Thoughts on the educational system.

One of the things I've really struggled with is fitting into the education system and pushing past the learning stage and into being empowered to learn by my profs. A few of my profs have done so, but on the whole, I've been frustrated with PowerPoints and not being able to use creativity in exploring various ideas and theorems. Yes, I realise that my degree area is history. Yes, I realise that a lot of this has been relegated to late-term undergrad up to post-bac and beyond.

I watched the following video tonight, and it's brought me to a few thoughts on the matter. Here. You go watch it. I'll be here after you do.

Okay. You're back.

I identify with Dan Brown (the guy in the video, not the authour). I feel he makes some valid points. After high school, institutional education goes from making sure that students grasp and master the building blocks to...grasping and mastering building blocks. It's been my experience, and yes, I realise that not everyone had the opportunity to attend a college prep high school. I remember walking into my college psychology classes and finding that the book that I used in high school was the exact same text we were going to use in that class. I don't remember studying at all for that class, and I passed with flying colours. At the same time, though, I remember my biology class - and all my prof did was read off of the PowerPoint. We weren't allowed to question her, nor did she lead us into discussion, and due to similar instances in other classes, college became frustrating for me. There are times I wonder why colleges are teaching things like "Writing Papers" (NWMSU has it!) and "Using Computers" (Again, NWMSU has it - and it was obsolete when I took it nearly ten years ago!) and covering things that should have been covered in high school. The Internet has revolutionised (in a lot of ways) how we learn and gather information. Creativity gets squelched, too. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was always urged to just do the classwork, even if I found it particularly boring and even if I thought it busywork. My classes on educational theories even told me to not rely on busywork...but here I was, at the collegiate level doing, yep, you guessed it, busywork.

That being said, should the institutional educational system die? This is where I disagree with Dan Brown. University is more than classroom experience, and that experience is not only valid, but part of one's maturation process. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot teach it - it can only show others' experiences. Since life is a series of experiences, so much of that is limited if one only chooses the Internet for one's sole expression of experience. Sure, sitting in a classroom scribbling relatively similar yet random facts on lined paper (unlined, in my case!) is boring, but there are parts of that experience that can be changed. Some of the best learning I feel I got in high school and college built upon experiential learning. I did stuff. I learned. (It's part of the reason I like the SCA so much.) Yes, I wrote notes. Yes, I sat, bored to tears in lectures with two hundred people crammed into a lecture hall. Yes, I still don't think the lecture system completely works for some disciplines, BUT, this is no reason that this aspect of the institutional education needs to be completely dismantled.

The educational system has issues, and we have to figure out how to make it work. Not only do we have to make it work, but we have to find a way to better bridge the gap between high school and universities. Once we've bridged this gap, we need to figure out how to empower and charge students with not only learning, but with coming up with creative solutions and not squelching it. I'm not sure where to start this dialogue, but it needs to exist. It will take time. It might even take money. But, we can't be afraid of the learning process and making mistakes. Too much of institutional learning is not getting dirty and making mistakes - that's already done for us.

(Of course, what sort of conversation would this be if I didn't allow other people to post? As always, open to discussion.)

Thoughts on the educational system.

One of the things I've really struggled with is fitting into the education system and pushing past the learning stage and into being empowered to learn by my profs. A few of my profs have done so, but on the whole, I've been frustrated with PowerPoints and not being able to use creativity in exploring various ideas and theorems. Yes, I realise that my degree area is history. Yes, I realise that a lot of this has been relegated to late-term undergrad up to post-bac and beyond.

I watched the following video tonight, and it's brought me to a few thoughts on the matter. Here. You go watch it. I'll be here after you do.

Okay. You're back.

I identify with Dan Brown (the guy in the video, not the authour). I feel he makes some valid points. After high school, institutional education goes from making sure that students grasp and master the building blocks to...grasping and mastering building blocks. It's been my experience, and yes, I realise that not everyone had the opportunity to attend a college prep high school. I remember walking into my college psychology classes and finding that the book that I used in high school was the exact same text we were going to use in that class. I don't remember studying at all for that class, and I passed with flying colours. At the same time, though, I remember my biology class - and all my prof did was read off of the PowerPoint. We weren't allowed to question her, nor did she lead us into discussion, and due to similar instances in other classes, college became frustrating for me. There are times I wonder why colleges are teaching things like "Writing Papers" (NWMSU has it!) and "Using Computers" (Again, NWMSU has it - and it was obsolete when I took it nearly ten years ago!) and covering things that should have been covered in high school. The Internet has revolutionised (in a lot of ways) how we learn and gather information. Creativity gets squelched, too. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was always urged to just do the classwork, even if I found it particularly boring and even if I thought it busywork. My classes on educational theories even told me to not rely on busywork...but here I was, at the collegiate level doing, yep, you guessed it, busywork.

That being said, should the institutional educational system die? This is where I disagree with Dan Brown. University is more than classroom experience, and that experience is not only valid, but part of one's maturation process. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot teach it - it can only show others' experiences. Since life is a series of experiences, so much of that is limited if one only chooses the Internet for one's sole expression of experience. Sure, sitting in a classroom scribbling relatively similar yet random facts on lined paper (unlined, in my case!) is boring, but there are parts of that experience that can be changed. Some of the best learning I feel I got in high school and college built upon experiential learning. I did stuff. I learned. (It's part of the reason I like the SCA so much.) Yes, I wrote notes. Yes, I sat, bored to tears in lectures with two hundred people crammed into a lecture hall. Yes, I still don't think the lecture system completely works for some disciplines, BUT, this is no reason that this aspect of the institutional education needs to be completely dismantled.

The educational system has issues, and we have to figure out how to make it work. Not only do we have to make it work, but we have to find a way to better bridge the gap between high school and universities. Once we've bridged this gap, we need to figure out how to empower and charge students with not only learning, but with coming up with creative solutions and not squelching it. I'm not sure where to start this dialogue, but it needs to exist. It will take time. It might even take money. But, we can't be afraid of the learning process and making mistakes. Too much of institutional learning is not getting dirty and making mistakes - that's already done for us.

(Of course, what sort of conversation would this be if I didn't allow other people to post? As always, open to discussion.)