The Essence of Education
1. Write an essay on “The Essence of Education”. (1000-2000 words)
I cannot write this essay without reference to study of my own experienced and my daughter’s- placed in the harsh environment of the government schooling system and its observations of the stark belief systems of “the child to fit the system” and not “the system to fit the child” with reference to the what education should be about. This means different things to different people. To some this means a teacher teaching and passive learning taking place, the outcome is expected at the end of each year that each child has to achieve the same outcome and is graded accordingly.
The only problem with this is the removal of freedom and time constraints and a passive role for the child. Their inner spirit quashed, the overcrowded classrooms, noisy and harsh, a teacher that needs to get through a curriculum at the expense of the child. Many children simply will not prosper in this unkind environment where they sit for too long at a desk, have no say in activities and many times the harshness of the actual voice of the teacher is too much for the sensitivity of the child. Such over stimulation in the classroom environments are negative and have created new dysfunctions blamed on the child where the blame clearly lies in the environment the child is placed in. ADD, ADHD have become household names even in prominent private schools. Occupational therapy and educational psychologists are an economic spin off of these ills. Parents guided by fear that unless the child has all these expensive sessions and observations, lead to years of therapy that is expensive and does not achieve much unless the child is removed from the harshness of the environment. Ritalin is often prescribed to placate children to make the teachers life more bearable. But the stark reality is that there has been no respect shown for the child as an individual human being.
These children are often normal with no deficits, but require a
I cannot write this essay without reference to study of my own experienced and my daughter’s- placed in the harsh environment of the government schooling system and its observations of the stark belief systems of “the child to fit the system” and not “the system to fit the child” with reference to the what education should be about. This means different things to different people. To some this means a teacher teaching and passive learning taking place, the outcome is expected at the end of each year that each child has to achieve the same outcome and is graded accordingly.
The only problem with this is the removal of freedom and time constraints and a passive role for the child. Their inner spirit quashed, the overcrowded classrooms, noisy and harsh, a teacher that needs to get through a curriculum at the expense of the child. Many children simply will not prosper in this unkind environment where they sit for too long at a desk, have no say in activities and many times the harshness of the actual voice of the teacher is too much for the sensitivity of the child. Such over stimulation in the classroom environments are negative and have created new dysfunctions blamed on the child where the blame clearly lies in the environment the child is placed in. ADD, ADHD have become household names even in prominent private schools. Occupational therapy and educational psychologists are an economic spin off of these ills. Parents guided by fear that unless the child has all these expensive sessions and observations, lead to years of therapy that is expensive and does not achieve much unless the child is removed from the harshness of the environment. Ritalin is often prescribed to placate children to make the teachers life more bearable. But the stark reality is that there has been no respect shown for the child as an individual human being.
These children are often normal with no deficits, but require a