Educating the future

It's 9.45pm and the parental meeting just ended. The school breezed through questions raised by the parents regarding teaching practices and methods by siting the competitions that they've put the students through. It was all but meaningful.

One day, I will stand on the stage and announce that the current education environment in Taiwan WILL NOT cultivate individuals with competitiveness that the country needs. From what I see now, I am unwilling to put my kids in this environment because I have absolutely no confidence in it. I am no celebrity and my words don't carry any weight, nor can it attract attention, but I know that what I am capable of is way more practical than those who just exercises their mouths on the media.

 My ideal education is one that is separate from government control and influence. Teachers should not have to waste time in complicated and tedious paperwork to get anything done and students should never have to miss a chance of learning because of the deficiency of the government. We want a future worth of anticipation, not linger in the present man-made mess.

To me, education should be organized and run through social efforts of multiple facades. The purpose of education is to cultivate a future society that is a part of social sustainability, therefore the stake holders should be the society, not the government.

Every parent should recognize that the purpose of education is not for individual's interest so that your kid can out-perform the next student. The purpose of education is to create a big learning environment so that every student can help each other learn through interactions, develop self-less moral values and find one's own value within a bigger community.

The current situation where parents push their kids to intensive tutoring centers is based on nothing related to reality. A student can have outstanding academic performance, but the lack of social and communication skills will only result in a non-productive and unsustainable society. It is the contribution of one's effort to the bigger community that defines one's worthiness, and it takes all of our efforts to be great.

 

9.45pm 剛開玩家長會議。家長提出的教育問題學校都以不痛不養的方式敷衍帶過,還在那邊說學生參加了多少比賽等等。有一天我會站在台上大聲說,"台灣的教育環境沒 有辦法產生有競爭力的人才。以目前我所看到的狀況,我也不願意把我的小孩留在這個環境成長。" 當然,我什麼都不是。我的聲音沒蔣X柏那麼嗆,也沒有朱X恆的粉絲,更沒有劉X傑的鎂光燈,但是我可以做的事情比他們都實際。

 我的理念是教育脫離政府及公務體系,讓好的教師能夠專心做他們該做的, 讓學生不再因為政府的無能犧牲學習的機會,讓國家有個值得期待的未來。

教育不應該是政府辦的。教育是為了社會未來的發展而創造培養下一代的學習環境,所以教育應該是集合社會各方的力量來籌備執行。

每一個家長應該認知到的是教育不是只為了讓自己的小孩比別人表現更好,讓自己的小孩更突出。教育的目的是以創造一個大的學習環境來幫助所有的學生能夠從互動中互相學習,建立無私的價值觀及形成學生自己在社會裡該扮演的角色(以培養自己的特色)。

以目前的教育環境而言,所培養出來的"競爭力"(補習班,才藝班等),是沒有實際根據的。學生大可在學校及成勣單上表現突出,但是對於社會團隊運作及社交的技巧運用完全沒有概念,以至形成所謂的"宅"文化。一個社會如果開始把"宅"當作特色的話,那就可以開始準備逃難了。