The Ideal Education

Welcome to my first blog post! As you know this blog is meant to provide a high school student’s perspective on technology and society, and for today’s post, I was inspired to discuss a more social subject: Education. More precisely I wanted to offer my view of an ideal education at school. Of course, the concept of a “good education” varies, but I’m certain most of us can agree that there is at least one flaw with the current school system.

Plato describes that education serves as a tool to achieve justice, so doesn’t that indicate that the ideal education should be fair to the students. Not just fair... but it should also be free. Free in the sense that students are treated like people, as my history teacher described it. Students should be able to think for themselves and form their own opinions on a subject. Furthermore, schools should function to provide the necessary tools for students to understand concepts, not control their thought processes. Thus, The ideal education would provide students with the fundamentals, just enough knowledge so that students are aware of what they want to pursue while maintaining their freedom of thought.

Let's look at the current education system at most schools: most of these schools seem to mimic Paulo Freire’s “Banking Concept of Education.” Freire stated that in this system the teacher’s job is to “fill” students up with “content of his narration.” Basically, students have to learn what the teacher chooses, which is a restriction of choice and thought. So, am I saying that you shouldn’t listen to your teachers? Well... sort of. What’s the point of learning if you’re just a sponge soaking in content you don’t want to? It isn’t productive learning; in fact, it just compels students to hate school. In the ideal education system, the students aren’t sponges, but freethinkers: people who can simultaneously teach and learn. Freire describes this as the “Problem-posing method.”

In this method of teaching, the primary purpose is “liberation” and critical thinking. The students discover the answer on their own through collaboration with the teacher. The student-teacher and teacher-student relationship doesn’t exist. Both are just people, who alternate between the role of teacher and student, both learn something new in their education. In addition, the topic chosen is agreed upon by both the teacher and the student. Imagine that–the student and the teacher enjoying learning.

So, now the question becomes: How do you implement such a system of education? Frankly, I don’t have an answer. If we look at Eastern school systems, students learn and study in a rigid and stressful environment. So, many Eastern students who come to the West are intrigued by the greater freedom of expression, thought, and learning. However, one may also argue that students in the East become more “intelligent” than those in the West. There’s always a trade off. While my vision of an ideal education is a freer system of thought, there are many flaws and exceptions to this system as well.

Therefore, there is no such thing as an ideal system of education; the system I described is what I believe will work for most people. Everyone’s different, that’s the cool thing about people, so the way they are taught is also different. That’s why I don’t believe there is such a thing as “universal education.” With that, thank you for reading Limitless! I know many will disagree with what I have to say, but I’m here to offer a new perspective.