Miguel Carazo 1º B - Personal Toughts

¿Do we need a change in education?

I think we really need a change in our peculiar education system. This complex project has highly confirmed what I thought before. Some aspects of our education system suck.

Maybe this has been one of the most complex projects that we have done during this year, but it has been also one of the most of the enriching projects also. We have had the opportunity to explore a whole new world of possibilities in education, we have seen schools in Finland, in Japan, and each of the schools and each of the interviews and monologues has had something important to teach.

I want to talk first, about the videos, concretely about one that made me reflect on every aspect of my school life, I’m talking about Logan LaPlante’s speech in Tedx.

I think that we try the children to be mature very soon, and that’s a problem, because they don’t really enjoy their childhood. We have the preconceived idea of a happy and healthy life which is based in having a good (and long) education, then find a job, and then you’ll be “happy”. Really? I mean life is hard, and when you’re pushing a child to get good marks, and you put him under pressure the only result you’re going to get is sadness.

Logan talks about 8 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (Dr. Roger Walsh), which need to be done to reach happiness and health. And something that is not surprising is that unless we go out of the traditional education we are not getting reaching that goal. “Much of education is oriented to making a living rather than making a life” (Dr. Roger Walsh), I agree with him, because probably we focus on the ideal life that we can have, but we don’t pay attention to what really matters.

And here is where we introduce the Hackschooling* term created by Logan, which can be quickly summed up in deciding what do you want to study, how do you want to do it, and where do you want it. Studying using this new creative system, can open bunch of possibilities to improve not only the quantity of what the students learn, but also the quality, because they’re going to love what they are doing, and they will put passion on their work, and the truth is, that there is nothing more worthy than something in which you have put passion on.

Now let’s talk about about the different projects (not about each one) that all the class have proposed as our different ideal schools. I have realised that we have a lot of great ideas, and that the majority of them can be easily put in action right now, we don’t even need money, sometimes it’s only about using common sense, and logic.

Dumbledore’s Teachers Army

They focussed on the main problems that we can easily find in the current education system. They are structured in different kind of problems, we have value problems, like bullying; methodology problems, as the amount of homework children have, bags weight; They used as newspaper structure, using Harry Potter’s scenes in which they gave their opinion. Then they started giving different answers in their ideal School. They gave some keys to be a good teacher, some ideas for the buildings and installations, as the light, the open spaces concept… It was a nice job, and I liked the structure they used by presenting first the problems, and then giving their solutions to that problems.

Wanderlust Team

This team used an original idea, they dressed up like different inhabitants of countries like Finland, USA and Indonesia and they talked about their education system. The reason they did it like that was to use real examples to show that a new different school can be created, and with these ideas they created their ideal School, which was highly characterised by encourage children to protect the environment, work in teams and use cooperative learning.

Modern Students

This group made a really good project, and they didn’t make giant changes, they focused in two important things: a project based school rather than an exam based school; and in cooperation between teachers. I thing this two things are the base of a strong education system, first because if we cooperate between us we will be able to do a better labour with the children, and secondly because if we cooperate between ourselves we will be the role model that children will follow.

Amigos del Football

This team showed us again the differences between some European education systems, and we conclude choosing the German as one of the best. However not everything is not gold all that glitters, the German system has a big point against, which is that children have to decide about their education when they’re only 10 years old. And something that they clarified is that no matter how much you redesign the buildings and the installations if the methodology that some teachers follow doesn’t change, because sometimes this is what stops the new education models.

Musical Chairs

This team talked about having big spaces for the children to feel comfortable and free. They wanted colourful classes that could catch the eye of the children, and they also wanted to have present the nature, so that they would consider important the feelings and emotions of the children. They wanted a kind of education where every mistake is a new opportunity to improve, as they are the ones who solve any problem which appears. All of this must make the children learn, but without prevailing them from having fun.

So, in conclusion, it has been a very hard work, but it has been also really worth it. We have learned a lot about all the bunch of possibilities that we can use to improve the learning process. Also this has taught me that the only limits that exist are the ones that you put to yourself. However, with the sociology part the we prepared I also learned that there are many factors you have to take into account before planning anything, any significant detail is important when talking about education. And I would want to finish with one sentence that Sir Ken Robinson said in one of his Tedx’s speeches:

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”. (Sir Ken Robinson)