On Education or Why I care so much...

Quite recently, a friend pointed out to me that for a person studying education management I sure have a very negative attitude towards institutions and institutionalised learning. Well, I can see his point, however that is exactly the reason why I chose to study education.

It took me a long time to decide what I would like to study... There was a moment when I considered delaying going to university in favour of 'the school of life experience' (to the utmost horror of my parents as they considered it major waste of my faculties and a very unwise decision)... It seemed natural to me... It wasn't because I thought I couldn't handle university... to the contrary, I loved and still love learning and I am thirsty for information like an alcoholic is for liquor. The problem was that up till that moment, the only thing school almost managed to do was to put me off studying... I felt I was suffocating not growing. Most of my learning I did during high school years was from my own initiative, more often than not done outside of school. I am not saying it was all terrible... I am just saying that as whole it was... nothing. Nothing is worse than terrible... there was no challenge, there was no love, no passion, no curiosity in teachers or students (I am not throwing everybody on the same pile... of course not everybody was like that, I am just trying to make a point by depicting general situation I found myself in at the time)... the system in place did not create opportunities for any of those things. On one hand, I am not blaming us because the system is strict and hard to work in... on the other hand... it is US who create the system. There is no 'them'. But then everybody knows how to exert blame all over the place, a skill widely used all over the world yet the least useful one in history of human civilisation. I am a pacifist, but every time someone is blaming someone or something or, even worse, constantly complaining without taking action, I have a powerful urge to punch them in the face.

Anyway, back to the point. My parents' and pretty much everyone else's little obsession with having a degree got me thinking. I completely understand their concern and see their point. In the current societal structure which has been increasingly label-oriented, it is easier to have a hold of some of those labels because they can get you places. They want me to be equipped for life. On the other hand, I see that most of the time, people don't pay much attention to whether you actually are/know those things... not really... but you just must have them... that is a little bit screwed up, don't you think? We are more likely to trust a piece of paper that states how skilled or smart we are rather than trusting ourselves... We don't feel like we have achieved something unless we get that validation from the outside. Sometimes, I still catch myself doing it, but I am working on it... I feel I got pretty good at it comparing how I used to be, hungry for recognition of others... until I realised that it is so much harder to earn my own recognition... I am one tough judge! :-D

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being rewarded for effort. Nevertheless, there are many ways in which these outside rewards can be misused... and many ways in which they can help us lie to ourselves. They can, very easily, create a false feeling of achievement... especially if we achieve something we don't really care about. Because we have a feeling we achieved something, we don't feel such a powerful need to go... to do more of something that would be important to us but we were a little afraid to do because it wasn't something... usual.

So, in my last year of high school, I weighted my options and  at last, I decided that higher education will be good for me.... One needs to know the system in order to defy it. Plus, I spared my parents some premature, stress-caused gray hair... I was much less opposed to the idea of a university abroad far away from the feeble ghost of learning environment created by Slovak Education System. Studying abroad gave me a great excuse to do what I wanted to do anyway... travel... explore... observe... and it gave me opportunity to broaden my horizons about how learning happens in a different culture. I was considering studying everything from philosophy, psychology, literature, cultural studies, languages... and, yes, I stuck with languages because I thought through language I can reach it all: people; culture; literature; philosophy of living and being; and the psychology behind people's decisions, ideas, thoughts and actions... From that it was easy to admit to myself that I deeply care about education... I love to learn but I love to see other people learn, I love to teach... I love seeing other people craving, loving learning! So, I leaped happily into postgraduate study...

To be clear, by learning and education I don't mean to have your nose stuck in books day and night (though I do enjoy doing that time to time)... that is only a very small part of learning... learning happens all the time, continually from the day we are born till the day we die. Like love, it comes in all forms, shapes and sizes (I am aware that is a very cheesy line, but a true one nevertheless).

We forget that culture... society is a live organism, constantly changing because our lives are, perhaps, not long enough to realise how flexible the world is... Society picks the kind of knowledge and learning it considers important... Society and culture are fluid, ergo, what is important is not set in stone, as it often seems. It changes with each and every thought and ideology that come to light and start shaping the world around us. Human beings are complex, amazing and capable of breathtaking things... we just sort of forgot to trust ourselves...

What I have in mind is education that will educate the whole person... not only one tiny part of us. Also, I am not advocating some kind of anarchist approach... Guidance is good. I am talking about a system that will create and independent, full person who does not need the system to continue creating, to continue learning any more... a person who trust him/herself enough to step where no one stepped before without worrying about diplomas and labels... I am talking about education that will not discriminate knowledge a system that sees more than your multiple-choice test score.

Just because here and now there is a certain type of agenda, an ideal of perfect life, perfect type of achievement, the 'good kind' of learning and living, that does not mean it is correct... nor it means it's incorrect... It is a very strongly advertised option. That is all... just an option. That 'best option', the ideal was different 10 years ago, 100 years or 234 years ago... pick your date... it will be different few years from now, too. It's different in UK, different in China, different Africa... But this is not what we learn, is it?  

Schools in many countries, especially in Slovakia (maybe not especially in Slovakia, but it's my country, so I care a little bit too much... that's pretty much why I can't live there, I would go mad), kill curiosity, kill the will to learn something for its own sake... in students as well as teachers... no wonder people are pessimistic... if I wouldn't be a little crazy (most people call it crazy I think I am just stubborn with love and lust for sophisticated rebellion) I would also be a pessimist... OK probably not... but you know what I mean. If schooling sucks the life out of you, I suspect there must be problem somewhere... 

Life is amazing... Moreover, life is education, life is learning...  they are not two separate entities. I might be naive but I don't care, I have a faith in humanity as well as in myself. Plus, history has proven, over and over again that a kind of naivety (the kind that seems out of touch with constructed rules of reality) always comes with the best ideas, mainly because it has no concept of the impossible.

Whatever I can imagine, I can do... I believe that everyone else can do that, too.