On Education – Attitudes and Effects

This week, if not before, children are returning to school, so it seems an appropriate time to talk about education.  Not just superficially or about such things as curriculum, testing, etc., but about the role and the effect that education has on society and its success or failure in that regard.  This, I suggest, all begins with the attitude that we display towards education, for that attitude has an effect on the respect and value that we accord to education.

Coincidentally, while we were celebrating Labor Day on Sept. 2 this year, all the children all across Russia were returning to school on what is there called “The Day of Knowledge.”  The children all show up in what we once would have referred to as their “Sunday best.”  Elementary children are wearing “party dresses” and little suits.  The girls have their hair in pigtails or similar, tied with ribbons and decorated with flowers.  And every child has a bouquet of flowers for the teacher

 

After the opening ceremonies the children sit at their desks, focused on the teacher and ready to learn.

 День знаний [Day of Knowledge], Russia

Now, I don’t want to get into a discussion of what these children might or might not be learning at their Russian schools.  What I do want to suggest is that this making the first day of school a national event and a celebration reflects a respect, appreciation, and a valuing of education. 

Is this all superficial?  Yes, perhaps, but superficialities often reflect what is also below the surface.  

In his column on parenting today, John Rosemond states that “the most important thing parents should teach [during children’s preschool years] is proper manners" which he notes are “the sorts of fundamental courtesies that form the backbone of civilized social behavior.” (CITE)

Why is this important?  Because if our children don’t understand how to respect their teachers and their fellow students, if they don’t know how to listen without interrupting, if they don’t value the fact that their teacher and their school experience is providing them with valuable lessons in both academics and life, then they are not going to learn.

Here is a picture of American students arriving for the first day of school in Minneapolis last year (photo credit: Elisabeth Flores – Minneapolis Star Tribune).   It is typical of first days of school across America.  These students also look eager, but one wonders how actually prepared they are to learn.  Greeted by the superintendent, beyond that indication that this is a very special and exciting day, a day that begins an exciting journey of learning, what other signals do these children get that learning is important and worthy of respect?

Rosemond, in his column, also notes that since the 1960s, parenting has become all about having a good relationship with one’s children.  That is, in essence, parents and parent figures want to be the kid’s friend.  Rosemond notes that “as a result, parental leadership…has gone by the wayside.”  I would add that respect, too, has gone.  Children come to school with no sense of respecting authority figures, of taking and carrying out reasonable orders from those figures, even if they are not something that the child wants to do or finds entertaining or fun. 

How does that happen?  After all, don’t we repeatedly tell children “school is important”?  Perhaps.  But it is much more likely that children see how important it really is based upon our actions.  And many of those actions are reflected in the superficial as well as in the more general approach that we may have to the structures of society.

Because many parents are more concerned with being their child’s friend and in agreeing with the child that he or she is never wrong,  they do not support their children’s teachers but instead will argue whenever the teacher tells the student he or she is wrong or demands work which the child is not inclined to do.  Moreover, some parents have a way of demonstrating that school is something that gets in the way of their lives; their trip to the beach or to Disney Land may be more important so that they pull their children from school for the vacation.  Such action must certainly signal that school is not really that important.

Dress is indeed superficial, but it is also a statement.  When teachers show up dressed in T-shirts or similar ultra-casual dress, it does not reflect a respect for learning.  Perhaps they feel that allows them to "relate" with their students, but a truly good teacher will teach the students and be respected by them whether or not he or she “relates” or is their good friend.  And, while I don’t expect students to come to school in their “Sunday best” I do think that they can dress in a professionally casual way that reflects some respect for school and learning, a way that reflects that they recognize school and the learning therein as something special.

When I was in (public school) ninth grade my Latin teacher repeatedly reminded us that we, as human beings, had a “thirst for knowledge” that was unquenchable. .  It is that thirst for knowledge in and of itself that gives us a true joy in learning.  I believe that to be true, but I also believe that young students must be shown that thirst and encouraged to experience it and its resultant joy in pure learning; as students grow that thirst must not be extinguished or replaced with some sort of quest for prestige or power or financial gain.

While those goals can also be a part of someone’s life, if the quest for knowledge is extinguished, one will lose the joy of learning simply for the sake of learning.  And, if that interest in simply learning is extinguished, then how will students ever be able to openly, objectively, and fully listen to not only their teachers but their peers.  And if we cannot listen to one another then how can we ever solve the many problems that every society, culture, and generation faces.

The simple passion for learning used to be found by many in the liberal arts.  Reading, discussing, and simply enjoying ideas for their own sake.  But, now, political correctness has told us that many of the reading material that used to be among the foundations of a liberal education are no longer appropriate for one reason or another.   And, rather than ideas being exciting in and of themselves, many students are led one way or another to see education as simply some pathway to some sort of material gain. 

We tell students they should go to college, not because they can enter an academy of learning that will satisfy that thirst for knowledge for its own sake, but because it will get them a job.  A job with which they will be able to purchase a vast array of material goods.  And so, “The liberal arts university is becoming the corporate university, its center of gravity shifting to technical fields where scholarly expertise can be parlayed into lucrative business opportunities.”( William Deresiewicz CITE )

Education is a crucial part of our lives.  It teaches us about our society, its history and its rules and how we are expected to behave within it.  It teaches us about the arts, their history and how we can create our own art.   It teaches us to understand ourselves and others, especially those who are not like us.   It teaches us about the many STEM subjects with which we can create new innovations and it teaches us philosophy and critical thinking so that we can evaluate those innovations and their potential effects upon us and our society and the world.  It teaches us to write so that we can effectively communicate our thoughts and, most importantly, it teaches us to think.  Simply to think, deeply and creatively, and with joy.

Education and educators should never forget this.  But, for students to accept this teaching, they must come to that education with an open mind and with respect for learning and for knowledge itself.  And if those around them do not care, show little respect for education, then why would we expect the children to sense that education is something to be respected or to value?

I watch school districts throw money at their schools because “the children are not learning or not succeeding.”  But money will not change a basic attitude, the attitude of respect for and valuing of education, that is a key ingredient necessary for schools to successfully perform their necessary functions.  Attitude begins at home and with the little things that we do that demonstrate how we feel about education and schools and teachers and learning itself.  Perhaps we could begin by simply celebrating knowledge.