by Adriana Tanese-Nogueira

Created on: March 31, 2010

Schools mirror the society we live in. They are organized to prepare people to fit in the system and, I must say, they do their job well. They promote unhappy children to be delivered to a twisted society where priorities are upside down, where what is said is not what is thought, and the nice carol values are derided by the everyday reality.

Do we want children to be prepared for the “real world”? In this case, I guess they wouldn’t be the children I’d like to have, for the “real world” is not working so fine. It’s a mess. I want children able to change for better this “real world”. I want children smart and creative, free and courageous enough to improve the “real world”.

Education is not meant to “prepare” to the real world like a computer course is meant to prepare you to fix computers. The goal of education is to give tools - vision, ideas, understanding - to make your own space in the “real world”. It’s not about fitting, is about creating, changing, inventing. It’s not about information that helps to get a job, but about finding your own way in this world. Much deeper, much more important (is that a coincidence that Newton was bullied at school and almost considered autistic, and  Einstein was a bad math student?).

From Wikipedia: “Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. (The italic is mine). Etymologically the word education contains educare (Latin) "bring up", which is related to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere, "to lead".” (The bold is mine)

As we can see, our educational system is reduced to the “technical” level and does very little to bring up, bring forth what is within. The children’s “within” is not considered. Never. Therefore schools become prisons: a place where the children’s real world (their “within”) is forced to shut up, held inside and strangled by the obtuse “outside”.

Children - as any human being - are happy when they can be free to express themselves. When their mind and imagination is taken seriously and they are allowed to follow their dreams. But schools abruptly and merciless suffocate the children’s souls and unfortunately this pitiful process starts before school - at home.

Private schools emphasize values, not always the one we’d like for our children. However, the point is that it’s not a mere question of thrusting in a child mind values, not even information. It’s about helping students to develop into bright and responsible adults.

Public schools have less chances to accomplish the higher purpose of education because they lack vision and money. If children hate school there must be a good reason. When children will be taken seriously?

I don’t believe private schools are necessarily the solution. Besides their outrageous fees, they usually follow an ideology to be poured into the children. The perspective is almost the same: filling the students with information either history, math, or religious values. It doesn’t really matter.

In the present, unless one finds a good school with real teachers, the best option is home schooling. When the system doesn’t offer what citizens need, they are supposed to build by themselves the reality they want.

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