The purpose of school was to spread literacy. A hundred years ago, children knew skills and learnt them at home. Be it farming, cobbling, art. Education happened in families.
Schools came in and replaced life with memorization and rot learning exams.
School’s role must have been limited to spreading literacy and certification.
Today,schools do not hold that relevancy . It has nt changed in years. And it does not cater to the changing demands of the society. 100 years ago, a child would nt learn how to identify alphabets at home.
Today, almost every child learns it at home from their parent. So how is sending most children, especially in primary school relevant?
School’s and government’s role in childhood should be limited to:
- Introduce literacy into the masses
- Certifications
Schools were relevant, 100 years ago, when only few people could read and write. And school’s job was to increase literacy rates, for which it did a great job.
But today, literacy rates have gone up. And now the major challenge is to build skills in children so they can solve problems. Work in teams, communicate. Experiment and create new things.
Schools served that purpose and it served it well. But it went beyond its job of literacy and it is now seen as a place of learning.
But let’s face the fact , it is a terrible place of education, may be a great place for literacy and certificates
Classrooms should be replaced with
- Libraries
- Activities areas
- More Resources
- Playgrounds
Once the government minimizes its spend on schooling in current form, it can then utilize the money in building better libraries, more resources for children. Sports facilities, skill training centers, farming training etc.
A child should be allowed to choose what he wants to learn, how and when.
Money invested in these extra curricular and skill development activities will fetch far more prosperous Return On Investment than education in current form.
A learning place for children should have a LOT of resources. A lot of free time and freedom how children want to spend that time.
The results of this set up will be magical.
There’s a great deal of human psychology that works behind this approach.
Children learn at great pace when they are left to act on their own. It is no rocket science. When someone is controlling you, you don’t focus on the process. You do things for the sake of compliance and fear. This can’t be real learning.
Children lack resources these days. Schools lack resources because funds are allocated on textbooks , exams, big buildings.
Very rarely do we see other things in school.
If any at all, little money is spent on games, books, art/craft other activities. Schools don’t offer these things usually and children never get a chance to experience any of those in modern daily life .
It is a deprivation which modern children live with.
And just how a land who does not go through crop rotation gets barren.
A mind that does not get exposure to different type of activities. Will never grow as smart, strong as someone who does.