Reading: Education

Education is a social science that encompasses teaching and learning specific skills.

It is widely accepted that the process of education begins at birth and continues throughout life. Some believe that education begins even earlier than this, as evidenced by some parents' playing music or reading to the baby in the womb in the hope it will influence the child's development.

The word 'education' is often used to refer solely to formal education (see below). However, it covers a range of experiences, from formal learning to the building of understanding through day to day experiences. Ultimately, all that we experience serves as a form of education.

Individuals can receive informal education from a variety of sources. Family members and society have a strong influence on the informal education of the individual.

Origins of the Word "Education"

The word "education" is derived from the Latin educare meaning "leading out" or "leading forth". This reveals one of the theories behind the function of education - of developing innate abilities and expanding horizons.

Formal Education

Formal education occurs when society or a group or an individual sets up a curriculum to educate people, usually the young. Formal education can become systematic and thorough. Formal education systems can be used to promote ideals or values as well as knowledge and this can sometimes lead to abuse of the system.

Life-long or adult education has become widespread in many countries. However, 'education' is still seen by many as something aimed at children, and adult education is often branded as 'adult learning' or 'lifelong learning'.

Adult education takes on many forms from formal class-based learning to self-directed learning. Lending libraries provide inexpensive informal access to books and other self-instructional materials. Many adults have also taken advantage of the rise in computer ownership and internet access to further their informal education.

History of education

Education as a science cannot be separated from the educational traditions that existed before.

Education was the natural response of early civilizations to the struggle of surviving and thriving as a culture, requiring adults to train the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally, story-telling from one generation to the next. As oral language developed into written symbols and letters, the depth and breadth of knowledge that could be preserved and passed increased exponentially.

As cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond the basic skills of communicating, trading, gathering food, religious practices, etc., the beginnings of formal education, schooling, eventually followed. There is evidence that schooling in this sense was already in place in Egypt between 3000 and 500 BC.

Christians and education (David Feddes slides)
-Christians began movement to educate all: girls as well as boys, poor as well as rich
-Kept higher learning alive in dark times
-Took the lead in starting school systems
-Started the world’s greatest universities
-Widespread education might not exist at all without the influence of Christianity

Christian teaching
-“Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt 28:20).
-Pastors and elders must “be able to teach” and “must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith” (1 Tim 3:2,9).
-Doctrine mattered. Truth had to be taught, and error had to be refuted.

Christian education
-Jews stressed knowledge, learning a trade, Scripture. Christians continued and expanded this to non-Jews
-Christians taught both sexes in same setting, following Jesus’ lead.
-Formed schools to train leaders about Word and world: mainly doctrine; also math, medicine, etc.

Christian universities
-Bologna, Oxford, Paris, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Basel were founded by Christians.
-Almost all of the first 123 colleges and universities in the U.S.A. had Christian origins: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia.

Education for disabled
-Paris priest invented sign language so deaf could learn gospel and other things.
-Christian pastor established first school for the deaf in the United States.
-Christians started homes for the blind.
-Louis Braille invented alphabet of raised dots so that blind people could read.

Missions & literacy
-Many cultures had no written language.
-Missionaries created written words so Scripture could be translated and read.
-Side-effect: preserved knowledge of heritage
-Missionaries established many schools.

Expanding opportunity
-Christians began Sunday schools to help poor, non-Christian kids get educated.
-Public schools were called “public” because they were open to the public, to people from every segment of society.
-Early “public” schools were mostly run not by government but by Christian parents or churches.

Basic education today is considered those skills that are necessary to function in society. Yet, a more critical view^[1] suggests that mass public education has been used by governments as a way to instill in the minds of youth nationalism and patriotism, as well as obedience to authority. Business corporations have also advocated public education as a way to teach children to be obedient to managers ("teachers"), to follow orders, complete assignments, show-up for class on time, and other conditions that mirror a work environment. In this radical critique of public education, schools are tools for coercing children to respect hierarchy and to fit them into the systems of the nation-state and capitalism.

David Feddes comment: Education is never neutral. Always somebody controls it and has an agenda. In the Bible, parents are to be the main educators, and their agenda is to raise godly, wise people.

Education Globally

In developing countries

In developing countries, the number and seriousness of the problems faced is naturally greater. People are sometimes unaware of the importance of education, and there is economic pressure from those parents who prioritize their children's making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education. Recent studies on child labor and poverty have suggested, however, that when poor families reach a certain economic threshold where families are able to provide for their basic needs, parents return their children to school. This has been found to be true, once the threshold has been breached, even if the potential economic value of the children's work has increased since their return to school. Teachers are often paid less than other similar professions.

A lack of good universities, and a low acceptance rate for good universities is evident in countries with a relatively high population density. In some countries there are uniform, overstructured, inflexible centralized programs from a central agency that regulates all aspects of education.

Technology and Education

Technology has become an increasingly influential factor in education. Computers and associated technology are being widely used in developed countries to both complement established education practices and develop new ways of learning such as online education (a type of distance education). While technology clearly offers powerful learning tools that can engage students, research has been mixed as to whether technology actually improves student learning.

Education and Social Theory

The Functions of Education

The manifest function of education is the transmission of knowledge to students in order to help them contribute back to society, either as knowledge producers themselves (i.e., scientists) or in other ways, like in business or industry. However, education also has a latent function, and it is a function that is actually quite important when it comes to financial outcomes. One of the latent functions of a mass educational system is to foster social skills. And, it turns out, those social skills literally pay-off in the long run. Students who score high on measures of sociability earn more money and get more education than equally intellectually gifted students who don't score as high in social skills.^[2]

• socialization
• cultural innovation
• social integration
• knowledge transmission
• child care for workers

Education and Inequality

Gender

A recent topic of policy debate in the U.S. is the concern that there is a "boy crisis," as boys are less likely to graduate from high school and go on to college than are girls. However, recent research by Judith Kleinfeld suggests that painting this as a "crisis" exclusive to boys may be a little misleading.^[3] Boys at the primary and secondary educational levels do have a number of problems: lower rates of literacy, lower grades, lower engagement in school, higher dropout rates, higher rates of placement in special education, higher rates of emotional disturbance, higher rates of learning disabilities, higher rates of suspension and expulsion from school, and lower rates of entrance into college.^[3] Outside of school, boys are also more likely to: commit suicide, exhibit conduct disorders, die young, and be arrested or sent to juvenile detention centers. Clearly, boys have a number of problems.^[3] However, girls have their own share of problems that are no less serious than those facing young men, just different: higher rates of depression, higher incidence of eating disorders, higher rates of suicide attempts, lower scores on math and science tests, and less likely to be the highest achievers.^[3] Kleinfeld does conclude that the issues facing boys are probably more serious (e.g., 25% of American male high school graduates cannot understand a newspaper article vs. 10% of females), but also reminds us that women are facing many serious issues as well.

In the U.S. in 1960, 65% of all Bachelors degrees went to men; in 1982 it reached parity between men and women. In 2004, women received 58% of Bachelor's degrees.^[4] The 1960s and 1970s were pivotal years in the reversal of educational disparity between men and women. According to recent research,^[4] the reversal in disparity of educational attainment between men and women is largely attributable to higher drop-out rates of men from 4-year colleges, particularly males whose fathers have just a high school education or are absent from the home. Additionally, women experience earlier academic success than men do (in junior high and high school); the study skills and commitment that contribute to that success carries over to college where they do better than men. Additional reasons why this reversal has taken place may include: a faster rise in the value of college for females than for males (resulting in women benefiting more from completing their education) and rising divorce rates, which force women to be more independent. The increasing completion rate of women may have substantial influences on society in general, as education and income are important factors when considering who one will marry. ^[5]

More women stay single, rather than marry a less educated, lower income man.

Class and Income

One of the primary factors contributing to educational inequality and poverty in general in the US is the funding system for public education.^[6] In most areas of the US, public schools are funded primarily through local property taxes. As a result, schools in wealthier neighborhoods have substantially larger budgets, which translates into better facilities, better teachers, and better resources. When these monetary advantages are coupled with the advantage of having a safe, supportive, and intellectually enriching home environment that comes with wealth,^[6] it is not surprising that children who attend better funded public schools tend to be more successful than those who attend more poorly funded public schools. Additionally, within schools in the U.S., tracking is commonly employed (separating students into different classes based on their abilities and skills). Tracking increases disparity in educational attainment rather than reducing those disparities.^[7]

There is also evidence to suggest that the lifetime educational possibilities of most kids are set by the time they are six years old.^[8] This is due to the fact that several family background characteristics are very strong predictors of future educational attainment, including: parental support, parental expectations for schooling, household income, and parental educational attainment, with the last two being the most important factors. Also surprising in this study was the finding that the lifetime educational attainment predicted using background characteristics when individuals were in the first grade were just as good at predicting educational attainment as were similar variables when inviduals were in high school, and on some measures better. In real terms, this translates into children living in poorer neighborhoods receiving less education than children who live in middle-class or upper-class neighborhoods. What's more, the lifetime educational attainment seems to be set by the time children are starting school, not when they are finishing it.

Educational deficits resulting from inequality also affect future life trajectories. Colleges tend to draw students from a relatively advantaged background because of their high costs and stiff academic requirements for enrollment.^[9] What's more, because colleges want to maintain their rankings in various college ranking systems (e.g., U.S. News & World Report), colleges favor students with higher standardized test scores and aggressively recruit them using "merit" scholarships. In 2000, affluent students, students who could otherwise afford to pay for college, received "merit" scholarships worth 82% of the need-based aid received by students with the lowest family incomes.^[7] In other words, affluent students who could pay for college often do not have to because the advantages they received attending better elementary, middle, and high schools translated into higher standardized test scores, which are attractive to universities when it comes to recruiting. As a result, there is less funding available for students who actually need it. This ends up reinforcing the existing status hierarchy by keeping the affluent wealthy and the poor unable to attend college.

Some of those under-privileged youth choose another path as a result. Despite being both volunteer and high risk, the military remains attractive to a certain segment of the U.S. population, primarily young people from less advantaged families and neighborhoods. Such individuals view the military as more promising than entry-level jobs in the workforce without a college diploma. Cognitively, young people from disadvantaged homes are about average, but are socioeconomically disadvantaged, which is one of the primary reasons they turn to the military rather than college to pursue financial success, with some success.^[9]

Health and Longevity

As noted in the chapter on demography, education is a strong and significant predictor of greater life expectancy. The more years of education a person has, the greater their likelihood of engaging in healthy behaviors (and, inversely, the lower their likelihood of engaging in unhealthy behaviors, like smoking).^[10]

Charter Schools

Charter schools are publicly funded elementary or secondary schools in the United States that have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter. Their founders are often teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by traditional public schools. State-run charter schools (schools not affiliated with local school districts) are often established by non-profit groups, universities, and some government entities.^[11]

High School Completion

An issue often obfuscated by confusing statistics, high school completion rates in the U.S. are often lower than reported.^[15]High school completion rates are calculated at the state level and aggregated at the federal level. The percentage of students who graduate from high school often reported by the federal government in the U.S. is around 85%, but a more accurate percentage is about 71%.^[15] Seventy-one percent is a sobering statistic when you think about its implications - slightly less than 3 out of 4 students who start high school in the U.S. finish; 1/4 of young people in America today are moving into adulthood without a high school diploma. The lack of a high school diploma contributes to lower wages and increased rates of poverty, as well as poorer general understandings of society, health, and science. Additionally, the U.S. used to lead the world in sending high school graduates on to higher education, but in 2008 it was 5th and 16th out of 27 industrialized countries in the proportion of students who start college and complete it.^[16] We also have a disproportionate share of low-performing students; almost 1/3 of students in U.S. secondary schools don't have the minimum education to contribute to a globalized, high-tech economy.^[16]

Challenges in education

The goal of education is the transference of ideas and skills from one person to another, or from one person to a group. Current education issues include which teaching method(s) are most effective, how to determine what knowledge should be taught, which knowledge is most relevant, and how well the pupil will retain incoming knowledge. Educators such as George Counts and Paulo Freire identified education as an inherently political process with inherently political outcomes. The challenge of identifying whose ideas are transferred and what goals they serve has always stood in the face of formal and informal education.

In addition to the "Three R's", reading, writing, and arithmetic, Western primary and secondary schools attempt to teach the basic knowledge of history, geography, mathematics (usually including calculus and algebra), physics, chemistry and sometimes politics, in the hope that students will retain and use this knowledge as they age or that the skills acquired will be transferrable. The current education system measures competency with tests and assignments and then assigns each student a corresponding grade. The grades usually come in the form of either a letter grade or a percentage, which are intended to represent the amount of all material presented in class that the student understood.

Educational progressives or advocates of unschooling often believe that grades do not necessarily reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a student, and that there is an unfortunate lack of youth voice in the educative process. Some feel the current grading system risks lowering students' self-confidence, as students may receive poor marks due to factors outside their control. Such factors include poverty, child abuse, and prejudiced or incompetent teachers.

By contrast, many advocates of a more traditional or "back to basics" approach believe that the direction of reform needs to be quite the opposite. Students are not sufficiently inspired or challenged to achieve success because of the dumbing down of the curriculum and the replacement of the "canon" with inferior material. Their view of self-confidence is that it arises not from removing hurdles such as grading, but by making them fair and encouraging students to gain pride from knowing they can jump over these hurdles.

There are a number of highly controversial issues in education. Should some knowledge be forgotten? What should be taught? Are we better off knowing how to build nuclear bombs, or is it best to let such knowledge be forgotten?

Parental involvement

Parental involvement is an essential aspect of a child's educational development. Early and consistent parental involvement in the child's life is critical such as reading to children at an early age, teaching patterns, interpersonal communication skills, exposing them to diverse cultures and the community around them, educating them on a healthy lifestyle, etc. The socialization and academic education of a child are aided by the involvement of the student, parent(s), teachers, and others in the community and extended family.

Back to Basics (David Feddes slide)

References