Thinking of Authentic Education

The clouds are frowning as I sit on my bed with this laptop on my lap. There is no breeze, for sure. I see no movement of tree leaves or prayer flags. The air so still. Kinda scary.

There is a lot of noise, though. Children playing...running around...screaming. Adults arguing...shouting. Construction works all around. Household chores vibrating through the floor above, down my ceiling. Cars starting. Cars moving. Machines doing their business. My table clock ticking. Sadly, no sound of water running. The source for our area has dried up.

It's lunch time and I'm not hungry. I had too many cups of tea. I've been contemplating on a lot of things.

What does it mean to be innovative in education? Do we mean reform for improvement or radical changes..revolution? What does the shift to democracy in our country mean for the education of our children?

I'm looking at assessment based study findings and wondering why our children have not understood the basic concepts in the subjects of English, Math and Science. I'm thinking we live math and science every day of our lives and yet we do not understand math and science. I'm telling myself we are applying math when we use proportions of ingredients for cooking or chop wood to reasonable sizes or share food, yet we do not understand measurement or ratios or fractions. I'm telling myself we boil water, prepare wine at home, prepare cheese and butter, cultivate our land and yet we do not understand science.  

Is it because we do math and science in our local languages at home and learn them in English in school?

Or, is it because we do not bring the every day real life math and science into the classroom?

Our political system and governance have turned democratic, but we remain undemocratic in the way we function. We wait for instructions. We do as instructed or directed. We are unhappy if our bosses do not instruct or direct us. We do not recognize autonomy, forget about using it. We talk about problems or shortfalls, but wait to be told what to do. We talk about empowerment, but we do not empower ourselves. Our children are still listening to what their teachers tell them. Our children are not engaged in thinking for themselves. Our teachers still like to dictate to our children, so do parents.

We are robotic in many ways and most times it is because we choose to do business as usual. We believe in ideas and practices that are not relevant anymore. We adopt ideas and practices from places that have nothing in common with us except for human rights. We talk about standards based education, yet what we value in life is different in different countries. The common thread, of course, is the economy. We need economy for social services, yet the sources of our economy could vary across countries. Industry in our country would not mean the same or be of the same scale as industry in other countries.

So, it makes sense to  have education reflect what we really value in life...what matters to our society...our nation...and what progress in our context entails. Need we do everything of what others do? On the other hand, need we make uniqueness our objective? Perhaps, yes. Our niche handicraft products would be an example of uniqueness contributing to our economy in big ways - Low Volume, High Value. While in terms of energy consumption, we might choose to rely on solar energy. We might adopt eco-friendly technology.

Being an educator, the education of our children is at the heart of all concerns in my life. Many of us educators at heart have no voice or place or the resources to exhibit what is good for education. We have been on a journey of education reform for a long long time. All that we think of is improvement, but what we really need is revolution...big changes...innovations. We need AUTHENTIC EDUCATION.....not Global Education or even Western Education.

The answer is  perhaps in our philosophy of GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS.

Do we rise up to the occasion or with the occasion? The choice is for us to make.