The Malevolence of Current Education

I was reading a comment in response to an article I had written entitled “Cultivating Willingness in Teachers”. The author of the comment stated that the basic structure of schools as we know them today is malevolent by design. ie. it is intended to get something out of children rather then to give something to them. The author went on to assert that this makes it impossible for teachers working in schools to have a benevolent Intent.

Sadly for our children, the first part of the comment is fundamentally accurate. The basic school structure we take for granted today originated in Germany in the 1850’s in institutions known as “gymnasiums”. This was the first attempt at mass education and its purpose was to create administrators for the growing colonial empires of the 19th century. These schools were not intended to grow, empower, or unleash human potential. The curriculum was, and is, designed accordingly. That is, not be a life enhancing experience but to prepare children for the job market.

No two children are alike in terms of ability or maturity. Schools today are divided into classes or grade levels. The children put in those classes share only one thing in common: their date of birth happens to fall within two points on the calendar.

To actually “teach” a child a teacher must first asses his/her skill level, ability level, maturity level and then choose the portion of “curriculum” the child is ready for. A good teacher is expected to design a lesson that fits that child, much as a doctor prescribes medicine based on his diagnosis of the patient’s condition.

A teacher dealing with large classrooms of chronologically grouped children then has no choice. She teaches to the middle of the group and the “bright” children get bored and create mischief while the “weak” ones flounder. At the end of the year she is then expected to sit in judgement and decide which child is to be rewarded and which one punished by giving them A’s, Bs’…. and F’s or by using some other arbitrary scale.

Our failed school system reflects this reality. Then why does the system continue? Two simple reasons: economics and parental expectations. Obviously teachers’ salaries are the largest part of the cost of education. So if you have one teacher teach the same thing to a large group of children you cut down the cost, much like a mass production factory. One worker stamping the same mould on a conveyor belt as it goes by. Secondly, parents send their children to school, not to fulfill their human potential but gain them entry to a college or university whose degree will “secure” their future.

The miraculous thing is some individuals do escape the drudgery of the system and become real teachers. They play the game and teach the curriculum. They assign grades. But somehow in spite of that, they let children know that they are there for them, that they genuinely care for them. The miraculous power of this healing Intent still saves children. I have seen children who ‘failed’, or have done miserably all their lives, become “good” students because of the intervention of one teacher. I have seen children whose sense of self had been crushed by the system, become leaders because one teacher cared and reached out to them. Such is the power of benevolent Intent.

Schools then also should be judged not on the “curriculum” they offer, or the grades their students produce, but rather on the basis of cultivating and growing teachers who are there to serve their students within the existing structure. If a school is able to have a critical mass of such individuals, the culture, feeling and tone of the school reflects Care & Growth where children flourish in spite of, and not because of, the existing structure.