Philippa Garson
Class Struggle
A recent chat with a high school principal elicited some long-overdue reflections on the nature of “the school” as an institution. Clearly a man of vision and independent thought, this principal was lamenting the fact that schools have changed so little since he was a spotty scholar 20 years ago.
Surely this is an indication, he said, “that something is wrong. The bell still rings, matric exams are much the same. Really, not much has changed at all,” he sighed.
While this principal may be introducing any manner of innovative changes in his school – like integrated studiesand a radio station for students – his hands are pretty much strapped to his sides by the gridlocked school system.
I’m inclined to agree with him: after all, just because things have always been the same doesn’t mean they should stay that way.
>From this perspective at least, those parents opting to school their children in the freer and more relaxed environments of their homes have a point, but it would not be true to say that nothing at all has changed besides the growing numbers of home-schoolers around the world abandoning the school system altogether.
Consigning corporal punishment to the whimsical memories of tyrant teachers has been an important break from the past. The move towards outcomes-based education is even more significant. It attempts to wean us away from regimented ideas about what children should learn and when, and introduces the idea that it is how they learn rather than how accurately they can recite it that is most important. It also exposes the traditional exam system for the insanely random yardstick of scholarly ability that it is.
But as long as our attempts to come to grips with a new way of teaching and a new curriculum revolve around yet more definitions to pound into our brains, as long as our debates centre on how many desks we can fit into our classrooms, on teacher/pupil ratios and on what to do with children with special learning needs, we will be limited by our beliefs that schools as institutions are as unchangeable as our seasons.
The arrival of computers in schools is likely to be the biggest change agent schools have ever seen. Trust technology to be the true driver of change!
Many children now spend significant chunks of their lessons surfing the Internet for research purposes. They have their own e- mail addresses with which to communicate with other pupils around the globe. Some of our elite schools are moving towards a paperless classroom. That indeed is a significant development – for the few lucky schools able to afford computers, that is.
Most others are still grappling to get their hands on basics like textbooks and stationery, and if technology is not harnessed effectively to spread the reach of quality education into areas of need, the rifts between well-off and poor schools will simply grow wider. For the bulk of our young population, it will be bleak classrooms crammed with rows of desks, crammed in turn with muzzled faces squinting at the chalkboard for years to come.
Unless, that is, we begin to break free from rigid definitions of where and how learning should take place; collapse long- held divisions between school, work and community life; and explore creative ideas on how distance education can be used effectively in community contexts.
If Minister of Education Kader Asmal is serious about his vision to see schools as centres of community life, perhaps the time has arrived for schools to change for ever.
Philippa Garson is the editor of The Teacher, a sister publication to the Mail & Guardian