My Dad has always said, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” as a reminder not to throw something good or valuable away because you are trying to get rid of something unwanted.
I’ve been thinking about that phrase and reflecting on how, in our attempts to progress and make improvements, we might just fail to hold on to that which is already good.
One might say I’m feeling nostalgic of late. Missing some of the ways we “used to do life.” Maybe just wishing for a slower and simpler way. And yes, I am getting older.
It sometimes feels as if we push forward with progress, throwing everything that was away to do better.
But what if some parts were worth holding onto?
What if progress moves us forward in some ways while leaving other parts of our humaness behind?
At a recent Early Childhood Conference I attended, a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson was recommended.
(I have now seen it, and it’s worth watching.)
After watching, I could not help but consider how little thought I’ve given to why we do what we do in education. As educators, we are given goals and objectives for children based on age, followed by methods and strategies to achieve those standards. The measure of success is generally test scores.
Have you ever considered why our education model exists?
Sadly, it is not something I’ve given much consideration to, and so I began to read about education from a different perspective. In part, I am curious about “why’s.” But also, what we’ve always done as educators feels as if it is no longer working for this emerging generation of children. Their minds are saturated with information from an array of digital devices, making old-fashioned listening to a teacher talk seem ever so dull.
A brief history lesson: Before the Industrial Age, education was sporadic. The rich were educated by tutors, some by the church, but most were educated at home or through apprenticeships. With a high percentage of work in agriculture, there wasn’t a need for mass education; most work didn’t demand it.
Learning was for life skills, curiosity’s sake, and creative thinking.
Then came factory jobs, office workers, and a need for a more uniformly educated workforce. Along with industrialization grew public education, focusing on preparing the future generation to enter the workforce.
Now, some great things have come along with industrialization, including modern conveniences many of us would grieve without. Public education is also very important. As education access grew, so did access for women and the lower economic classes. School and knowledge were no longer only for the elite few. I grew up in public education, and my children still attend public schools. As an educator and parent, I am an advocate for public education.
Yet, as the focus of education shifted from learning to live and becoming, to preparing young people for the workforce, it also reduced the value of education in music, arts, and trade skills. It diminished creativity and wonder and the uniqueness of learning styles.
And I can’t help but wonder:
In our attempt to promote universal education and educate a workforce, have we fallen short of valuing the whole individual person?
With our modern conveniences and more independent lifestyles, have we lost the beauty of knowledge passed down from one generation to the next as we work side by side?
Have we forgotten the learning that happens in relationships and through experiences?
Did we perhaps throw out “the baby with the bath water?”
Most of us will likely agree that the greater education system has many flaws. And while, most of us don’t have the power to enact immediate changes, we all have the power to impact change right where we are.
We can’t do all the things but we can do something.
We can start by showing grace to those who learn differently and struggle to fit into the mold of standard education.
We can withhold judgment from those who choose different paths of education than we might deem wise.
We can seek out opportunities to engage and interact across generations, both with our family by blood or family by choice. If we are older seek out opportunities to be around younger generations. If we are younger, and especially if we have younger children, provide opportunities to learn from older generations and not always family.
We can seek to build relationships and community with diversity.
We can release the stress of learning to achieve good grades and instead focus on learning to understand and grow. (Although I’m not advocating for doing less than our best in school but rather not being held hostage by test scores)
We can encourage creativity and curiosity.
Art as a process, not a product.
Science as a form of play.
Music as the rhythm of our home.
We can remember that education is not defined by standardized testing and degrees. Rather, it can be and should be so much more. It should be the growing of minds and lifelong learners. It should be the art of learning through creativity and curiosity in our everyday, ordinary lives.
We might not be able to fix our standardized education system, but perhaps we can get the baby back in some fresh bath water.
May we seek to bring back the art of learning with imagination, curiosity, and creativity.
May we ourselves be lifelong learners, passing on not just knowledge
but a passion for learning to the next generation.
May we set an example by remaining curious. “I Wonder?”
