As the summer ended and the school year began, one of the things I was thinking about was NOT why we (as a collective of people) attend school. It was not a curiosity that I developed on my own – but rather something a number of people brought to my attention. It is however a question I find myself believing to be increasingly as important. After all, being that I am a teacher, I really should know why I teach.
When I ask, “why do I teach,” I do not mean why did I decide to become a teacher over an engineer. I also do not mean “why do I enjoy the work that I do”. My question is directed at the wonder of what greater purpose does education have. Much of what we learn we never actively use, and many more things we forget. Does a requirement to learn benefit the individual so much to require it of everyone? Am I only teaching to improve the lives of the individuals who gain something concrete from my classes and use it?
My first reaction to this is a belief I have held since I switched majors in college (it actually took some convincing after that switch to mathematics but I am now convinced). My academic love is mathematics. It’s a series of patterns and relationships that can describe so much of the world around us. I find that the more I explore, the more patterns I find. The more I find, the more questions arise. But in school why is math so important? Lots of reasons! We use mathematics every day in mundane tasks such as “do I really want to pay this much for something”. Some jobs need it more than others – see engineers and architects – but artists use ratios and fractions and writers often need to speak on statistics. So perhaps we learn mathematics (as a sample of schooling) to prepare us for specific professions that we will engage in.
This is not fully what I became convinced of in college (and I will continue to use mathematics as my example but I believe it holds true for other subjects as well). What I came to believe is that math is not about recognizing angles, or solving for x. Mathematics is about solving problems. When looking at algebra and solving for x, you are not taught the single correct and perfect way to find it. Order of operations doesn't make every question the same. Rather, we as individuals develop tools, techniques and methods to approach problems that might look quite different than what we’re used to. Sure, the ability to work with numbers, or have a larger vocabulary, or know when different wars took place are necessary at times, but facts from all subjects are recorded and can be looked up. But you can't gain the skills of doing by only looking up facts.
So perhaps we learn and we teach to provide students (be those students kids or adults) with more tools with which they can use to approach the world. But to what end? Many of us see school as a stepping stone to college, or grad school, or a job. Yet, as a high school teacher I cannot convince myself that I am here solely to get my students to college. A few weeks ago the following clip from the movie Good Will Hunting was brought to my attention:
Good Will Hunting - Bar Scene
This raises a number of questions about what education is. Is it a string of facts – something that anyone with good retention and reading skills can pick up out of a book in a library? Or is education measured by a degree and a rank that we can flaunt to others until we're hired. Both of these concepts have merit, but I feel that the purpose of education cannot be either. Facts with no relationships to the world are abstract and useless. A degree with no knowledge leads to dysfunctional programs and companies. So ideally we seek a hybrid of the two. Yes, I do want all my students to go to college and get a degree. Not because the degree is so important but rather because societies have moved to a place where many jobs will demand proof that an individual has attained a minimum level of skills and information. By contrast, so long as the degree does require a show of both skill and knowledge, than it is not a hollow gesture.
But education cannot just be something you're told. It cannot always be something you're shown. Many times, education is something experienced. I will once again refer to Good Will Hunting:
Good Will Hunting - Park Scene
This brings an interesting twist to the education game. The man who brought this to my attention asked “How often have you been told – ‘You'll understand when you're older’.” I know I have. And I don't know if I'd take away from this movie clip as much as I would have had I not recently had a moment when I did understand. It was a strange experience, and about something I never knew I didn't understand. However, I could stand where I was in life and look back to a slew of mistakes and tell my past self “If only you knew what you know now.” Education is never completed, no matter how much schooling an individual has. In fact, the true joy of education is when you find a subject of interest that actually inspires you to keep searching for knowledge. As long as a person keeps observing, a person will keep learning – and many of the things you learn through experience are things that you could never be taught.
So, how does all of this relate back to school? Where do teachers fall into the mix? The students? Why don't we just send our kids to the library to learn facts, and then to travel to grow wiser? If they work they'll achieve skills. What is it that makes school different? This answer (and I don’t presume that is is THE answer, but I believe it to be AN answer) came to me through a final video I found just before school started this year. It’s an “Open Letter to Students Returning to School” by John Green in which he addresses the merits of compulsory education – that is, why do we all at some point attend school:
John Green - An Open Letter to Students Returning to School
He rambles for a little bit (which I enjoy) and uses the Mars Curiosity Rover Mission as a catalyst for his ideas (also awesome) but I find what he says at the end to be most important. Education is not about the individual. Yes, we as a society need educated individuals, but very few jobs now are independent. In the professional world there is a tremendous amount of collaboration and we cannot rely solely on our own bank of information. We need each other to succeed and advance, and we need to help all people be as educated as possible. Yes, it will help benefit their lives, but it will also help benefit our own and everybody's. Education is about improving society.
Many of these views were new to me when brought to my attention. I had never really thought much on why education exists, though I (at least recently) have believed in its importance. I look back at these and see reasons and merits all over. Yes a degree is important, but education is so much more than that. And no matter how much school we take, we will continue learning until the day we die (even for those of us who’s grand plan is to just keep going…). But if the question is “Why is learning important?”, then perhaps it really is as simple as making the world a better place – and who doesn't want that?
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