I've been thinking a lot lately about my 12 years of schooling lately -- what I've done right or wrong, what I've accomplished, what I realize now, that I didn't realize then... etc. In doing so, I have thought in great depth about our nation's education system.
As a violinist, I am very aware of the importance of having a teacher who I connect with, as far as my goals, personality, style of learning, etc. Over the years I have realized that if the teacher isn't a fit... it makes learning slow, monotonous, and not very easy.
The same goes for teachers in school. Read the following [approximate] conversation I had with a friend.
Me: I didn't do well in Ms. A's class.
Friend: Oh, I did! She was sooo good!
Me: I like Ms.B better
Friend: I don't like Ms.B at ALLL. She cannot teach. She does this and this and this.
Me: ... Those are the exact reasons why I like her and why I understand when she teaches.
Hopefully that made sense...
After this conversation, I started thinking... What if there was some way to just get the teachers we wanted.. like when you take a violin lesson, you are not obligated to stay with a particular teacher. It's up to you, not a school. (most of the time)
The ancient philosphers didn't sit in class rooms with 209234 other people. They had one on one discussions with people who asked questions to get them to think through things for themselves.
If everyone could do that now, think about how smart everyone would be. And it wouldn't be like people were sheltered because they didn't go to public school because EVERYONE would do it. You could pick a teacher who was an artistic person if you were artistic or mathematical if you were mathematical.
This raises the question - how would you pay for it? .... Not everyone would be able to afford tutors, which is why public school exist - to give all children equal opportunity to learn.
........ I had a thouht-dead-end here for a while... But Today I had another step in the thought process.
What if our education system was that way... and teachers were employees of the government. We would still pay taxes, etc. but instead of puting money into schools... they just gave it to the teachers. We could go to museums (yes - this may cost money.. but so do fieldtrips to them. and we all manage that.) ... We could learn about philosophers and why things work and the origins of things... and we would probably all be a LOT more excited about it than sitting in a classroom with a bunch of people... reading out of a glossy hard-to-read text book, with bad lights.
.. this is all I've got so far. I'd love for your opinions.
