After writing a slightly longer entry waiting for the plane in Wellington yesterday, this morning should be a little different. It is 07:45 and its a bright sunny morning and I am at bus stop number 1025 on Dominion Road awaiting the number 25 to take me to Queen Street and my first day of work for this Churchill Fellowship.
The bus service is great and so here I am, on the way to work, Mr Urban Commuter. I dont really know what to expect, but this is the first part of the “meat” of my research work.
A few questions are crossing my mind, I should be focussing on Te Kura, honing my questions but I dont have the discipline and random questions and musings about education are exercising my thoughts instead.
What is the point of education? Why do we educate kids? how effective is the education they receive? are we quantifying it properly? do we want to quantify it? I really don’t have explicit answers to these questions.
You are reading this, (and thank you for that by the way) so my question is; “are you a teacher?” If your answer to this is “yes,” no doubt you are familiar with the question “when will I ever need Algebra/Shakespeare/the Periodic table” or whatever else we deliver to the reluctant minds of our young charges. Normally we as teachers respond with a vague answer outlining the cruelty of the harsh world outside the classroom walls where, like a talisman against the evil eye, only an ability to apply the cosine rule to find the angle in a scalene triangle will ward off economic disaster and political oppression. If you are not a teacher, then you probably will think…”hey I have worked as a nurse for 30 years and have never ever needed an in depth understanding of the Metternich plan in the Accident and Emergency unit nor has it cropped up in my social life”.
OK we agree education is to prepare young people for adulthood, probably we agree that elements of numeracy, verbal and non verbal communication, literacy, an appreciation of other cultures a challenge to family held prejudices re gender, race, religion etc are important, but what should we teach? how should we teach it? How can we prepare people for adulthood, what are the skills and competences needed to successfully navigate adulthood. Is a competitive exam system where you are judged by how much higher your grade is compared to others is the best way to do it.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS ALERT. I wont apologise for this, as I believe political correctness tends to mean someone is asking questions which challenge perceived wisdoms or undermine the status quo by demanding respect. By having a rigid exam based hierarchical assessment system, then by definition, for every success at school, there is a failure. We have a school system that trains and nurtures kids to be failures, where the goal of a competitive exam system is to generate a situation where 50% of the population will fail. It ignores multiple intelligences it demands that only those who buy into the system can be regarded as successful, it creates docility and crushes creativity. I believe our current education system not only fails to meet the expectations of the 21st Century but by virtue of the system actually sabotages the creation of a skill set which our society needs.
Do I have answers to this? is there a better way to educate kids rather that the current system? Should schools be more an arm of social services? how do we reach out to the disaffected, What skills do we need to develop? I don’t know the answers to these, that is why I am doing this research. But I do know that in our pockets most of us carry a phone which can answer almost every question we ever need to know in our lives. If by some chance in this wide cruel hostile world outside the classroom, the need arises for me toI solve a trig question needing the cosine rule, I know I can type into google “cosine rule” “sides 5cm 10 cm 14 cm” + angle A I can get the answer…..in fact I have just tried it and came up with https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/geometry-plane/triangle-law-of-cosines.php
Of course I don’t have an answer to this, that is why I am doing this research. We can agree that Education’s function is to prepare young people for adulthood, hopefully this will start to answer my questions…..or at least start a discussion.
Well bus is arriving, and now I am off to Vincent street fr my first meeting. Will write this up later. Wish me luck reader
A Churchill Fellow Down Under 
Good luck
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