Monday, August 27, 2012

#3; "Education Assembly Line"

“It’s not possible. Street Kids are incapable of learning to read and write, so why are we spending time on this?” This is a line from the video “Changing Education Paradigms” by RA animates that I find intriguing.  Why?  It’s the line that helps me understand why education is what it is today and the beginning of the lack of empathy in our school systems.  This lack of Empathy is addressed in the RA animates videos, “Changing Education Paradigms” and “21st Century Enlightenment” and the Wikipedia article “Age of Enlightenment.”
The Age of Enlightenment was the turning point for education.  It was the point in time when instead of looking at religion as our sole means of education we began to look at science.  It's also the point in time when education wasn’t reserved for the children of the wealthy, taxes would be set forth for education.   Was it supported by everyone?  Of course not, some of the wealthy felt as it was a waste of time for us to help the “street” kids learn.  Empathy was lacking at the beginning of education and is still lacking in our school systems today.
Webster’s dictionary defines Empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”  Basically it’s being able to share one’s experiences and emotions without being in their shoes.  Do the teachers have empathy for the child who is good in math but struggling in reading? Do they take the time to evaluate why the child is struggling or do they continue on with their daily routine?  Unfortunately, like the video “Changing Education Paradigms” points out, our schools systems still run like they did during the industrial age, putting children in groups by age and herding them to subject after subject.  There isn’t a separation and it’s Darwin-Survival of the fittest at its best, the weak will fall off the radar and the strong will become “teacher’s favorites.” 
I love the line in the video “21st Century Enlightenment that states “It has become cliché that Education is the most valuable resource in global knowledge economy.  I would argue that fostering empathetic capacity is just as important to achieving a world of citizens at peace with each other and themselves.”  I agree completely and feel that our children grow up in a world and go to school to learn everything but how to be empathetic.  I feel as though our school system focuses more how much knowledge they can cram into our heads and leaves out the important issues on how to actually care about another individuals.  Should children learn this at home? Yes but is that enough?  No!  To me Empathy should be emphasized just as much as getting a college degree because no matter what your degree you hold if you can’t put yourself in other’s shoes, you’re not going to get very far. 
I’m a nurse currently working on to further my career from LPN to RN.  I graduated from my nursing program with a 3.7 GPA, top in my class.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, because I was one of the kids that fell of the radar when I was younger.  I graduated high school with a 2.3 and didn’t care to go to college directly out of school.  I felt I wasn’t worthy of an education and why make my parents pay for something I wouldn’t be good at.  What changed in me?  A little girl needed her mom to be something more.  Can the weak become strong again?  Yes but why make our children struggle.  We shouldn’t and I feel that the Age of Enlightenment started something great by making education available. But I ask you this has education become nothing more than an assembly line where the children that able to fit into the mold called our school system are shipped off to college and the rest are shoved to the back questioning if they are meant to be anything more than expendable “mistakes”?

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