The world needs more teachers
Education is a lifelong goal, for me. I have rarely met anyone who doesn't need to educate themselves more on a subject or matter, otherwise, we're in the twilight zone of sages and masters, which are rare and few. Even Aristotle, who one of my philosophy teachers told me, was the last man who knew everything in the world, did not become content with his knowledge. Similar to Goethe's Faust, there is an insatiable desire to want to know more, driven by important human traits such as curiosity, hope, and the desire for eudaimonia.
I've often resented the fact that education is considered as a stepping stone, which upon completing doesn't require further practice. It's become mechanized like a production line in many regards. It would seem intuitively obvious that the best worker is one willing to learn on every step on the way forward before, during, and after work.
People are also inherently curious about things, and hopeful. These are positive traits that are rarely satisfied or even encouraged out of institutionalized education settings. Curiosity and hope know no bounds.
So, what am I getting at?
Basically, that with so many people around the world, who are curious and inquisitive, that we ought to have more teachers in the world to help guide them in their spiritual and epistemological development. We have seen the development of many online programs and youtube self-help tutorial videos that are driven by the aforementioned traits displayed by people. The practice of educating one's self is a virtuous circle, yet, is becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy. Again, as per one of my previous threads, the market has corrupted education in my mind.
Thoughts?
I've often resented the fact that education is considered as a stepping stone, which upon completing doesn't require further practice. It's become mechanized like a production line in many regards. It would seem intuitively obvious that the best worker is one willing to learn on every step on the way forward before, during, and after work.
People are also inherently curious about things, and hopeful. These are positive traits that are rarely satisfied or even encouraged out of institutionalized education settings. Curiosity and hope know no bounds.
So, what am I getting at?
Basically, that with so many people around the world, who are curious and inquisitive, that we ought to have more teachers in the world to help guide them in their spiritual and epistemological development. We have seen the development of many online programs and youtube self-help tutorial videos that are driven by the aforementioned traits displayed by people. The practice of educating one's self is a virtuous circle, yet, is becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy. Again, as per one of my previous threads, the market has corrupted education in my mind.
Thoughts?
Comments (19)
Have you been in a school classroom recently? Most kids do not have much interest in learning.
"Why do I need to know this? If I ever need this information I can find it on the internet" is something I hear every single day.
I have a student that cannot speak English properly but is developing a Pakistani or Indian accent because of the amount of times he watches tutorials on Youtube. The internet has taken a lot of the teachers influence over kids away.
Perhaps you address a different target audience. But, in general, people are inquisitive and interested in new things or at least if it serves their goals (college setting). Is this an issue with how education is presented or the framework of the settings in which the information is presented?
It's a better way of getting educated. You don't need to go to college with buildings and professors and incur a lot of debt. You can sit in your room and the world comes to you. For a self-disciplined and motivated individual, that's a great way to learn.
It's said that college gives you a well-rounded education. This is no longer true. The trend in "Social Justice" on campus means that you can get a degree in English without reading Shakespeare, a degree in history without taking a class in Western Civ, which for generations has been the core course that every college student takes.
Meanwhile the privileged kids, the ones whose parents practiced good assortative mating in Palo Alto and Georgetown, spend four years partying and making contacts; while the poor kids trying to get a leg up see what's going on and feel resentful as hell.
I read today that college attendance nationwide is down. People are catching on to the scam.
I'm all for online learning. I've taken a few MOOCS. One thing that's really struck me is all these kids from China and India and everywhere else hungrily educating themselves. Something to behold.
The universities are toast. Like every other institution in our corrupt and decaying society, they've failed their mission. Online knowledge is the future.
I say it's a good thing.
Our individual and collective intellectual experiences are really just a big, long-running conversation over many millennia and across the globe.
We do not have to have formal, credential-awarding educational institutions to have that conversation. Furthermore, those institutions--especially at the elementary and secondary levels--are increasingly overwhelmingly interested in training workers and have very little interest in being shepherds of intellectual and cultural traditions.
Why do you want to centralize intellectual life into a handful of people with the formal title of "teacher"?
If you want the conversation to keep going and keep developing/evolving, do it. As often as you can, do things like saying to that stranger in line behind you at the grocery store, "Yesterday I read about this new theory/idea/angle/perspective. What do you think?"
No problem Dorothy.
>:O - then he wouldn't be a worker Posty, what are you thinking?! Of course, the ideal worker isn't someone who is willing to learn, someone who is willing to learn is a master, not a worker, and is actually dangerous in an organizational setting. Do you think an Aristotle would ever accept to be working under someone else? There's a reason he departed from Plato's Academy to form his own. Those who love learning and challenging themselves will not remain workers for long - the constraints of structured environments are not for them.
Before technology, I think it's fair to say it was a lot harder; forcing people into a choice between strive or die (I'm no biology major, but I think evolution works this way. Problem?-->Breakthru. No Problem?... [No problem for the Coelacanths]). So, the question is do we have a problem to solve? Is there a space race between nations? Is there a certain nation that we designate as the enemy to keep us on our toes so that we may destroy our enemy? Who's the enemy in a world led by...?
Will a westerner who has been given most of everything they've needed in life ever grasp for the concepts that are yet out of their reach? The rest of the world only knows how to continue grasping. As if in comparison we lay limp with our jaws open and a loose sphincter.
I'm cuban and every single cuban professor or teacher I've known doesn't, of their own choice, teach in the states.
I don't think education gives students the tools they need to be a good citizen, at least in my experience, you have to read around and beyond the curriculum - into other fields, things you're not familiar with from previous studies - to even attempt to grapple with the complexity surrounding us. The continued study of the humanities is being made a problem due to lack of funding, probably because it doesn't have many engineering or technology applications and must 'run at a loss' financially. This has a horrible feedback because it makes people less likely to broaden their study into the humanities, and there simply aren't as many people who specialize and know their way about fields of the humanities. Running at a loss financially is an excellent price to pay for a more informed public.
There's thus a strong imperative to educate yourself, not just in technical fields to stand a chance of getting some amount of job security and non-precarity, but so that you learn how to find out wtf is going on. Online resources here are great, as they stand a chance of democratizing education a bit and making it a level playing field.
Why?
This is exactly right. There are a zillion life coach/mentors/instructors/teacher online which barely have any grasp of classical logic, rhetoric, and grammar, for example. We need more sagacious and enlightened teachers. Many teachers today contribute to the wisdom-less culture we live in.
And here I think lies the problem. What are the goals of kids today? And what are the goals of the schools?
Most of the teenagers I know have just one goal, enjoy. And sometimes they are not even sure what they want to enjoy or how to do it.
Most educational systems that I know about have a major problem, they people that work in them are on about the same pay level as health and security workers. And they are all below what one would expect for three of the most important supports of society.
I do agree with your opinion that more teachers are needed, but I believe that the job definition needs to be drastically realigned with the needs of tomorrow.
https://teachingandlearninginhighered.org/2013/07/15/preparing-students-for-what-we-cant-prepare-them-for/
It's not the technology itself that's the problem (I'm a computer engineer); it's how people mistake things like Facebook/Twitter messages for real connection/interaction, that's the problem.
No such thing as genuine interaction anymore :(
I think the older folk have a prejudice around the internet and the possibilities it offers.
You're absolutely right. Silly me !
We need more education, but we also need to allow more for differences between people and create a new system capable of teaching everyone from those with severe learning disabilities to those with the highest IQ.