Education is HARD

Education is hard! That is what I have learnt recently, and surprisingly I'm not talking about learning to teach, I'm not actually talking exclusively about university at all. When you're in high school, when you're in college (Year 11 & 12) you have the right, and the opportunity to get a job. We all like money and we all like things and these two go hand in hand. All three in fact! You get a job you have money if you have money you have things and things can actually contribute a lot to the playground status quo which directly relates to how students interact in the classroom. But again I'm off topic. No, education is hard because it is hard to focus on work and school at the same time. It is hard to spend time writing essays and developing hypothesis in the classroom, where they say these things will get you jobs at set you up in a way of thinking for the future, when you already have a job and you're not writing essays, you're not developing hypothesis, hell! You’re lucky if you're developing your own opinion or techniques in the work force.
We expect students to have their home life devoted to homework, to readings, when in fact they may have a job which could easily be as demanding, if not more demanding that school. My first ever job was at Red Rooster and I spent more time worrying about how to get to and from work than I ever did about my home work. Not to mention how much more active my social life was once I had the money to get around and DO THINGS! In primary school it is expected that students have their complete focus on school and rightly so. Other than their school friends and their family life they really don’t have much scope elsewhere. I feel it is not permissible to hold high school students to these same standards. YES, they have more to learn and YES they should have more responsibility and should be actively involved in their learning but they’re only 13-18 years old, We spent half as much time in university as they did in high school and we think we’re in the right to teach them about the world. That what they’re learning will get them a job and give them a future. I’m not sure about you but 3 years down the track half my grade still haven’t done anything with their lives. Teenage pregnancies, retail workers, fast food managers. Half my friends are only just starting university now because they didn’t even know what they wanted to do back then. Some of them still don’t know.
But we expect students to have the responsibility to follow up with their own learning in their own time when most of us never did and when they know the statistics of it all??
I think education needs to re think its approach to high school teaching because we shouldn’t be teaching these students to sit in an office all day. We should be teaching them how to think on their feet and to be creative and to learn from the world around them so that when unexpected things happen they can learn and grow into the generation of tomorrow.

Educreation

Education is ever changing and ever expanding. It is worldwide and yet based state by state. It takes up approximately 13 years of our lives (in western culture) but shapes the rest of our existance. How well we do at school changes how people will see us for the rest of our lives, it will decide what job we get, where we live, who we associate with. It's amazing the sociological influence education has on our lives. For me though, it is a passion. Learning is my passion I am learning more and more every day.

I am currently studying education at the University of Canberra and am learning much more than just how to teach the students that sit before me. I'm learning how education changes our lives, I'm learning how technology has changed the world and most importantly that we're expected to teach students to live and survive in a future that we can no more predict than the stock market. Education is a lottery. If I teach you fantastic literacy skills and skills in writing and reading, and you enter the world of technology and recession my teachings will not help you. I will not have educated you in how to live and thrive in your world. I've taught you to live and thrive in mine, growing up in the world of Public Servants and reports. The world is changing and each student is capable of succeeding in this world, but how do we know what's coming?

We can't.

It's a terrible thought that one persons choice, my own, on what students should learn, can change their life. Not everything a teacher does in the classroom can change a life, not everything a teacher teaches will be learnt. But you can't pick what things you teach will stick. My English teacher in high school taught me much, most of which I don't remember. Now I'm studying to be an English teacher because her passion and persistence in the subject made me realize just how important those skills are.

Ah, but here is where my entry ends. The point of this blog shall be to explore my learning and see how my thoughts on education change as I go through the system. Will I come out still thinking that English is important? Will I still think that books are much better than their electronic counterparts (a.k.a the Kindle)? What will change, what will stay the same? Should be interesting to find out.