It's hard to believe the end of this course I've been working on, reading about and thinking about non-stop for months is almost over. I still feel like I should be writing some kind of term paper but I feel that I really showed my learning in other ways thoroughly regardless of the lack of papers.
Anyway...I want to wrap this up in a blog post. I loved the book Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit by Marie Battiste. A couple of days ago I was re reading some of her writing and came across page 126 & 127 where she is talking about power relationships and the links that has to what we teach in schools and how we teach it. My own personal research melded so well with her book, it almost seemed serendipitous that I had been reading about unschooling right before I took this course. Schooling as it is now must change. I cannot see any way around it. I recently have been taking courses that will lead to an administrative role in a school but i am beginning to wonder if that's where I want to be. I wonder how I can continue with this school system, feeling good about 'tweaking' it when it really needs a complete and utter overhaul. Yesterday I read a book by a guy I follow on Twitter, Seth Godin. He wrote an e-book called "Stop Killing Dreams" If you want to read it, it's here: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf. His book says what Marie says, although in different language and with different reasons. Schools must change. They are hurting people. They are furthering the status quo and giving nothing back. He talks more about the factory style schooling that helped people become better factory workers that isn't really serving anyone anymore. Although I wonder...I wonder if it is serving people after all. It is definitely making us less inquisitive, more compliant consumers. When the government says something crazy, a few people will protest but most people have learned that they are helpless and can't effect change at all so they say nothing. If that's true, then what are any of us doing in education? Why are we perpetuating poverty and mindless consumerism/debt imprisonment when we are, as Godin says, on a downward spiral as a society as a result of it? It concerns me greatly. I'm not sure what I will do from here. I want to learn more about it before I leap out of education entirely. I still hold a small amount of hope that if enough of us feel this way, that we can wait until the idea starts building critical mass and then we will be able to change things. I want to end this on a more positive note. I loved the format of this course...allowing me to express my ideas in such a free way. I felt it led to way more learning for me personally, although it was hard to find direction at times. I have modeled my grade 12 social studies assessment model after this idea in this semester. It isnt going as well there but I have high hopes that they will pull it together at the end (as I did). I felt free near the end of the course...free in a way one rarely feels in an academic setting. I had spent a few weeks feeling guilty about reading Gatto instead of Daniel Paul's book (which I finished anyway) but it turns out that the ideas in Gatto's book led me to other ones that actually applied to the course material. So in the end, everything came together well in my mind. I have learned a lot in this course. And it has inspired me to learn even more about this subject as I move forward in understanding the critical issues in education that we face in the 21st century. Thank you for reading.
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AuthorMasters in Education student at the University of New Brunswick, I am avidly interested in the future of education, especially for First Nation, Metis and Inuit students in Canada. I believe change is going to come from these sectors who have the most room for growth and the most interest in seeing the status quo changed. Archives
March 2016
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