The education debate: standardised indoctrination or personal training

[Vindekarr]

I've just recently graduated from my twelth year in australian education and am officialy an adult. And yet I learned more through my own personal action, action which went against every rule in education code, in a week than I did in the entire twelve years.

 

The problem mostly is that same human failing: complacent workers and a slow degradation of standards. Namely, a while ago the australian government thought they could increase educational quality by posting all school test results publicaly. This had a massive cascade problem for students because schools simply started expelling anyone who fell below standards. In my time I went through something like 11 schools, and several expulsions usualy because something I did just didnt fit to type. For example I once was given an F- and 4 weeks detention simply for using the wrong scientific theory on a test sheet, that cost the school a grade they wanted, so I was punished for not so much answering wrongly, because it was the correct answer, but for giving the answer they didnt want.

 

Standardisation makes it very very easy to compare results, sort the failures into orders in which they can easily be desposed of, and allow those of privelige who pay for education to place their spawn in positions of power, maintaining the current nobility structure.

 

Personalisation is extremely dificult to implement, most governments wouldnt even bother with this if they could because from the utterly detached view of the powers that be, children are statistics, an expulsion and the subsequent de facto fine to the child's family is one failing number 1 removed from the chart and some extra revenue. And thats a good thing, because in most capitalist systems in the west failure to fit the 'standard mould" usualy sees you stricken from the records and considered no longer worthy of sponsorship.

 

Simple fact is that I am now going to pass this topic to the community to discuss. Im not neutral enough to push it any further,

[SilverDNA]

The problem mostly is that same human failing: complacent workers and a slow degradation of standards. Namely, a while ago the australian government thought they could increase educational quality by posting all school test results publicaly. This had a massive cascade problem for students because schools simply started expelling anyone who fell below standards. In my time I went through something like 11 schools, and several expulsions usualy because something I did just didnt fit to type. For example I once was given an F- and 4 weeks detention simply for using the wrong scientific theory on a test sheet, that cost the school a grade they wanted, so I was punished for not so much answering wrongly, because it was the correct answer, but for giving the answer they didnt want.

Ok I have a question can you by chance give a link or the official explanation why the Australian government came up with this? (Cause it makes only sense if the standardisation should be used in companies too in the near future, or I'm wrong with this suggestion.)

[Vindekarr]

A link? no.

 

But the reasoning was that by making test results public they thought they would force schools to perform at a higher standard. Education here has been a mess since federation, but especialy in the last 30 years. This was too conveniently timed to be anything more than an attempt to gain votes in the election then mere months away, and from the desensitised perspective of a government, it worked. But thats only in statistics, because most kids who dont meet standards are simply expelled now, or alteast they are in my experience.

[SilverDNA]

I ask to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

As I heard this and it didn't make sense,

I ask for this, so it's my own fault, that this makes no sense

I've got an explanation that makes no sense.

In the end I think of political nonsense.

 

I guess those politicians that came up with this aren't lasting that long to see their "fruits" harvested. I assume in 7 to 15 years. It is not only the fault of the students and pupils, (most of them are willing to learn something) but as well of the teachers that educate them. I can not tell for sure in your country, what the majority of teachers is doing wrong on their side of the problem. So it seams to me like some weird stuff to make in the next generation obeyant citizens. To what aim or goal this may lead....To make even higher taxes without the citizens complaining about would only be the start. Yes, I know that's sound a little bit exaggerated, but there could be some truth in this line of thinking.

 

That al sound's like obey or get punished to me.

Edited July 26, 2010 by SilverDNA

[Vindekarr]

That's exactly the point.

 

You obeyed EVERYTHING or the punishments were extreme, and got even worse during my twelve years in and out of various schools. I won't drag on about the specifics, but its frighteningly conformist, Right now the society I've been exposed to has a very set list of what a particular demographic should look, think, and act like. Breaking such a trend makes you not only a social pariah but also reduces your acces to education, primary, secondary or tertiary, and greatly limits your employment options. Men are expected to be agressive, asertive, and interested in sport and self advancment. On all social levels they are expected to be ambitios and follow a set employment path, either working towards management if born wealthy, or simply staying at their current social standing if lower classed and attempting to keep at that standing. They are expected to feed their family by providing money, but generaly spend their lives doing very little for personal enjoyment, theirs or anyone else's.

 

Women have even more strict social stereotypes, lower class females are expected to try and advance their social status via marrying a man of higher social class than their parents. Higher class women are usualy expected to simply sit in the background and look appealing. Usualy going from husband to husband, leaching as much money as is possible.

 

All classes are also expected to fit to a certain appearence. Fashion here isnt so much what people think looks good, but more of an orwellian conformism to a standard blueprint. Low and middle class men wear jeans and a t-shirt, short hair, lower and middle class women wear a t-shirt and a very short skirt, usualy short hair. Upper class of both geners wear suits. again, the same unisex short hair is everywhere.

 

Im 19, perhaps its too early to lump western society into a single monotype. Inspiring, unusual, good peopel exist everywhere, no matter what oppresion exists. But during my schooling I saw a girl expelled from a highschool for "dressing like a angel". The night before it had been a savage hailstorm, with localised flooding, she had been at a party, and had come home to a house suddenly without a roof, and her uniform soaked and damaged. The masters had ignored that, saying she was also a compulsive lyar, and that any child over the age of 13 "should be smart enough to understand the value of following our code" and that "deviants would and should be pushed aside". As a deviant, I found that very offensive. I myself was the target of verbal abuse from the masters on several occsion. Im not only of immigrant bloodstock, but I also dont look nearly like anyone else my age, facialy, thanks to a scar from being attacked by a large dog, and have dreadlocks, also not adhering to code. Any male student showing "feminine" traits is usualy persecuted. Likewise for females, showing any trends towards "unladylike" behavior, such as independant thought, free will, or a desire to do more than clean up after men, is usualy classed as deviant and excluded from mainstream school activities.

 

This was done, in the highschool I last went to, by sending them to an isolated, far smaller classroom, and having them fill out the sheets of questions and problems that wee 90% of all schoolwork alone, with no lunchbreak.

[Vagrant0]

The problem with general education is that most of it is irrelevant to the student regardless of what field they go into. The problem with specialized education is that it leaves the student oblivious to various aspects of society, and occasionally results in training for a job which no longer exists by the time that the training has been completed.

[brokenergy]

I think the real problem (and I saw this while at school) is that we are applying 20_th century teaching to the 21_st century. Many students are not interested in education anymore by constant talking and teaching in the conventional method. There really needs to be a rethink of how students are taught in schools and (this is going off topic a bit, I know) parents really need to start disciplining their kids (no offense to parents who take good care of their kids). For example, while I was at school, many of the year 7 kids didn't respect the teacher nor the year 12. There was this one time where this kid kept on antagonizing a year 12 student before being punched on the arm; the kid was crying after that. I found it funny and so did many of the other year 12 students to see that younger students trying to be as "cool" as us but when it came to a real fight, they run like kids. We really didn't like them and really criticized the parents (we shouldn't have, we were students back then) for being their kids "friends" instead of their parents. So really the problem really lays with the system, students and parents, there is no easy solution.

 

If anyone wants to know what Vindekarr is talking about (I know I do) here are some news bulletins about the new "My School" website (if you live in Aus).

Teacher's union hating the website

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/25/2800753.htm

A professional opinion about "My School"

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2899513.htm

The Aus government wants "My Uni"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/03/2834833.htm

 

There are lots more if you search thought the archives

[Balagor]

@Vindekarr

It sound horrible, all what you tell. It sounds like DK in the -50th.

I can´t belive you should be that much stereotypes, Aussies are modern western people, after all. I know a few.

I especially payed attention to the fact that you wear uniforms in school, and can be exspelled if you wear your own clothes. That´s incredible.

Personally I prefer "the big school of life". I left school after 7 years, I learned nothing but math reading and writing. Anything else I have learned since, and by my self. Further more, I have seen many young people (including myself) picked the wrong education. It´s impossible to make up your mind when you are only 18-20 years old. You gotta pick something, and perhaps you know your self well enough to pick right. I waited, and learned, and traveled, discovered the world, and got my final education much later at the age of 39 years old. I never regret anything, because of all the good experience I got prior to my education. All in all I feel much better "educated" in this way. I know we are all different, and can not do things the same way. This is just my 2 cents for those who`ll listen