I'm not one to question a system or way of doing things unless I know of or discover another viewpoint. The results of my questioning may not necessarily be positive or beneficial to some but help me form my viewpoint.
My doubts concerning the educational system started with a book Einstein: His Life and Times by Philip Frank. I've always been interested in Albert Einstein because of his famous works but also his belief in God. I saw something of myself in him, in the way that he excelled in math and how he tended to keep an emotional distance between himself and other people.
In this book, I read about an event in Einstein's youth that particularly touched me. One day, Einstein and his parents were watching a parade. As soldiers marched by, Einstein commented, "When I grow up I don't want to be one of those poor people." Frank notes:
When the majority saw the rhythm of a happy movement, [Einstein] observed the coercion imposed upon the soldiers; he saw the parade as a movement of people compelled to be machines.
At this time Einstein apparently already revealed one of his most characteristic traits - his intractable hatred of any form of coercion arbitrarily imposed by one group of people on another. He detested the idea of the oppressor preventing the oppressed from following their inclinations and developing their natural talents, and turning them into automatons. (p. 8)
Einstein viewed his teachers as sergeants. He described his feelings about the elementary school system he went to; saying:
The pupils did not view the teachers as older, more experienced friends who could be of assistance to them in dealing with various problems of life, but rather as superiors whom they feared and tried to predispose favorably as possible. (p. 11)
As I read this last passage in the book, I began to wonder about the educational system - what I experienced in high school and what I'm experiencing in college. I began to question what the motives of my teachers have been and even to evaluate their teaching styles somewhat analytically.
To some degree, my questioning has made it more difficult to learn the material, because my concentration has been directed towards the messenger and not the message. One example of this conflict dealt with a recent class assignment in which we were required to read a particular text about the Khmer Rouge. In my mind's eye, I could almost see the atrocities as they were being committed - all the gory details of the awful massacre.
At our next class, we were asked to express our feelings about the book. I explained my discomfort with the book and asked why it had been assigned. This led to a discussion in which ideas and opinions about my comment were drawn out from the class. For the remainder of the class I found myself defending my position. I was surprised to have even been accused of a desire to censor books or thought as is described in the book Fahrenheit 451.
I had hoped for a more favorable response from my classmates or at least that my teacher might vindicate my ideas or help me come to terms with the book. Instead I was simply told that the book was 'the best choice for our class'. This dismayed me. I was no closer to a rationale for why the book was chosen and felt that no one had truly listened to what I said.
At the end of the class, I continued to talk with some of my classmates who seemed to understand my position. They saw that I was not rejecting the merits of the book but that I wanted to comprehend how reading it would help me and what benefit I was supposed to derive from it.
I gathered from the discussion after class that a few of the other students were supportive of my stance but had not been as vocal or bold in expressing their support. This led me to wonder if the teacher's intentions had not been thwarted by the system of education which we were raised under. It seemed that the teacher wanted to start an open discussion but he inadvertently biased the debate by having chosen the book to begin with, thus legitimizing the validity of its use.
In my view, our system of education is flawed. Students learn to mimic teachers' thoughts and what they say. Learning through mimicry is not always a bad thing: we learn to speak, eat, walk, write and do many other things through mimicry. However, when we reward students for copying the opinions of the teacher, we stifle their own creative thinking and discourage them from being unique, imaginative and independent. This conflict of interest brings about difficulties for the student who tries to be an original thinker seeking to find other ways to write and present ideas.
Even though the instructor tried to foster an exchange of ideas, the students seem to have tried to conform to the perceived expectations of the teacher. Those who tried to take the initiative were misunderstood or even looked down upon. The result was that the one idea that was assumed to be acceptable to the teacher, namely the choice of the book, needed no explanation from the teacher and dominated the discussion thus making the debate one-sided.
This leads me to wonder if we are not like the soldiers that Einstein saw, forced by the system and each other to comply to a set of ideas arbitrarily made for them. Do we fear our superiors and act deferentially to please them?
I have yet to resolve my feelings about this experience, leaving open that my view may not necessarily be correct. But, I believe I have learned that people should avoid the lemming attitude and voice their own opinions even when the majority dictates otherwise.
