The Perpetuations of Society's Paradigms in Education

I have recently started to become more and more frustrated with a few paradigms in our culture. First, I am bothered by the idea that more or bigger is better. This has obvious ramifications for environmental issues, greed, and consumerism but I have started to think about it in terms of education and specifically work that is assigned in schools. Often times, I feel as if educational institutions at all levels perpetuate this idea that more is better in the forms of excessive amounts of homework and the like. My frustration here is maybe better described by relating it to the commonly held ideal in our nation that progress, movement, action, and work all seem to be honored or thought of as valuable no matter what. In school, the more you study the better; the more books you read the better; the more AP classes you take the better. And the list goes on. While there are obviously some positive benefits to this desire for more and better things and actions, I think too often the results, consequences, and tradeoffs are ignored. This limits time, energy, and desire to take part in other valuable parts of personal growth and societal membership. I do not believe that allowing kids to have extra this extra "free time" for lack of a better word would be all bad. Again, it may only lead to more screen time for some youth but there would be other benefits. On top of this, I think my previous word choice of the word "free time" may have conjured up some negative connotations (such as not productive, wasted time, lazy, etc.). As was previously mentioned, this is because of our country's affinity for more and bigger and better as well as general output and production. "Free time" also has some extremely valuable consequences such as relaxation, exercise, fun, rejuvenation, creativity, etc.

I think we are too busy as a nation and this starts when kids are young. Kids need to be kids. Likewise, college students need to be college students. Heck, parents need to be parents too but are often too busy with work. We are prevented from fully taking advantage of all of the life experiences that used to be correlated with specific life stages because we are too busy and caught up in structured behaviors. My dad used to play baseball everyday in the summer with his buddies for hours and learned to love the sport. I don't think I was able to gain the same appreciation for baseball during my childhood as my dad because I often resented going to baseball practices or games because my summers were too organized and structured. Playing baseball for my dad was a completely kid organized activity and in some ways more voluntary. Today, it seems the majority of youth sports are highly structured and adult organized. Kids seem less attracted to these activities.

I work as a camp counselor at YMCA camp in northern Minnesota during my summers and one specific story jumps out from last summer that relates nicely to this train of thought. While on an overnight with a group of 10 year old boys, my co-counselor and myself decided to take a break from the kids to sit back and relax after a long day of running around after the little fellas. We expected to be pulled from our conversation to break up a fight or answer questions about girls or when dinner would be ready. Instead, we were pleased to see the kids wrapped up in completely made up role play game where each kid was a different animal with different capabilities and skills. The point of the game was to survive the longest and even though the rules for survival were spontaneously determined, there were no fights or arguments. Some of the kids even made their own habitats and shelters. The campers invited us to play and we had a blast. It was actually one of the highlights of my summer. One of the most insightful kids in the group told us that he enjoyed the made-up game so much because "there were no grownups telling us what to do." It was completely kid run.

Maybe I would have liked baseball more as a child if it was more kid run like it was for my dad. What if school were more kid run? More student choice in projects and topics is not an extremely novel idea but I believe that it could be more commonly integrated in schools. More free time may even be a good thing. My campers were able to develop their creativity, incorporate knowledge about the dynamics of ecosystems, and work on cooperative and problem-solving skills. Some of the same consequences may be seen in the classroom if students were allowed to be students. Another idea that is running through my head right now is the possibility of taking some parts out of school curriculums to allow for more student choice in education. This extra time in the school year could also be used for service projects or field trips or other learning experiences. This would be valuable at the individual as well as societal levels.

One more frustration I have with our education system is the fact that kids spend the first 18 years of their lives (or longer for college bound students) cooped up in the classroom with minimal direct real world exposure or experience. I think we could be using schools to bring about valuable change in society while simultaneously better preparing our youth for the real world and educating them about the state of the world. Our children could learn while beginning to tackle such problems as climate changer, hunger, and poverty by engaging in service projects or even research in their communities. So, while this rant kind of jumped around, it is critical of some aspects of society's mindset especially in regards to schools. For one, society is too concerned with quanity of production and not the quality, overly structured lifestyles, lack of choice, and lack of real world exposure. Despite all of this, there is hope for American schools.