Schooling Has a Meaning Crisis
saigaddam.medium.comThis was a really interesting article.
> Want to make basic arithmetic operations mean something? Connect them to what they love. Don’t start with the mechanics. Paint them a world where these matter.
This reminds me of the famous quote:
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Sadly, it feels that many schools are little more than a daycare, where one disruptive student is free to impair the education of twenty-five others.
Perhaps off topic, but: It's not just schooling. Work has a meaning crisis. Parenting has a meaning crisis. One might almost say that life has a meaning crisis.
And because of all that, of course schooling has a meaning crisis. Oh, you tell me that an education is the way to get a better job? OK, boomer, why do I want that? Oh, that's how I get a "better life"? Why do I want that?
Agree, and it's hard to think about fixing education in isolation. But we've got to start somewhere to fix the meaning void. Easiest first step is to not take play away.