[AURORA GOLES RELOS ] – Open388.com Ref:3838

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educational dilemma or ‘know vs. understand’

revised and updated as of Dec20, 2007 by Irina K. O.:

Have you ever thought how strangely based our education is?

Have you ever thought that we are in fact being judged by the level of our awareness or fact intelligence, rather than a completely different criterion – thinking and logic. We taught to know, not to understand in many cases.

The child who was bright enough to understand theory of relevance deeper and catch it why is it so important and useful for humanity will certainly receive a lower grade on the test lucking the awareness, for instance, that Albert Einstein was the developer or the theory.

No one bothers explaining what’s so useful and relevant about the relevance theory (both of them). No one teaches us to think deeper into things, how to examine things critically, how to filter the information by its trustworthiness, no one teaches us how to think logically !

It is generally assumed you either logical minded (mathematical or analytical they also call it) starting from year 2 when you place right shaped figure into accordingly shaped hole, or you never will be.

In our learning structure most rewarding thing is to know a facts/figures/events/formulas/theories and getting judged by same principle.While we are not ought to question each and every one of them.

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“Obey” – religion taught us for last couple of thousand years; “obey” say parents, just because it’s easier to manage child that way; “obey” say teachers, because our education is originally coming from churches and religion.
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Now think, what is the real drama behind ‘Obeying ‘ ? How much do we harm people saying: “Just follow the rules, don’t think about it..”; It’s certainly an easier may to govern and lead people to whatever you need them to do.

But at the same time, it is almost like watching television where things had been priorly approved for you to see and what’s good or bad has been determined for you. Isn’t it a little too totalitarianistic ? And aren’t we supposed to be a liberal society ?

Liberal society is mainly valued by the freedom of thought and expression. Yet they trained us for last couple of thousand years to obey the rules without questioning.

I am certainly not saying no one was questioning things, no one was questioning structures and rules before, but just look at the history and see what a small percentage of people that was. How in later years they try to grab peoples attention and make them active in terms of society and politics – but they were not taught to be so (curious and ask questions) from age of 5, nor from age of 10 or 15.

We try to encourage curiosity in people. Every single high school teacher, college teacher, university teacher says – come on guys, look deeper into it, look into the structure, are you sure you ought to believe it ? Explore ! – they say. – Think critically. Read more about it.

A good start. But the structure of education is still the same.. Curiosity is not rewarded. Critical thinking is left aside then it comes to ‘real paper with official title books’ and those students who constantly ask and question what teacher is saying to them are considered as trouble maker. And they are indeed a trouble makers in many ways, but only because they try to bring change which most people do consider as a trouble, as well as we unfortunately often look at things from a domestic point of view, not from the global. That what makes that kid a trouble maker instead of a properly acting human with rights, thoughts, questions and opinions.

We have to influence our educational system to be flexible about their judging standards. We have to educate crowd to think and to feel obligated to be involved and examine them self whether its right or wrong.

People ARE curious in the age of 2-7. What happens next ? They go to school. Where did all the curiosity go with millions of “Why” questions is not a mystery anymore I hope.

Education in early stages of life has to include the practical thinking and logic courses. It has to reward critical thinking and argumentative opinions which structures logically and make sense.

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Here’s the interesting paper from Dr. Alec Fisher from University of Cambridge called “‘Thinking Skills’ and Admission to Higher Education”

http://iraoksman.com/Dr_Alec_Fisher__Thinking_Skills_for_Admissions_to_HE.pdf

But there’s a truly a problem in that paper. And the problem is – ‘Thinking skills’ is indeed viewed as a Higher Education tool and privilege. And that’s where humanitarian problems start and end.

More on the subject to follow.