This Says it All:

 I'll save my rant for after you watch this:





Now, with that in mind: preschool in Spain begins at three years old.  Children are in school from 9am-2pm just like the Primary school kids...They even have workbooks!  They spend a fair ammount of time playing in class and at recess; but they also spend a lot of time sitting at their desks coloring inside the lines and tracing shapes or letters with their pencils.  In a second grade class, I witnessed a teacher shouting at a boy and then ripping up his paper because he had the audacity to color a rabbit blue: "Rabbits aren't blue!"

Preschool education is not obligatory. Just like in the US obligatory education begins at six years old with Primary school.  However, there are extremely few parents who choose to exercise their right NOT to enroll their babies (because they are just babies) in school when their third birthday roles around.  This year Emily will not be attending school, although she could.  She will be three in November, after all.  I feel grateful that I can avoid the system (legally) for three more years.  At three, her job is to explore and discover the world.  I am happy to show it to her, but she must do the discovering...and nothing can be discovered by sitting still at a desk tracing letters with a blunt pencil!

I think it is telling that the above short is Spanish; however I do believe the message is universal.  Education worldwide is in need of some serious, fundamental changes.  There are better and worse systems around the globe, but fundamentally most of them vary quite little, I'm afraid. Everywhere  there are standards to be met and contents to be covered.  Traditional schools breed an environment of competetivity in which students are constantly being compared to each other and to the abstract standards set by pedagogues and politicians.


Society values innovation, yet too little importance is put on exploration, and creativity in schools.  The most creative subjects are always the first to go with budget cuts.  We smother the beauty that can be found in our individuality by championing the results of standardized tests.  Teachers, too, are
robbed of their creative licenses when faced with the task of homogonizing their classes in order to achieve the necessary scores.  Students are empty vessels to be filled with skills and knowledge, then
churned out into the workforce to become contributing citizens.

This is not to say that there aren't extraordinary teachers who do cultivate creativity and collaboration in the classroom.  There are--Thank God! The system should make work easier for these individuals, rather than, as so often happens, hampering the teaching-learning process.  We value and admire what these dedicated teachers do, and yet most people shy away from denouning the system which not only hinders their work, but also produces young people incapable of independant thought, innovation or creativity.  Isn't it ironic that traits we so highly value are not only NOT cultivated in the current Education System, but are seemingly purposefully eliminated by it?


Just as there are great teachers, there are also great schools.  All is not lost.  There are alternative schools, private schools, homeschooling options, etc.  But why must these outstanding examples be exceptions to the rule?  Why shouldn't they BE the rule?  Why can't we change the public system to reward innovative teaching, creativity and personal iniciative from teachers and students alike?


I can only imagine that the reason behind any reluctance to modify the current education system is an economic one.  It is, I am sure, quite costly to completely overhaul education...  But what about the social costs of robbing a three-year-old of her childhood!  I am sure that in the long term, investing in lasting educational change would save much more than it costs.