I prefer to avoid discussions like these, but now I feel compelled to defend teachers as a profession, since some people seem to have had bad experiences with school. Even if I'm "only" a music teacher.
Cavesa wrote:In various ways. Some teachers like to humiliate the students, shout at them for mistakes, humiliate them in the eyes of classmates on purpose, and so on.
I completely agree. That is unacceptable behaviour, especially for a teacher. A teacher should always be encouraging and positive
And even if a teacher is kind and mature enough to not do that, the school system is very often not encouraging, but rather punishing for any failures. Many students simply look for the mistake at their end (whether or not there is a mistake in them) and come to the "I am simply not talented at this or that" conclusion, which can last for a life time.
Agree, it is important to avoid the feeling of failure, but it can be difficult because of a reason I mention later.
The third reason is the lack of guidance on how to learn efficiently, and how to pick a learning style for you.
Again I agree, and believe me, how to learn and learning styles are discussed in schools. It is a challenge to optimise for everyone since often you have a class with 30 students and that is too many to be able to differentiate between the students, who are often very different in how they learn and what level they're on. Ideally one should have one teacher for each pupil.
It's a bit weird of you to ask such a question, as if you didn't believe me.
No, it's not weird, it was an honest question, since you casually put out that statement. Now you're doing what you critise your teachers for: trying to humiliate and ridicule me for asking a question.
Mr Dastardly wrote:I'll jump on this one! I am a "bad student", although I have earnt degrees from Cambridge. I hated school from the very beginning - I just wanted to do my own thing and for everyone to leave me alone, I couldn't understand the point of education and, most of all, adults could not provide a convincing explanation for why they rightfully commanded natural authority over me, despite my many inquiries.
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Thanks for your story. It seems you did well, with a degree from Cambridge, despite some bad experiences. Maybe you're very independent minded, or just didn't feel at home in a school environment.
However I don't see that you say anything about how education could've been better, unless you mean that we should just close all schools. Leave the pupils alone? Let them do their own thing? I know enough about my pupils (I teach 16-18 age group) that if we just leave them alone,
95% will do nothing.
Edit2: I take that back - I actually don't view pupils so negatively. I just mean, most would probably not study all the subjects they now have to get into at school. That is just how humans are - we are naturally lazy. Only a small percentage are independent and driven anough that they could structure themselves and learn everything by themselves.
I think school before university should present a broad range of subjects, but in a way it doesn't matter what those subjects are. School is an exercise in how to learn, and a taste of a different fields and (ideally) different ways of working. So that maybe one of those subjects might catch the interest and passion of a pupil who will continue with it more in-depth later.
Edit: I forgot to mention that one important purpose of school is as a meeting place between the pupils, and a place where they can learn cooperation and how to function as individuals in a society.
One reason I thought people would mention: In schools we normally have to grade pupils, and I'm often conflicted about this. It can create feelings of failure. In my school we grade the level the pupil has reached. The effort the pupil has put in, is (or should be) irrelevant in the grading process. It's tough to grade pupils who worked hard, but didn't reach a high level, with a low grade. Especially since it's very easy for some pupils who just coast along, working very little but still achieving good grades.
I agree with the sentiment that one should take responsibility for ones own learning, but it's hard to get pupils to realise that. They're normally waiting for instructions on what to do. I can't force anyone to learn anything - the pupils have to take some initiative, especially the age group I'm teaching. Actually, even if it can be hard to remember in the day-to-day grind, my philosophy is to try to inspire and guide the pupils, not only to teach them a lot of facts, because they need an inner drive if they are to become good at anything. With the right drive it is easy to learn.