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School of Thought!
By James Claire |
A return to school after a fun and lengthy summer got me, a
potential parent, thinking about schooling for my future offspring.
My father, if you ask him, suffered his education at “the
school of hard knocks”.
I Googled it once and couldn’t find their address. Yet he
insists it was where he learned most of the things that have
got him through the past 72 years.
 My mother went to an equally difficult institution to locate
— “the school of tough love”.
Strangely, my parents did not enroll me in either of these
great educating bodies.
When I was young, I just went to plain old “school”.
In my teens, names started appearing before the schooling
institution. Labels like, “primary” and “high”.
By the time I had finished, someone added to the system
‘college’ and ‘university’. I never really had much need to know
what went on in either of those as we were not a family in the
financial group to afford them.
About the same time I started work other names were added
to the schools of the world. To this day I still prefer the system
of education where it was referred to, simply as school. It
sounded less judgmental.
Sadly like so many things in the world, schooling has
changed and evolved. I guess I have not.
Intermediate, elementary, private, catholic, secondary and
boarding school; if they existed during my time, they were never
discussed around our dinner table. The only one I remember was
the “special school” which was just around the corner, and
where my father continually threatened to send me!
Imagine if my parents had to make the judgment call these days.
Where would they have sent me? The British, Indian or
Philippines schools, school of music or fine arts, or the school
of Choueifat — surely I’m too skinny?
How does one know which school they should send their
children to? Do they, at the end of the day, teach the same
information to get toddlers to adulthood, safely!
What if I send my children to the wrong school and they
learn the wrong stuff?
If I could choose, I’d want my young children to go to
“Kumbayah School for Happy Toddlers” and finish their
education at the “School for Greed”. Although a few terms at
“The Green School for the Ecologically Aware,” might be of
benefit to some corporations and capitalism.
Today, there is of course, home schooling. Considering the
amount of homework we used to get, I’m not sure why my
parents did not allow us to be home schooled back then.
Father did most of my projects and essays and Mum built the
spaceships from milk bottles, so what was the difference?
I think I’d make a great teacher for my children. We would
hang out at coffee shops all day and discuss world news and
humanities! We would walk the parks and coastline in the
afternoons to discuss the rising water and the environment.
At night we would watch television and discuss international
media. Home economics would be scheduled to coincide with
lunch and dinner and doing the laundry and ironing would give
you extra credits and time off homework!
As Mark Twain once wrote, “I have never let schooling
interfere with my education”.
And in this day and age, we have to learn a lot outside the
boundaries of school to prepare us through the rest of life. He
was truly a forward thinker.
Look around today and spelling mistakes are everywhere
from media to menus, billboards to sign posts. Proof that
basic education is lacking in many among us. And given the
standard of driving on our roads, I can’t say that the driving
school is among the elite education establishments of the
planet either.
It seems weird but the more education systems, styles,
brands and names we have invented since I attended plain old
“school”, it would seem that the standard and integrity of the
education offered has not always followed suit.
Most teachers would disagree and blame outside influences.
Perhaps they are right too!
But if life truly is a cycle, then I hope before my children enter
the world, we complete a full turn. My parents did an amazing
job with everything they ever touched. They taught my sister and
me respect, manners, chivalry, humility and self-respect.
Perhaps, despite all the fancy names we call our education
system these days, we should simply go back to the “School of
Hard Knocks” and the “School for Tough Love”. It educated
most of our parents well enough.
And after enjoying a long and carefree summer, I see a few
youngsters who could benefit from those same classes.
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