Why I'm in education

The primary reason I feel called to education is concern.

I’m concerned with the way education tends to be viewed solely in terms of an individual’s economic abilities. I’m concerned that teachers go into the profession with the primary goal of preparing students for standardized tests rather than cultivating a real love for learning within them.

I first got interested in education when I read Summerhill School by A.S. Neill. At Summerhill, students were never pressured to learn; they did not have to attend classes if they chose not to. Education was a completely natural process.

Clearly public education cannot hope to replicate Summerhill's system of allowing children to go to class only when they want to. However, the message that could be applied to public education is that children do not need to be pressured into learning. Summerhill shows that, if you show children caring support, they will eventually come around and listen to your advice and respect the caring expectations (as opposed to demanding expectations) you have for their lives.

My vision of public education is one that does not use grades, evaluations and rewards to pressure students into learning. (I believe grades are needed only for certification purposes once someone has decided what career they want to go into.) Education should not just be about preparing children to plug the open jobs in the economy; it should enable students to excel in all aspects of life within society: how to stay healthy, how to be a caring person, etc. These issues arise naturally out of studying subjects like biology and literature, but only when the emphasis is taken away from grading and rewards, which often overshadow the true benefits that education has to offer.

Assessment can be a useful source of feedback for students, but as soon as a reward, a ranking, or any other college acceptance criteria is attached to the assessment, those things begin to block out the original reason for studying the subject. We should teach students to be motivated by the natural rewards of an activity; not pressure them into activities with an onslaught of artificial motivators and pressures.

The key to getting education to reach its full potential is to get students to understand how the subject should affect their lives outside of the classroom. To do this, it is important that students understand the reasons for studying each subject; to understand what makes the subject relevant to the way they approach everyday life. (I’m not talking about when science textbooks explain how GPS works and so on. Those things can be interesting, but I’m talking about how subjects can change the way we think and act, as opposed to just being aware of how things work.) For example, math and science teach us not just about how technology works, but also how to think about the world rationally.

In fact, each subject can teach us a way of thinking that can be applied to our everyday lives.

Making some slight alterations to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I think intelligence can be separated into six primary areas that define the way we approach life. Gardner defines intelligence as “the ability to solve problems that have value in at least one culture.” The “problems” an individual faces can be separated into three areas: mental, bodily, and social. There are two general approaches we use to solving these problems: a rational approach or an emotional approach.

So, for example, when we approach social problems in a rational way, I would claim we are using what Gardner called “Logical-mathematical” intelligence.

These distinctions leave us with 6 core intelligences that people use to approach their problems:

Core intelligences	Means that you apply:	Interpretation:
Logical-mathematical	Reason --> Society	Understanding society rationally
Bodily-Kinesthetic/ Athletic?	Reason --> Body	Understanding your body rationally
Intrapersonal	Reason --> Personality	Understanding your feelings rationally
Interpersonal	Feelings --> Society	Understanding society emotionally
Sensual	Feelings --> Body	Understanding your body emotionally
Artistic	Feelings --> Mind	Understanding your thoughts emotionally

What makes this significant to someone interested in teaching is that the subjects taught in school naturally address these same problems. This chart answers the question “Why do we study these subjects?”

6 Core Intelligences	Means that you apply:	Interpretation:	Subjects/activities that teach this intelligence:
Logical-mathematical	Reason --> World	Understanding the world rationally	Math, Sciences, History
Bodily-Kinesthetic/ Athletic?	Reason --> Body	Understanding your body rationally	Health and exercise, Sports
Intrapersonal/ Introspective	Reason --> Personality	Understanding your feelings rationally	Philosophy, Reflection, Journal writing
Interpersonal	Feelings --> World	Understanding the world emotionally	Social interactions, Story-telling, Group activities
Sensual	Feelings --> Body	Understanding your body emotionally	Dance, Rhythmic aspect of music
Artistic	Feelings --> Mind	Understanding your thoughts emotionally	Art, creative writing, melodic aspect of music

From this we see that education does not need to be solely about economic preparation, and also that grades and rewards are not needed to make academic subjects relevant to students’ lives. Rather, educators should show how lessons apply to the mental, bodily, and social problems that students are dealing with. Rather than emphasizing grades or other methods of assessment, math teachers should emphasize how math teaches us to use logic and reason to understand our society; art teachers should emphasize that drawing or painting can help us reach an emotional understanding about the thoughts that pass through our heads, etc.

There is great potential within education to improve the way people function in society in their life outside their work. Certainly, it’s good that education can lead to many good economic opportunities, but I believe we need to view education in a much broader context. Education should involve all aspects of our relationship to society. Good parenting, being a supportive friend, and keeping yourself healthy: education should cover all these aspects of life.

When education is limited to just the economic aspect of life, those students who are concentrating on other aspects of life get unfairly criticized. What’s more, that criticism pressures students to devote themselves to economic goals not out of a genuine interest in achieving those goals, but out of a fear of the criticism that will follow if they fail. So instead of exploring different topics and searching for a career they will love and enjoy, the pressure causes students to push themselves into career paths they may not be happy in. The end result is a lot of unnecessary time, energy, and stress spent in service to the economy. This occurs at the expense of our mental health, bodily health, and social health.