What Are Schools For?

Is the measure of a school's success solely in its academic results, or should it also account for the holistic development and well-being of its students and staff?

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"Are you talking about the school’s results being successful, or are you trying to make successful adults?” she asked. “That’s the path you’ve got to pick.

Lucie Lakin, Principal, quoted in the NYTimes Article

The booklet aims to promote action to prevent and eliminate violence against children in schools and education settings.

UNESCO Guide to Teachers

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B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning principles of positive and negative reinforcement have been at the best of times controversial and misinterpreted. Accusations that he used the Skinner Box to train his daughter were proven false. Be as it may, Skinner's work is very much in action in several schools in the Western world, perhaps not in the way he intended. These schools have been celebrated for performance and denigrated for long-term fallouts as described in the articles linked to the first two quotes above.

The Michaela secondary school in northwest London quoted in both the Linked In and NY Times articles above is a good example of how performance metrics measured in summative exam assessments can significantly improve with strict operant conditioning, both negative and positive. What is not known yet is the long-term impact of beliefs, values, mindset and behaviour. I searched for scientific studies on the impact of such schooling. I couldn't find any. The articles I found are journalistic and not scientific.

King Charles III is rumoured to have had an unhappy childhood in a variation of the Michaela. In this article he denies it and that his education made him who he is, kinglike. The viewpoints of people around him including his son Harry and Princess Diana might be different. One does wonder if his schooling made him good and happy.

There is evidence that in his later years, though he remained convinced of the truth of his theories, Skinner was increasingly sceptical about the manipulative way his theories were applied and quite pessimistic about human nature. The author of the study says we must prove him wrong, in being optimistic about human nature.

I wonder if it is that simple. Human nature is both good and evil. There is no guarantee which aspect will prevail in the short or the long term when the long term is measured in the scale of cognitive intelligence. Perhaps, when measured in the spiritual intelligence and the cosmic consciousness of a Buddha, one can be more aware. But then, the noble Buddha was not optimistic. He merely said, as did the Upanishad, that one shall see the truth. The truth according to him was sunya, the Void, impenetrable, and unknowable. The Upanishad called this purna, infinite, but the connotation was the same. All one can do is accept and surrender to the inevitable, despite the fact we do have free will. This is the cosmic conundrum.

We use free will to determine whether our schools should be permissive, fun and learner-centric or functional, disciplined and system-centric. The question is, whose free will? We treat children the same way as we treat pets. We love them, care for them, know what's best for them and decide for them. How is this at all correct? How do we measure what's best for them? Whatever the human race has thought it's for our best our progeny's best has brought the world to the brink of dystopia and disaster. We are leaving our mess to the succeeding generations to clean up or be destroyed, without a word of apology. No wonder they have no faith in us or anything.

Whatever has seemingly worked for us thus far is no longer of use. The 3 Rs and all that is being taught as skills in schools and colleges can now be done by AI. This is why we are afraid. What needs to be taught is about what can make us human, rooted in spiritual intelligent energy, though we are encased in matter. What needs to be taught is how to be fulfilled in purpose and happy in collaboration, instead of how to compete for wealth and power. What needs to be taught is to empathise, to be of service to others, to be kind and to be spiritually intelligent. What needs to be taught is to manage technology and AI in ethically humane ways. These truly make us human, humane, and adults in spiritual intelligence.

Schools are meant to educate children as responsible adults owning accountability to make themselves worthy of living together on a planet that is liveable in joy. By the accounts of schools like Michaela, this does not seem to be happening.???

Reflection

How do you want your child educated? In a factory?

If you are from an underprivileged background wishing for your children to do better through education, one can understand. But, if you are reading this blog, it's unlikely you are in that category. You like me journeyed through factories of learning ending up working in other kinds of factories looking at pointless work-life situations with no purpose, treating it as joyful, in the process degrading ourselves and nature.

Is this the way we wish our children to be?

Ram is a co-founder and mentor at Coacharya. Ram's focus is the integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably. Visit Coacharya.

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