Once again about education in school
Hello habrazhiteli. My name is Ivan. In 2014, I graduated from high school (social and humanitarian profile) in the city of Blagoveshchensk and entered the St. Petersburg campus of one of the best universities in Russia at the Faculty of Economics and Management. During 11 years of study, I gained a large amount of experience, on the basis of which it is possible to analyze the quality of education both in my region and in other subjects of our immense homeland. In the first article I will reflect on the problems of the initial stage of education, in the second I will address issues related to secondary school and, finally, in the third I will share my impressions of the beginning of my bachelor's degree. The last article will be a reflection on how to fix all these problems. (If you don’t want to read the article, you can browse through a short review at the end.)
As already noted, I graduated from no less remarkable secondary school in the city, the existence of which many of my new environment have learned only from me. Despite this, after analyzing the information received from school graduates in more than 20 regions, I came to the conclusion that the problems that plagued my school are not unique. On the contrary, similar problems turned out to be characteristic of the entire education system in Russia. Consequently, my experience can be interpreted for any public school subordinate to the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately, having entered the university, controlled by the Russian government, and, therefore, having more freedom and flexibility both in the preparation of curricula and in other areas of students' lives, I lost the opportunity to objectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of higher education in Russia. Nevertheless, I decided to tell in the article about the experience of studying at the university, as many of the ideas for improving school education came to me at this stage of education.
I am convinced that education is one of the important components of the success of the state and society as a whole. On what kind of education a person receives, depends on what benefit he can bring to humanity in the future. It should immediately be said that by education I mean not a school, university, university or other institutions, but the totality of knowledge acquired by a person over a certain period of time. However, it is precisely these structures that largely determine whether the individual will be able to obtain the knowledge necessary for his purpose in the future. Accordingly, we will consider the knowledge and skills acquired in educational institutions equivalent to education. The goal I highlighted was an analysis of the education system in order to better understand where I should go in order to compensate for the shortcomings of the school.
Having arrived on September 1, 2003, I plunged into the school world. Everywhere it was said that this would be the happiest and most carefree time in my life. My father instructed me to “gnaw granite of science” and sent me to a class where I had been waiting for 4 years, which made me an obedient, afraid to express my own opinion and having problems with a student's restraint of emotions. Let's understand how it happened that instead of the happy moments of childhood, I began to prepare for a harsh life.
')
As my future teachers told me later, I was very lucky, since I learned from an outstanding elementary school teacher. True, ideas about outstanding teachers are different for everyone. In view of some features of my upbringing, I consider myself a pronounced introvert. Since childhood, I have loved to dream and spend time reading both adult books at the level of “Les Miserables” and children's works. My first classroom immediately stuck to me the nickname “scattered from Bassejnaya Street”, which she certainly remembered every time when, due to my carelessness, I did something stupid (I forget to put a minus or add the wrong numbers). The only sad thing in this story is that they didn’t want me (or couldn’t help me), as if this situation should be resolved only at my will. Time after time the teacher reminded me of my “inferiority” and that I could not achieve anything significant with such attention.
So, the first problem of schools is the lack of a personal approach to children from primary school . Often teachers are not interested in helping their pupils in the literal sense of the word. They know only two classical concepts of education - either a stick or a carrot. Quite rarely there are teachers who are ready for an open dialogue with both parents and students. Meanwhile, problems that in elementary school could be solved by simple conversation often lead to great tragedies and disappointments in the future. The simplest example is learning. According to various studies, about 87% of children who have less than average academic performance during elementary school did not show signs of increasing interest in studying at later stages. Personally, I know only one example of how a student dramatically improved his academic performance, and in this case, the intervention of a psychologist was required.
The problem for the most part relates only to primary school teachers, since it is during this period that a person forms his social qualities. Undoubtedly, the development of personality occurs in the future, but the period from 7 to 12 years is considered particularly important in this process. Unfortunately, at the age of 15, not without the help of a middle school teacher, I had to completely revise my personality traits, which was not as easy as if I immediately pointed out the right approach.
The next problem is the lack of orientation towards the development of social skills . I believe that the most important skill a person can get in school is the ability to work in a team. However, if you look at the primary school curriculum, you will not find classes for teamwork, the fundamentals of communication and conflict studies - instead, they include economics, natural science, and similar subjects that you should learn about at later stages of education. Looking ahead, it is worth mentioning that the same applies to high school. By and large, the school does not teach the basics of teamwork at any stage, as for many people this is a skill that will play an important role in their future in the future. I can say with confidence that in 11 years of school, no one of us has ever tried to make a team — hardly anyone in my class knows the value of teamwork. Moreover, as far as I can tell, few will be lucky to learn at least something about this method of work at the university.
Another major drawback - the school does not teach to think . In educational institutions from the first class it is necessary to introduce such subjects as logic and mathematics (instead of the so-called “arithmetic”). By and large, now the elementary school prepares for the next stage of education - for secondary school, whereas it is much better if in the elementary grades schoolchildren would acquire such skills as critical thinking and the ability to reflect. Already from the very first stages of the school, it is necessary to inculcate in children the principles of model-dependent realism - this is the only way to awaken their desire to identify patterns and explore the universe.
Another point is formalization and standardization . Lessons of 40 minutes, seating in permanent places, tasks with the exact answer are only a small part of what kills the ability to think outside the box and suppresses your own will in a new generation every day. Often, children do not have the right to vote, because they are not given such an opportunity - training is tied to algorithms. Primary school students do not experience their own experience associated with small discoveries - they are immediately told the correct answer. “And just try not to remember! Get "2". And what's the point, if this information carries no value, nobody cares. Only after a decade, people begin to understand that we often act in conditions of uncertainty and we need to try to find out many questions ourselves. Moreover, at this moment a person usually understands that there is no absolutely correct answer to most of the tasks set, and it is here that the awareness comes that education was received in vain.
Allow me to apologize to you for the time spent - the article has in its flaws a lingering and abundance of unnecessary information, but treat it more as entertainment rather than work. It is necessary to stop the argument, since the list can go on indefinitely. In the future, I will lay out three more parts of my story, which, in my opinion, affect even more important topics. As a conclusion, I would like to say that you should not underestimate children from primary school. It is our responsibility to provide them with such education so that the country again becomes competitive both in the knowledge-intensive sphere and in the real sector of the economy. And such education can be given only by destroying stereotypes about elementary school and its meaning.
A brief review of the main part of the article:
Introduction
As already noted, I graduated from no less remarkable secondary school in the city, the existence of which many of my new environment have learned only from me. Despite this, after analyzing the information received from school graduates in more than 20 regions, I came to the conclusion that the problems that plagued my school are not unique. On the contrary, similar problems turned out to be characteristic of the entire education system in Russia. Consequently, my experience can be interpreted for any public school subordinate to the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately, having entered the university, controlled by the Russian government, and, therefore, having more freedom and flexibility both in the preparation of curricula and in other areas of students' lives, I lost the opportunity to objectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of higher education in Russia. Nevertheless, I decided to tell in the article about the experience of studying at the university, as many of the ideas for improving school education came to me at this stage of education.
purpose
I am convinced that education is one of the important components of the success of the state and society as a whole. On what kind of education a person receives, depends on what benefit he can bring to humanity in the future. It should immediately be said that by education I mean not a school, university, university or other institutions, but the totality of knowledge acquired by a person over a certain period of time. However, it is precisely these structures that largely determine whether the individual will be able to obtain the knowledge necessary for his purpose in the future. Accordingly, we will consider the knowledge and skills acquired in educational institutions equivalent to education. The goal I highlighted was an analysis of the education system in order to better understand where I should go in order to compensate for the shortcomings of the school.
Primary School
Having arrived on September 1, 2003, I plunged into the school world. Everywhere it was said that this would be the happiest and most carefree time in my life. My father instructed me to “gnaw granite of science” and sent me to a class where I had been waiting for 4 years, which made me an obedient, afraid to express my own opinion and having problems with a student's restraint of emotions. Let's understand how it happened that instead of the happy moments of childhood, I began to prepare for a harsh life.
')
As my future teachers told me later, I was very lucky, since I learned from an outstanding elementary school teacher. True, ideas about outstanding teachers are different for everyone. In view of some features of my upbringing, I consider myself a pronounced introvert. Since childhood, I have loved to dream and spend time reading both adult books at the level of “Les Miserables” and children's works. My first classroom immediately stuck to me the nickname “scattered from Bassejnaya Street”, which she certainly remembered every time when, due to my carelessness, I did something stupid (I forget to put a minus or add the wrong numbers). The only sad thing in this story is that they didn’t want me (or couldn’t help me), as if this situation should be resolved only at my will. Time after time the teacher reminded me of my “inferiority” and that I could not achieve anything significant with such attention.
So, the first problem of schools is the lack of a personal approach to children from primary school . Often teachers are not interested in helping their pupils in the literal sense of the word. They know only two classical concepts of education - either a stick or a carrot. Quite rarely there are teachers who are ready for an open dialogue with both parents and students. Meanwhile, problems that in elementary school could be solved by simple conversation often lead to great tragedies and disappointments in the future. The simplest example is learning. According to various studies, about 87% of children who have less than average academic performance during elementary school did not show signs of increasing interest in studying at later stages. Personally, I know only one example of how a student dramatically improved his academic performance, and in this case, the intervention of a psychologist was required.
The problem for the most part relates only to primary school teachers, since it is during this period that a person forms his social qualities. Undoubtedly, the development of personality occurs in the future, but the period from 7 to 12 years is considered particularly important in this process. Unfortunately, at the age of 15, not without the help of a middle school teacher, I had to completely revise my personality traits, which was not as easy as if I immediately pointed out the right approach.
The next problem is the lack of orientation towards the development of social skills . I believe that the most important skill a person can get in school is the ability to work in a team. However, if you look at the primary school curriculum, you will not find classes for teamwork, the fundamentals of communication and conflict studies - instead, they include economics, natural science, and similar subjects that you should learn about at later stages of education. Looking ahead, it is worth mentioning that the same applies to high school. By and large, the school does not teach the basics of teamwork at any stage, as for many people this is a skill that will play an important role in their future in the future. I can say with confidence that in 11 years of school, no one of us has ever tried to make a team — hardly anyone in my class knows the value of teamwork. Moreover, as far as I can tell, few will be lucky to learn at least something about this method of work at the university.
Another major drawback - the school does not teach to think . In educational institutions from the first class it is necessary to introduce such subjects as logic and mathematics (instead of the so-called “arithmetic”). By and large, now the elementary school prepares for the next stage of education - for secondary school, whereas it is much better if in the elementary grades schoolchildren would acquire such skills as critical thinking and the ability to reflect. Already from the very first stages of the school, it is necessary to inculcate in children the principles of model-dependent realism - this is the only way to awaken their desire to identify patterns and explore the universe.
Another point is formalization and standardization . Lessons of 40 minutes, seating in permanent places, tasks with the exact answer are only a small part of what kills the ability to think outside the box and suppresses your own will in a new generation every day. Often, children do not have the right to vote, because they are not given such an opportunity - training is tied to algorithms. Primary school students do not experience their own experience associated with small discoveries - they are immediately told the correct answer. “And just try not to remember! Get "2". And what's the point, if this information carries no value, nobody cares. Only after a decade, people begin to understand that we often act in conditions of uncertainty and we need to try to find out many questions ourselves. Moreover, at this moment a person usually understands that there is no absolutely correct answer to most of the tasks set, and it is here that the awareness comes that education was received in vain.
Conclusion
Allow me to apologize to you for the time spent - the article has in its flaws a lingering and abundance of unnecessary information, but treat it more as entertainment rather than work. It is necessary to stop the argument, since the list can go on indefinitely. In the future, I will lay out three more parts of my story, which, in my opinion, affect even more important topics. As a conclusion, I would like to say that you should not underestimate children from primary school. It is our responsibility to provide them with such education so that the country again becomes competitive both in the knowledge-intensive sphere and in the real sector of the economy. And such education can be given only by destroying stereotypes about elementary school and its meaning.
A brief review of the main part of the article:
- Primary schools lack a personalized approach to students;
- Teachers should be more attentive to children, to show interest in both their studies and their personal lives associated with education;
- Teachers are obliged to solve pupils' problems at a fundamental level, and not to punish them with bad grades;
- The school should focus the program on social interaction (it is possible to introduce lessons on team building and the principles of work in it, conflict management and communication science);
- Primary education should aim to instill critical thinking skills and thinking ability;
- Teachers should encourage students to independently master the material through exploring the world around (both physical and abstract);
- Schools should abandon formalization and standardization - this is unnatural and kills the ability to effectively train in a group.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/242813/
All Articles