Hi all,

In my parent network, at our home school website, we have been having a discussion about modern exam based education techniques and I want to share my thoughts on this with each of you.

 I think that exams are the easiest way to grade large groups of students (especially multiple choice, fill in the blank and T/F exams) but they are the poorest way to discern true depth of understanding and comprehension. I don’t know how schools with large numbers can get around their use, perhaps they have no choice, but that doesn’t change the fact that the poorest level of education is based on this type of exam taking.

I was able to memorize facts for exams very easily, and I had really good multiple choice test writing skills, and so with minimal effort I could pull off straight A’s in school. Even if I made this effort I would immediately forget all I learned and retain NOTHING unless it mattered deeply to me and, therefore, I was continuing to use or think about it. Of course, I often didn’t put that minimal effort in, as I didn’t feel it was important to me, and so I did dismally in school (elementary through high school) until college (where I was the top of my graduating class).

I believe learning should be inwardly transformative; dates,names,battles,scientific theories, and so on, can be looked up in an instant online, but the real question is “How did these events impact the world in the past and into our own day? Why did they have this impact? What can we glean from these events so the terrible does not repeat and we honor the good, the true and the beautiful in our world?” These are the questions real education should be having all (children and adults) considering.

The best way to teach is simply to open the world and all its ideas up  before the students. The best way to share what is learned is by re-expressing in writing and/or ulterior presentation methods, the concepts being learned. This allows the person sharing (the teacher) to continue to remind him or herself of the important and grounding events and concepts that make the world what it is in our day (and perhaps learn a new thing or two). In turn, it allows the student to take in what they learn about and consider it, making the information their own, and then cooking it in their own internal furnace and sharing it “fresh out of the oven” (as a good friend and mentor of mine says) in their own words. The most important result? Everyone involved in this creative process is learning what is important (and caring enough to want to continue to do so) and is involved in the act of becoming a fully engaged and involved human being in the process. This type of re-expression creates a depth in understanding no exam (like the ones I described above) could.

The word educate does not mean: to fill up with facts, the original meaning of the word educate comes from the Latin e-ducere meaning “to lead out”. In education one is meant to light an urge in each person, to become human! The rest is up to that person. Here are some great quotes I found in an article (Link is found below my sign off):

“The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.” ~Eric Hoffer

“No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” ~Emma Goldman

“The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.” ~Ayn Rand

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.” ~Bill Beattie

“The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions.” ~Bishop Creighton

“The central job of schools is to maximize the capacity of each student.” ~Carol Ann Tomlinson

The point is, education means different things to different people. Regardless, it should help us to care about the world, past, present and future, and help us to develop into real, mature, deep, and true human beings that seek to educate ourselves throughout our lifetimes! We should never stop learning, for if we do, we stop truly living.

All this being as it is, my children will grit their teeth and get through high school for a diploma, so every opportunity is available to them into adulthood, to fulfill the true meaning of education. I can only hope that what I do here at home in their early years (before they face these exam based classes) sticks with them until they reach higher educational options.

Thanks,

 Donna

http://www.teachersmind.com/education.htm