Explaining what water is
Thoughts on the purpose of Education
In a remarkable commencement speech to students at an American collage, author David Foster Wallace presents a very interesting way to look on the purpose of a Liberal Arts education. It’s a speech that I highly recommend, as it was a great inspiration for myself and, as I can imagine, for many others as well.
The following text will not have to do so much with the talk itself, but rather a concerning a striking quote given by Wallace during his speech, which goes as follows:
A liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about teaching you how to think.
… The really significant education that we’re supposed to get in a place like this [college] isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.
The first paragraph presents the term how to think, the second paragraph then states that this is not so much about capacity to think about something, but rather what to think about. This is a notion that I believe is true not only in a liberal arts education, but for education as a whole.
A product of the 19th century is the idea of a school system centered on merely processing knowledge. To maintain and control this process, tests are held. It is a process that works well within an industry. You manufacture a product, test it and control it to then improve it as you see fit.
There are a few problems that rises when you try to do the same within a school though. First, within such a system one will assume that children are to be regarded as the same, when there in reality is a great deal of individuality (fortunately) between children. Second, the notion that you can test a child, and then see if he or she is performing well, causes you to assume that the system of control is perfect and that we know what the children “should” know in a broad term. The reality? Many times the school system has no idea what the children “should” know.
In the 19th century, the model worked much the same way as it does today, and it was considered to be working well. Today, the same model is deeply questioned. Why? Because the expactations society has today on the schools of a country have changed dramatically since the 19th century. In a world of Google and the Internet, Wikipedia and Youtube, the notion of simply presenting knowledge in schools is outdated and disfunctional. At the same time, there has never been a greater demand for a broad range of individuals (people with individuality) that are experienced problem solvers.
We might be saying that we have abandoned the ideas of the industrial revolution now that we’ve entered a new, digital age. But many of the ideals of the previous age still remain in many schools around the world. All students have the same schedule, sits in symmetrical rows in classroms, read the same books, take the same tests… One type of students are given the highest grade available based on how well they fit a model, not necessarily on how well they perform as an individual.
The second paragraph talks about the capacity to think. Wallace use this idea to say that within higher education a lot of students have the capacity to think, but need to be educated on what to think, to get out of what Wallace calls the default state. Please listen to the talk for a better explanation on the what the default state means, Wallace presents it in a great way.
In many ways, the Digital Revolution radically redefines society in its most basic terms. Space and distace do not matter as much anymore when it comes to communication and collaboration. Digital content, and works of art, are shared at an ever acceleration pace, causing the evolution of not only technology but society as a whole to increase in speed. In this new world, schools not only have a great responsibility to teach students in a way so that they can eventually become productive members of society, but still retain their individuality. Schools also have to deal with bigger questions.
As the world becomes ever more connected, and large amounts of people are given access to vast amounts of information, what to do with all this information – and where your place in the world is – are questions that automatically rises. Humans, especially the young ones, are curious, and want to know. They want to make sense of the world – and discuss what is happening all around them. The classroom is the ideal, if not the obvious, location where these sorts of questions should be asked.
Gone is the age of mass production in the schools, at least in terms of need for the society it is educating the students for. In practice though, the old ways of organizing the schools are still a reality. Human thinking and creativity is not something that can be produced according to instructions identical for every child. Despite this fact, it is still happening every day when the bell rings.
Schools have a responsibilty to allow students to understand the vast amounts of information that circles all around them, and to help them make sense of the world. Every child has one way of looking at it, then there must be enough time and resources to approch them according to their own individual needs.
Schools also have a responsibility concerning a bigger, more fundamental question. Everyone is expected to start thinking in this new age. In the past, most have been working, few have been thinking. With thinking comes the questions. Who am I? Why am I here? The schools allows an individual to meet a broad range of humans, and the system must be organized in a way to help the student as he or she tries to make sense of it all.
What the hell is water?
Help them find out.
