Class Is In Session

I sat in on the first of possibly very many different teaching environments at Future Hope today. This particular experience was with a practiced Indian teacher who had been working at Future Hope for about four years and was currently teaching maths, science, and English to Class three children. I was quite impressed at how she graciously accepted me into her class as a teaching assistant and quickly assigned classroom tasks for me to do with the children.

Since it was my first day, I was careful to observe carefully without commenting or criticizing her on her methods and tried to learn about the Indian and similarly the British style of teaching. Characterized by strict obedience (enforced by loud commands) and regimented classwork schedules with a lot of graded assignments, this teaching style emphasized order and structure.

And in many ways, I could see the advantages. It was clear that the children advanced quickly and were well versed in english spelling, complex mathematics, and science knowledge. Unruliness was not tolerated and each period proceeded without interruption. Children focused on their work and were eager to show their progress in all of their lessons. It was clear that the level of knowledge gained from this teaching experience was incredible.

But at the same time, something was missing. In the mathematics classes, some children were so focused on getting the correct answer that they would look at others nearby rather than try and work through the problems themselves. When the kids read their books to me, the emphasis seemed to be on reading as many pages as possible rather than comprehending the story. And in science class, there was such an emphasis on drawing the animals correctly that the facts learned about these animals seemed to be minor details rather than core learning.

This emphasis on uniformity, structure, and progress allowed the children to learn many new facts and much more material at a younger age and it is clear that, even at the university level, this education system turns out some of the best and brightest individuals in the world. But this focus seems to come at a cost of understanding and creativity. The children seemed to be training to be a certain kind of intelligent without leaving room for the variations in the way kids learn and act. This lack of creativity and innovation could prevent these future adults from standing out in unique ways.

As for me, I’m sort of on the fence about which method is better. On the one hand, knowledge without context means nothing because it is really the application of learned facts that allows us to be competitive in the real world. But on the other hand, innovation without background knowledge is useless; without the know-how beforehand, there is no way one can improve on what has already been done or even create something new and better.

Perhaps no one way guarantees success. Maybe we need to break down the dichotomy and embrace integration. However, this ideal combination of different teaching styles still seems to be impossible to get right.