RE: Education Systems in Developing Countries Need An Upgrade
Creativity is not encouraged; being a parrot is.
@cabernet your thoughts and feelings resonate with me so deeply.
Believe it or not, growing up in the American educational institutions I also experienced very similar thing.
I will say that I did not experience any physical reprimanding as in America we sue for that lol but we were most definitely encouraged to be parrots.
I remember in second grade I was constantly scolded for making conversation with my classmates. We had this disciplinary system... if you did something wrong, you would get a colored crayon put next to your name on the disciplinary board. Every time the teacher had to discipline you during the week, that color would change to a darker color and your discipline would be a bit harsher.
I remember one day that I had received a red crayon because I was talking, and the red crayon meant that I had to stay after school and have a talk with my parents. Interestingly enough, my teacher never followed through with it. I was surprised, but looking back at it, I was a great student and just naturally wanted to connect with others. I think my teacher realized that I wasn't really doing anything wrong. I was just being social, and the system was disciplining me for that.
Clearly this issue is near and dear to my heart. I really really appreciate your words here @cabernet. I know that this sort of thing won't last much longer as there have been too many of us who have experienced this sort of thing. Times are a changing :)
Resteemed!
I must agree with @axios when he says the American educational institutions are definitely attempting to create un-questioning parrots as well. While we did enjoy the benefit of exploring our creativity in the small times cut out for it, there was limited critical thinking opportunity.
My parents were told that I should become a lawyer when I was in the third grade because I called out a teacher for disciplining an entire classroom for one person's misbehavior, but to my face was scolded for "talking back". I also spoke up about how, after working hard to become a star pupil, my reward was to spend part of my school day teaching a child with learning disabilities.
If any formal school system is going to survive this age of information and liberties, it will need to embrace meaningful skills of skepticism, critical thinking and learning from past mistakes. Working to improve the state of public education is clearly critical for your country, I just encourage all of us to use these global voices agreeing that "no one has education right yet", so rather than emulating a less-bad version, what would a good system include?