Conclusion
Last Monday I started to enumerate four of the six principles to replace the six myths about the foundations of modern education. Environmental educator and founder of the Meadowcreek Project David Orr proposed the lists during his commencement speech for the graduating class at Arkansas College in 1990. The graduation address, What is Education For?, may have been delivered many years ago but the message is more relevant today.
I would like to continue today with Orr’s fifth principle, which draws from William Blake. It has to do with the importance of
“minute particulars” and the power of examples over words. He said, “Students hear about global responsibility while being educated in institutions that often invest their financial weight in the most irresponsible things. The lessons being taught are those of hypocrisy and ultimately despair. Students learn, without anyone ever saying it, that they are helpless to overcome the frightening gap between ideals and reality. What is desperately needed are faculty and administrators who provide role models of integrity, care, thoughtfulness and institutions that are capable of embodying ideals wholly and completely in all of their operations.”
His last point is a proposal to improve the way students learn, because this is as important, actually, as the content of the syllabus. He stressed the importance of process in the way students learn. David Orr believes that lecture-type teaching tend to induce passivity, monologue, domination and artificiality. “Indoor classes create the illusion that learning only occurs inside four walls isolated from what students call, without apparent irony, the real world,” he said. The whole point is that students can be taught in many ways apart from the usual classroom-type lectures.
It is important to review these proposals from an environmental educator in the face of today’s fast-changing education and career landscape. As we enter a new phase in public tertiary education next school year, we should be concerned about the quality of teaching in our state-run institutions. The courses and course contents to be offered must enable our students to thrive in the changing world of work.
****
ON August 31 the 1,200-meter Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Special Maiden Race (two-year-old) Trial Race was held at the Metro Manila Turf Club in Batangas. Here are the finishers, in order of arrival: Talitha Koum (with jockey RG Fernandez), Bridge of’d River Kwai (with jockey JB Hernandez), Victorious Colt (with jockey JB Guce), Royal Signal (with jockey KB Abobo), Prosperity (with jockey MA Alvarez), Guenevere (with jockey RA Base) and Holy Rain (with jockey RO Niu). Congratulations to all!