Two Approaches to Education
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When comparing the Republic of Georgia approach (patterned after the Soviet style of education) to upper level academic learning with the American style (patterned upon a Jeffersonian model), there is a fundamental difference and that can be summed up in one word: freedom. In the typical Georgian approach, students sit in a classroom, listen to a lecture on a subject and ask questions at the end of the professor’s presentation. In the best of American education, the professor is a mentor who as a master of his craft patterns his teaching style to the level of maturity of his audience. In the beginning of any session, when the student know little or nothing about the subject, the professor uses the lecture, listen and ask technique which is a mirror of the Georgian style: he tells the students about the subject. When the students mature a little and gain some knowledge, the professor shows the students what the subject is and how it relates to their knowledge base. When the students know as much as the professor about the subject, the teacher acts as a partner in knowledge seeking and works along side the student. Lastly, when the student matures to the place where he knows more about the subject than his professor, the teacher gets out of the way of inquiry but finds the student the resources to gain more knowledge. When Thomas Jefferson, who was a skilled architect, designed the University of Virginia, he had this concept of situational education in mind in his layout of the campus. At the end of the campus square, he placed the library and study rooms that are centers of knowledge. On one side, there were classrooms and faculty housing (since at that time the faculty were just a few selected masters) and on the other, there was student housing. At the end of the grassy square, it is open so that knowledge and the “brightest and best” students can go out into the world (making a difference by using their knowledge for informed actions). This layout for campus centers is repeated throughout the best universities in America to this day. It is a pattern of thinking about education that believes that university teaching should: 1) educate the brightest and best to lead a nation, 2) educate the heads of companies and corporations, plus workers, who will pay taxes so that the government can give back to the people needed services and laws that determine civilized conduct in the society, and lastly, 3) educate citizens who will use their one vote to place the “brightest and best” in office to represent their views and wishes or use that vote to get rid of the “brightest and best” who do not serve them in the right manner. These are the three elements that are the cornerstones of American education, democracy and freedom. They are the elements that are used by American professors (at their best) in the classroom: give the students the information and knowledge so that they can excel as informed citizens and supply them with the skills and knowledge so that they can earn a living which gives back to the society and contributes to the community outside the workplace. The brightest and the best should know that when in business and you excel where you “win all the marbles, it is best to give back some marbles” so that you have someone to play with in the future. It is what we see in Bill Gates’ (the founder of Microsoft) philosophy behind the Gates Foundation that gives back to society money to forward knowledge and education. In this freedom-based, education system, what happens in the classroom should be a mirror of the society. What I found in the Georgian system was this was beginning to be understood and used. In its best use, this system of situational education is the backbone for a free society the world over. What was evident in Georgia was a carryover of the Soviet mindset for education (although that nation had thrown out the Russian regime in 1991). |
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