Education is a fundamental right – so let’s get it right!

When I started this journey into promoting a creative approach to education my aim was to help education evolve and meets the needs of today not yesterday. My definition of education though was limited and the description I gave reflected this. “An education gives us access to knowledge. A good education should inspire, enable learning and provide an opportunity to develop skills. To do this it needs to comprise of the fundamental elements that will share society’s values and meet its needs. It includes developing character as well as intellectual, creative and physical abilities.” I have learnt, and still learning, that there is more, much more. My current working theory is that there are six aspects or functions of education. These are: Integration: sharing traditions, rituals and beliefs Understanding: to develop and share knowledge and understanding Awareness: to achieve an understanding of ones self, needs and desires Evolution: to educate the educator, to be relevant and to move forward Objectivity: to reflect, observe and question Responsibility: to understand options and consequences (physical, social, spiritual and moral) The challenge I set remains the same, that of “developing attitudes and approaches to education that promote diversity of learning and sharing of good practice.” Perhaps the bigger challenge is to restructure education, to change the “system” so that the present functional aim, that of standardisation, becomes an outcome not a function. This said then the learner, parent, teacher and school still all have a part to play in enabling high quality education even if we have to consider those that are responsible for designing,implementing and maintaining the current system too.

Advertisement