having evidence to back up my case.  

The professors that I have encountered I think have done a fine job at allowing their students to think critically. They do not simply want students to regurgitate what they have told them but for students to form their own views and opinions with evidence provided in a way that makes sense. I would challenge the professors that dislike when student’s views differ from their own to allow their students to think critically. Each individual comes from a different background and has had different experiences in their life that make them who they are today.  When we think critically we can learn from one another.  In my future assignments I will continue to express my views even though they may differ from the professors or the majority. Critical thinking is a hard task to achieve; sometimes expressing our view and opinions is a scary thing to do because we don’t want to be the odd one out. Students at Trinity Christian College should feel comfortable being able to think critically and express their views. Professors on the other hand should allow for student to think critically and engage in open dialogue. After the remaining years of my college career I hope to graduate as an individual with my own views and opinions that have come about from critical thinking.

When I become an Elementary teacher, I hope to instil my vision for education in my students.  Instead of merely knowing information I want them to think critically about the information they learn. I will ask them the question “why?” In the classroom that I observed this semester (Fall 2013) my cooperating teacher did a good job of pushing her students thinking; she wanted to make sure they had a clear understanding of what they were learning.  Asking them the question “why?” leads them to thinking more critically. This critical thinking from an early age will translate into their adult life. I want students to not just know information and be able to regurgitate it back but to know why they believe something. I also want them to think beyond the surface; ask deeper questions. There is no better place to question and discover than school. A teacher shouldn’t just say because I said so but encourage a student to find out for themselves.

Philosopher John Dewey author of Democracy and Education was an advocate for connecting what is learned in school with real-life experiences having meaning and value in their lives.  In chapter 1 Dewey says that the danger of formal education is that the subject matters of school would be isolated from the subject matter of life-experiences. “There is the standing danger that the material of formal instruction will be merely the subject matter of the schools, isolated from the subject matter of life-experience. Thus we reach the ordinary notion of education: the notion which ignores its social necessity and its identity with all human association that affects conscious life, and which identifies it with imparting information about remote matters (chapter 1, pg. 9.”  When the tests are finished and the class is passed, how has that information transferred into our lives? That is the question we should be asking; Dewey raises a very good point when it comes to finding meaning in what students are learning. When students are pushed to think critically the information they learn gains meaning and value for them.  Students should be exposed to many different views and opinions but have the freedom to come to their own conclusion.

            Author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire emphasized the importance of students as individuals with minds and thoughts of their own. One teaching method that he believes is used in schools today is the banking model education system. The banking method refers to students as the depositories and teachers as the depositors. Teachers provide students with information that they receive, memorize, and repeat. He believes that because of this method humans are not able to grow in their understanding and knowledge of the world because he believes that humans aren’t give room for free thought which allows for change in the society. He believes that we should be using the problem-posing model where everyone is a student; teachers have no authority over students but learn from them. Through this system the class is run in a dialogue manner; everyone contributes their thoughts with no right answer. I don’t believe that students should hold equal authority with the teacher but I do believe that they should have the freedom to express their views. “It is not our role to speak to the people about our own view of the world, nor to attempt to impose that view on them, but rather to dialogue with the people about their view and ours (Freire, pg. 77).” Students should be able to have freedom of thought in school without having views that are imposed on them.

            Freire has the theory of the “dialogicity” of education, it is understood as education as a practice of freedom. He believes that education should be like a dialogue. A classroom should be run in a dialogue sort of way where one person doesn’t exceed in power over another. He breaks down the word “dialogue” into two different dimensions it is reflection and action. Human existence must work in a way that each person is dialoguing with one another in order to have changed; one person can’t impose all of their knowledge onto another person(s). The dialogicity theory brings us back to Friere’s idea that one person shouldn’t be superior to another even in a classroom. There is no distinction between teacher and student but both are learners.  He has these same ideas in chapter three. He illustrates this through a quote found on page 74, “Authentic education is not carried on by “A” for “B” or by “A” about “B,” but rather by “A” with “B” mediated by the world-a world which impresses and challenges both parties, giving rise to views or opinions about it.” In an actual classroom this would work by a teacher giving his/her view on something and allowing the classes to dialogue on the topic with no one correct answer. He believes that it’s important that individuals become masters of their own thinking and discussing with others their views.  He would want a classroom to be more of an open forum set up. When a teacher is not imposing all of their views on the students this allows them to think critically for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

            A reading in this course that I believe does not support my vision of education is the book Between Memory and Vision written by Steven Vryhof. In this book Vryhof made a case for the importance for faith based schools in establishing a functional community,  “a community that enjoys value consistency, a shared understanding of what the world is about, what is important, and how the group should live, and intergenerational closure, the adult-child relationships and the opportunities to activate them (Vryhof, pg 4).” This is where I disagree with Vryhof when it comes to the reasoning for faith based schools. Faith based schools from an early age imposes views on the child as to where they become sheltered from other views outside of the community. School should be a place where students are exposed to different views and opinions than their own; parents should reinforce to their child what they believe but it is then up to the child to come to their own conclusion. In my own educational experience I attended a public school and was exposed to different religions and views on many different topics, having these experiences only strengthened my faith. It also allowed me to be a light to those in my school, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house (Matt. 5:14).”  A functional community is that light under a bowl; we shouldn’t hide and shelter ourselves away from the rest of the world but spread the light of Jesus Christ everywhere, even in our public schools. In my vision for education I believe that school is a place where it is ok for individuals to have different views and opinions then their teachers and classmates. This allows them to think more critically about what they believe and why as well as being introduced to other beliefs.  When an individual is raised in a Christian school from elementary to high school they are not always given the chance to be introduced to other views and opinions because they were so sheltered by their community that shared the same views. When they are then released from the care of that community they then figure out if what they were sheltered into was a faith that was real for them or just real for their parents. The public school allows for students to express their views and opinions more openly and in a place where their presence has the ability to bring about change. The Great Commission calls Christians to spread the gospel, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).” The decision to attend a Christian college was one that I decided on my own accord.  My parents, friends; and family had no say in the decision. Through my time at a public school I was able to develop my own views and beliefs in an unbiased atmosphere.

            Much of our lives are spent in school; about 12-16 years, 270 days a year, 5 days a week, and 7-8 hours a day. When graduation day comes and all that a student has gained is a mind full of facts then the education system is flawed. Student should be critical thinkers by time they graduate. That knowledge that they have gained should allow them to develop their own views and opinions of the world in which we live not imposed on them by others.