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2. Why do we teach? Introduction and methodology
In
my first Blog, Blog
1. Invitation Introduction Welcome, I
introduced myself and set out my immediate aim to investigate ‘Why
we teach? What is the purpose of education?’
In this Blog I want to set out more clearly how I intend to go about
this investigation.
In
choosing this topic, I am acting upon something with which I have
been concerned. I am not suggesting that the topic of education is
the most important subject -
other things, such as Health, Transport, Older People's
Issues and
Climate Change are equally as important, if not more so. There are
also problems within our Judicial System and
our Welfare system, with policy on Housing. In fact, in any area one
wishes to consider, there are problems. It is my view that these
problems cannot be resolved within our current system of economics
and politics. The evidence, from within this country and throughout
the world, shows that the present system of Private Enterprise
Capitalism and the political structures built up to support that
system is failing, and is
indeed broken. In a
detailed examination of any of these policy areas, the same
conclusions would be reached. At the present moment I am concerned
with how we approach the subject of Education. There is a lot of
media publicity around the results of the GCSE and A-Level
Examinations; we hear of promises of a much enhanced starting salary
for teachers; curriculum issues are discussed; the organisation and
control of schools is a matter for debate; the financial allocation
to schools and the question of university fees are controversial
issues; the subjects that students study are questioned. All of these
are important issues, but we seem not to consider the individual
Child, Pupil or Student. This is part of a general failure within our
political and social environment to consider young people as
individuals who have rights of their own. This will be one key aspect
of my deliberations during this project. I will reference now the
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child. I will return to these in a
later stage.
At
the outset, I have to say that my resources are limited. I do not
have access to a University Library and my local library does not
seem able to get me the books I request in the way that they did some
years back. I have a variety of books on the subject upon which I
will draw, and access to the web. As I hinted in my first Blog, my
early English teacher did not rate my ability and I learnt to write
through writing reports on science experiments. As a Mathematician,
Scientist and Engineer, I live in a world of facts. What concerns me
about the modern world is that decisions are no longer made on the
basis of facts; opinions
and dogma seem to hold more sway. One of the warnings that Richard
Crossman made was in regard to ‘the trivialisation of the media’,
the instant sound bite. This prediction seems to have been proved
correct. Logic in decision making seems not to be a factor.
My
approach to projects of this kind is influenced by my early
approaches. My methodology is as follows. First is to set out clearly
what is the aim of the project I am undertaking. The next step is to
assemble the material (equipment) to be used in the project. Having
assembled all the material, this will be organised into a suitable
form. Having assembled and organised the information, it has to be
analysed. Finally conclusions have to be drawn and appropriate
recommendations made. I decided that I would begin the project with a
study of the book by William Boyd as revised and enlarged by Edmund
J. King, entitled ‘The
History of Western Education’.
This is a bit limited because it does not include the history of
education in countries such as China, Japan, India or the Muslim
World. However, it does give a useful introduction.
As
I studied the book, two impressions formed in my mind. The first
impression was that education is treated throughout as a matter of
‘letters’. Almost every reference is to ‘book learning’.
Thus, to be an educated person is confined to the notion of
a very select group of people. There are a great many intelligent,
knowledgeable people throughout the ages and throughout the world who
would be excluded if this is our sole idea of education. The other
impression is
that education is solely concerned with the ruling classes, and
limited to the education given to others that meet the needs of those
ruling classes. These are two of the ideas that will be guiding my
thoughts as I work on my project.
Now having assembled the
material I wish to work on from this book, I move to the next stage
of organising and analysing that material in order so that I may
reach some conclusions and make appropriate recommendations. The way
in which this evolves will be reported on in future blogs.
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