I attended Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts from kindergarten
until 8th grade. Why is that tidbit of information important? CSLA was a school
that encompasses the Paideia philosophy. In our reading of Plato at the
Googleplex this week, the word paideia was mentioned, taking me back to the
education that I was fortunate enough to have. This is the quote from our
reading, "In Greek, our word for play is paidia and the word for
education is paideia, and it is very natural and right that these words should
be entangled at the root… What one tries to force into a child against its own
nature will never come to good. A child’s natural form of behavior is play, and
in our aim to educate, play should be honored and preserved for as long past
childhood as can be." When I was enrolled in CSLA, I never really
understood what paideia meant, but I knew that if affected my education.
I can honestly say that, looking back on it, the quote from above
makes a ton of sense when entangled with my schooling. I always looked forward
to going to school because it truly was a fun environment. The teachers went
out of their ways to plan activities and engage us in our lesson plans. I even
had recess through 8th grade (which I found out later was apparently unheard of
in most public schools). Education was fun and it made me want to work harder
at CSLA.
Another thing about CSLA was the lack of divide between students. By
that I mean students weren't subjected to tests to determine if they were honor
roll student material. The curriculum we were taught was already honors level.
So CSLA did not divide kids up into honors and not honors. When I went to high
school (at a normal public school) I discovered that some kids were separated
into honors as early as second grade! That whole idea doesn’t make a lot of
sense to me. When you test kids and tell one group that they're brilliant and
another group that they are just average, you give some kids a very low
standard to live up to throughout their entire life. It sets a bad precedent.
So I believe that every school should encompass the paideia
philosophy. It made me want to learn and taught me invaluable seminar skills. I
use those skills to this day in classroom interactions, job interviews, etc.
Every child should get the chance to experience an education that they enjoy,
not dread. And paideia is the way to go.
(H3) I have to agree with you on this one. Th thing about kids is that most of them aren't going to put a lot of effort into something they hate just because they know it's good for them. One of the few ways to keep them engaged and invested is to make it a pleasurable experience.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that every school has the ability to exercise this philosophy. The school you went to was probably very small and somewhat exclusive from the name of it, but most public school teachers only teach the cirriculum and many teachers are not enthusiastic about their jobs. While I agree it may be a better idea, I don't think it is realistic H3
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