Teaching the world: Should experts impose teaching methods they consider superior or should local methods be honored?

Impose

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by Mysriannah

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If we think for just one minute and allow History to be our guide in deciding one way or another just who shall teach our children and how we will see some very profound lessons we should have learned by now to see the answer clearly without hesitation. For example; in Australia we have seen the destruction of an entire race of people through British Colonization with regard to Aboriginal Australians, or indigenous peoples belonging by nature and by culture to the land. Throughout these torturous and heart-breaking years the Aboriginal people endured having their children taken from them by force for the single belief that "white" people could do a better job in educating and in general raring these children we see the outcome today to be far worse way beyond the aims and objectives these so-called "experts" had initially set their sites upon. Today in Australia we see almost an entire race of Aboriginal people, what is left of them, confused culturally and emotionally and of course suffering and why? In a word; "education" provided by these so-called "experts" who felt it their right to reign supreme over local people of the land of which they had no knowledge and could have benefited greatly by learning the very culture they set out to destroy which might have other-wise saved many "white" people lives over those years.

Before anyone can claim to be a so-called "education expert" one must ask themselves the under-lying and most profound question of all, that being; "what aspect of education and the administration of it makes it supreme against any other in the world"? The world as we know is diverse at every level of life, so is also, the local community and environment in which children live. Thus I believe it stands to reason with Spiritual, common and so-called expert sense that we naturally teach our children within to a degree of the confines of their own environment and culture being relevant to them. In saying this however, that does not imply that children should not be educated in matters beyond themselves and/or local region. In order to educated children and adults alike we as teachers always have in the forefront of our minds the relevance our teaching will have to those we teach. After-all, at day's end, the aim and objective is to educated a person to achieve a goal, in the general sense of this Article children I believe are more-so the essence of the issue at hand, and henceforth reference to that cause is made specifically.

Therefo re, as we all know the basis, aims and objective of educating children is to see them progress into adulthood with the following social criteria, to be caring, helpful where and when possible, have knowledge of themselves and their immediate environment, have knowledge and awareness of the world around them and beyond, be able to earn a living from the learning experiences of their childhood, function in society with regard to respect for law enforcement at all level in peace keeping philosophies, the ability to identify, recognize and address problems as such which may impact upon themselves and/or their environment either at an individual or group level in working toward a resolution. The aim and objective and subsequent benefit of education must also incorporate the ability of that person to make contribution to society as a whole, thus, my philosophy; "education starts at home", meaning that one must be educated within what is most relevant to them first and secondary to that, the world beyond their own, that they may some day reach beyond to contribute their knowledge at a much broader level in contributing to the world for the benefit of all at a global level.

In conclusion one must clearly recognize the reality of teaching cannot be restricted to one individual and/or group as being the ultimate expert structure, method and type in being "one and all" for everyone. This I do not believe is a responsible outlook to educating the world at large, nor a practical solution in any respect. As many teachers agree that the philosophy and principal mechanics of "History being the greatest teacher" still holds true today when we have only to look back a few hundred years or so to see the destruction and problems in modern society caused initially by the so-called expert educator's of the time who's opinion of themselves being supreme to all other's in the obliteration by disregarding the "local" environment, community, culture and Spiritual influences that are in most cases deeply embedded and form the very basis of survival for that particular group or community as a whole. By the same token, this does not restrict either the capacity to educated at a global level, thus the two cannot be made inseparable, but are integral and imperative to integrate simultaneously to maximize the learning experience throughout the lives of the "learner" for lifetime survival, including human personal factors such and inner peace, Spiritual peace, personal and social contentment to function uniform to their immediate social and cultural environment.

In Australia we have the Aboriginal society now trying to rebuild with government assistance communities of their own which incorporate their own schools based upon two very important factors; firstly, the National Curriculum is taught, but incorporated more importantly into this is their "native heritage and cultural" education. These learning experiences have shown as it would be expected, to display clearly the willingness of the learner to participate in learning and interacting beyond themselves and their own cultural beliefs, which of course can only be of benefit to themselves and their respective communities as overall. I believe therefore it is a simple philosophy common to all human conditions to rest our so-called:" expertise" in any one area to be of mutual respects for all considerations both human and environmental which impact on the "value" of the education being administered and in what situation relevant to the time. Furthermore, one must remember also the common philosophy to all people; "where there is interest and respect there inliers the difference between "quality" education and the impact it will have on the ability of the individual to be of benefit not only to themselves and their communities but to the world at large.

It is important to remember that much of our social conditions and criteria today for the most part is based upon Christianity and the Teachings of Jesus in particular, of which the same has been passed down generation after generation and works very well in maintaining, for the most part at least, family structure, moral values and social order.

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