Eric Hoffer
As we move further into the 21st Century the pervasiveness of knowledge and the multitude of means by which we can access it, share our ideas, and collaborate with other people means that we must constantly re-examine the purpose of education. This fluidity goes much beyond formal schooling, and education, and into the realms of work, of ‘life itself’, since school, college and formal training are only moments in anyone’s educational journey.
Having read many of the contributions to this online discourse I would agree with much of what has been said so far. There seems to be much consensus around the idea that education is an emancipatory force for good, not a process by which we can tie down and control people’s world view and thinking. I echo the common thread that education is about self-development, about cultivating people’s talents and skills so that they can better themselves and others. In current times it is comfortable to measure education by the sum total of the ‘facts accumulated’ along the way. From the dialogue so far it is clear that many of us working in education want to go deeper, and see our role as being to mould the conditions for learners to develop their own internal resilience and resources, to achieve these goals through a set of ‘habits of mind’ that help them to become successful people in an ever changing world. I also hope, like many, that we can make this process fun!
However, I am struck by what I can really add to such a debate without simply repeating all that has gone before. In my daily role in a large secondary school in SE London I am struck by how we have to translate these ideals or principles into reality. All too often those of us working in schools are distracted by the focus on the ‘easier to measure’ outcomes of education, and we forget to remember what learning is – a process; that learners are active agents in a meaning making process – and not just recipients of it. Rightly we have to ensure that we are doing right by our students, getting them the right markers that allow them to progress further through the educational system. However, if we are to be true to what we believe the purpose of education to be, we must ask questions of how we support the development of the kind of learning and learners that bolster these lofty principles. The young people I meet on a daily basis are not mere consumers of meaning, of knowledge, they are in fact active producers of it. The purpose of education has to be to facilitate their development as active creators. Recently sitting in on a group of students in Year 8 following a Philosophy for Children programme I was struck that creating the conditions for learning that reflect this ‘purpose for education’ is an untidy process that needs to start by asking questions, and sifting through them before finding any answers. A crucial element of change in education is to ask how we can get all of us working in that sector to see ourselves as learners and not just the learned?
purpos/ed
