What is the Purpose of Education?
This past week, my classmates and I had the privilege to go to a middle-class school to understand and maybe incorporate their ideas into our own lives. This school was ranked as a Class B, which is not nearly the top like Class A, but it is higher than most of the schools in Lima. This past week I had to take a step back to understand their way of teaching and how they wanted to impact children in the best way possible. I did quite a bit of observing, which gave me the opportunity to find the similarities and differences in these classrooms with the classrooms that I have worked in back in the United States. I believe there are many different routes a teacher can take to educate children on ‘what the purpose of education is.’ As children, education was traditional and structured where it reached the point where the routine we could complete in our sleep. As a child, I did not know any better and thought the boring lectures and unnecessary assessments were completely normal and I thought those routines would help me for my future. After studying classroom etiquette and pedagogy, my childhood classrooms were not proper ways to educate and help all children flourish within the classroom. In my opinion, the purpose of education is for someone to be introduced to new information, figure out ways to expand or reinforce said information, and then apply that information to their personal life whether that be inside or outside the classroom. This is a vague statement for ‘what is the purpose of education’, but like I stated previously, there is no correct structure to this posed question. There are many different methods that can be used to fit your style of classroom to help your students flourish in their own ways.
DIFFERENT SCHOOLS, SAME PEDAGOGY
On top of visiting and working as teacher assistants in La Inmaculada, we also had the opportunity to work in the Encuentros after school program called Casitas. We would act as another set of hands to assist the ones in charge. At my Casitas, it was mostly female students and this was based in a lower income neighborhood. The program was another idea that was set up to help children stay out of trouble from the streets and create a better community of inclusion. These kids begin the program at a very young age and are presented with limited items, but their smiles and energy do not seem to notice what they do and do not have. This educational program compared to La Inmaculada is very clear if you were to compare them side by side. The resources accessible for each program are completely different and yes, there will be opportunities presented to those who go to the Class B school, but their ideas for the purpose for education are on similar pages. The children with different programs will have a completely opposite experience when it comes to education, but the underlining meaning for education is relatively similar. The few teachers that I worked with from both programs found ways to incorporate the life outside of a classroom and integrate those ideas to inside of the classroom. I noticed that the ideas of Jesuit pedagogy are implanted in these classrooms. It is stated that, “Jesuit education moves the learning experience beyond rote knowledge to the development of the more complex learning skills of understanding…” During my Casitas, this idea of education is present. At the end of the program we would sit in a circle for a period of reflection. The children would go around saying something they enjoyed from today, what they didn’t like, and what was something they were proud they accomplished. This period of reflection created an opportunity for the teacher in charge to step in and show each student how they are valid in the outside world and how they can use their talents to help the community in their own unique way, I found this exercise comforting to know that at such a young age the kids are learning to find what upsets them and they are working to create a better life. At La Inmaculada, the students are learning about the environment and finding eco-friendly ways to create a more sustainable life that they live in. Although these programs are on a different scale, their purpose of education is to create an impact and hope that the children take those lessons outside of the classroom to continue to become flourishing students.
STRUCTURE OF EDUCATION
When it comes to structure of a classroom, I do not believe that education should be different for privileged youth and marginalized youth. Yes, resources will be scarce for the lower income communities, but from my experiences in both programs I have seen many examples on how people teach different levels of children. When painting the image of two separate classrooms, many people have the instinct to turn away from those who have limited resources and will immediately judge the worst intentions. Painting the picture of La Inmaculada, there are a great amount of basketball courts, soccer fields, probably five different levels of classrooms for primary and secondary students. Their resources are abundant and they are learning to speak English in every classroom. These students are pushed out of their comfort zones to learn and understand the language and culture of the communities throughout Peru. For the Casitas program, the classroom is just one room. It is a brick room that has a dark and sad feeling attached. The children have chairs and a few run-down board games and other toys to use in their free time. These kids speak just their native language. Although these children are on opposite ends of the spectrum, they should not have their education restricted because they do not have access to the same resources. I believe the idea of power plays a role in these contexts because the funding is dedicated to the higher elites than those who need more help on providing stable buildings for students to even be placed in. The power behind education is what prevents the restrictions in the first place in society. The power tends to lead to money, and those without money usually correlates with a lack of power. This system has always been unfair, especially if there are brilliant students who come from a lower income neighborhood. Their education is being restricted when they cannot afford to attend a school with more resources. Education has always been a tricky subject to talk about, and equality is what we learn to strive for in our societies and constantly placing a barrier between wealth and education will not help students reach their full potential if they live their life with a label.
CONNECTIONS OF EDUCATION
Throughout all the different classrooms and programs, I have been in, I always found myself comparing my own experiences in the United States, to the work I have experienced here in Peru. The classrooms here were constantly incorporating outside information that would intertwine with their basic level classes such as Science, Math, or English. At La Inmaculada, the students had access to a miniature zoo on their campus. This provided them the opportunity to be outside and physically analyze the animals and their behaviors, they also had access to a hiking trail up the mountain where the students could look at the different bugs and plants and their lifestyles. I did not have this opportunity, nor have I ever heard of someone have access to a zoo at their primary and secondary school. Often, we did take field trips, but that was once a year and we were not able to get as much information out of the experience. Other connections I have seen is the creation of understanding other people’s feelings, language, or culture. Growing up, we learned many historical cultures, but we never truly experienced or immersed ourselves in other neighborhoods or communities that have a different culture than us. Here, the students have that opportunity which can create a deeper understanding for the children at a young age. Something that I have learned during the Casitas program is that no matter how little of resources that are accounted for, you still make the most of what you have and incorporate more imaginary scenarios so the children can begin that creative side at such a young age. In the Engaged Pedagogy article, it narrates that, “This is one of the joys of education as the practice of freedom, for it allows students to assume responsibility for their choices.” These children showed me how to have fun and enjoy the little things that surround me. I learned how to create a more inclusive classroom for all students at a low income and high income school and how to overall create a better life for any student I may work with in the future.
