Step #1 for Education of the Future
| 30 August 2010
I have just returned from dropping my daughter off at her college-St John’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I believe I have found my first level of change for a futuristic school room. I have stated before that I felt the school system does not address the needs of the future primarily in the acquisition of basic knowledge. The ‘extras’ should not even be attempted until that is firmly in place. The basic knowledge I refer to is the Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
The second problem I see is the incessant need to ‘tell’ children and young adults in college-What to Think! We need to teach them how to reason, where to find data and again the basic foundation to start the process.
At St. John’s they teach a classical education by way of discussion. The teachers are not professors (though they have the education to match that), they are called ‘Tutors”. The students (twenty or less) and one or two tutors sit around a table and thoroughly discuss the assigned material. That material is the origin of Western Thought from the Greek up to modern day in the following subjects:
- Seminar: 4 years -- philosophy, theology, political science, literature, history, economics, psychology.
- Mathematics: 4 years -- geometry, astronomy, algebra, calculus, relativity.
- Language: 4 years -- Ancient Greek, French, English composition, English poetry.
- Science: 3 years -- biology, chemistry, atomic theory, physics.
- Music: 1 year -- theory, composition.
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/about/quickfacts.shtml#curric
The parents had the opportunity to try a discussion session they call a seminar. I can tell you it was delightful, because I like that type of format. More importantly, I can see you with all the students participating you would achieve a higher level of understanding than is currently achieved. The focus is on the student rather than the professor in the classroom. There is a remarkable lack of ego in terms of the Tutors.
They told us the skill of having a discussion is learned in the first few weeks of classes. The students learn that a total discussion (meaning all participate) is the best process by which a more thorough understanding is achieved. The parents did quite well at this (at least in my group) and I suspect it is because of our life experience in being able to speak and let others speak as well. In fact I found there is enjoyment in getting many points of view. However, the students (from the description my daughter gave) have yet to learn these skills, but is that really a surprise?
They will learn ancient Attic Greek and read the ancient texts, not what others think about those texts, how wild is that? How often do people tell us what is in a subject and how to interpret it?
So, the remarkable part of this is two fold.; reading the original texts and having the opportunity to discuss, render opinion and ask any question leads to a more thorough understanding and the ability to have the confidence to approach everything else in your life in the same manner. The first step to truly being ‘educated’.
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