I think that this video is sooooo cool. This is the “real” problem with our educatinal system: Our schools do not prepare students for deep dialogues for political change; the schools try to form students into nice amenable graduates. By pushing kids to conform to existing rules without giving them a floor for protest or dialogue, schools prepare them well for dictatorships in government, oppressive workplaces, and no voice military positions. An educational system which pushes for conformity sets the students up to accept oppression and abuse. Schools must become more student centered, by giving them a voice. Rather than forcing students into standardized curriculumn and testing, students should have a say in what they want “their” educatin to be about. I think such a change would better prepare students to have a say about what “their” nation is about.

Also, letting students have a say in their education would make it more meaningful to them. As it is, many students drop out psychologically at about the age of eleven because school becomes only aobut putting in the time. They are not allowed to choose what they want to study. Usually the most choice or voice they have is that they choose between a few sujects already chosen for them. How can education have meaning if the students’ values are not considered. (I’m writing too much. Let me end with a quote from Choan-Seng Song.) “As long as a man [student] is deprived of the right to determine his own destiny, there will be no self-fulfillment for him.”

By gordsd on June 25th, 2009 at 11:10 am