Liberating education

Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire! [William Butler Yeats]

Active education

Education happens in many contexts – at home, among friends, at school, other activities, etc. All of our vital experiences make us grow and mature; some more than others, some otherwise than others. In this process, adults too have a key responsibility to guide children into the path they think is best for them. For any of these aspects that influence the education youth are given, active pedagogies offer an innovative and interesting perspective.

By their ability to make learners experiment many real situations, active learning methods make learning easier, acting as a catalyzer and reducing the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. They allow the full development of the person using some natural impulses – discovery, experimentation, meeting diversity, etc. This sort of experiential learning enhances a practical approach when coping with new or unusual situations. In the 21st century this is an asset for everyday life.

People do not learn only at school, but also outside. We test and we also learn about life through our body, our senses, all our emotions and sensibility. But this does not grow alone; as individuals, our receptivity to life can be more or less acute; our humanity more or less anchored in the world; our altruism, more or less lived in the present. The educator, as a facilitator, has a key role to support this situational learning process – which makes him, indeed, a tutor. As talent liberators, these pedagogies want to help young people discover and develop their full potential to find their own path of life. A path to be built with what they are, to become themselves as well, when their turn comes, liberators of talent.

Liberating education vs “banking education” or “industrial age school”

Paulo Freire contrasts liberating education to banking education. The latter sees the child as an empty vessel which the teacher fills with knowledge. It is an invasive approach to education, it is about conquering minds by making them compete, denying any value to the spontaneous activity of the child and any culture other than the dominant (the folk does not have and cannot have its own culture). In liberating education, however, “nobody educates others, no one is educated, people educate themselves together through the world” (Paulo Freire). Knowledge is the product of a collective effort of research and experimentation. Youth and adults involved in an educational process are set to launch the conquest of knowledge and educate each other. The spontaneous activity and experience of children have a decisive value. Children do not only learn from adults, they also learn from each other (peer education) and adults must be willing to learn from children.

In “Schools That Learn” (2000), Peter Senge expresses similar ideas when he criticizes the preconceptions of the industrial age school, which is built on the model of the factory assembly line work:

Children are defective and school must amend them.
One learns with his head and not with his whole body.
Everyone learns or should learn in the same way.
You learn at school, not in the real world.
There are smart kids and dumb kids.
School is a matter for specialists who must keep control over it.
Knowledge can only be fragmented, divided into multiple disciplines.
Schools communicate the raw truth (and not opinions that are socially constructed).
The act of learning is primarily an individual matter and competition accelerates learning.

Peter Senge advocates instead for an educational process that is:

Learner-centered rather than teacher-centered.
Embracing diversity, not homogeneity, taking into account multiple intelligences and different learning styles.
Aimed at understanding a world of interdependence rather than memorization of facts and searching the correct answer.
Constantly exploring implicit theories used by all those involved in education.
Reintegrating education in the social networks which link families and communities

Respecting the dignity of the child / youth

We often find that when very busy people are in positions of power over others, they allow themselves to use with them a despising language. This can affect the way the ‘powerless’ think and how they interpret the messages from ‘the powerful’ to an extent they are not always aware of. Obviously this phenomenon is encountered throughout education. “Do not try to sing,” says a young animator at a music rehearsal, “Just keep moving your lips”. Long after, the child will stay away whenever his friends come together to sing.

The despising language may be verbal or nonverbal, such as when homework tasks are corrected: a large red X sends a message of condemnation and blame. Rating homework from best to worst can have a devastating effect on the last. Positive messages also count and are sustainable. A handwritten note from a teacher on duty of French – “This is particularly well written” – changed the life of a young man who was not a particularly good student. He suddenly discovered that it was true: he was able to write well. Today he is a famous journalist.

All those in authority or power in relation to children should adopt the golden rule of medical practice: “first do no harm.” For effective communication with parents, children, teachers, the rule should always be: talk in terms of the situation rather than in terms of character or personality. Saying that a student is a “youth at risk” does not send the same message as saying that he is in “a dangerous situation.” In the first case, it reinforces the idea that his personal flaws are putting him in danger and it will be difficult to change. In the second case, it expresses the idea that these are circumstances that are problematic and that changes are possible.

Educational objectives taking into account the whole person

Education cannot be limited to the transmission of knowledge. It must address all dimensions of the person: body, intellect, emotions, social skills, spirituality and self-sufficiency (the character). It is therefore necessary to help all young people to assess their development needs and to provide progressive personal goals. An appropriate reference is the “Life Skills” to be acquired in the six areas of development:

Physical: eating properly, health care, keeping fit.
Intellectual: gathering and classifying information, research and problem solving, critical thinking.
Emotional: identifying, managing and expressing emotions responsibly; managing stress.
Social: effectively communicating ideas, living and working in teams, managing conflicts without violence, making collective decisions in a democratic manner, evaluating life in common to agree on rules, living and promoting gender equality, respecting the environment and natural resources.
Spiritual: recognizing and sharing basic human values (human rights), finding the meaning of experience, knowing how to define rules and respecting them, respecting the integrity of oneself and others, being morally autonomous.
Character: resisting external pressure and deciding by oneself, being responsible for personal choices and actions, developing resilience.

Youth participation in the educational process

In order for young people to be active agents of their own development, it is necessary to create institutions that facilitate their participation, the division of roles and participation in decision making. In Scouting, as in the Freinet pegadogy, these institutions are generally three:

Teams: youth are encouraged to freely organise in small autonomous teams from 5 to 8 members. They are given the opportunity to express themselves easily and take a role and a responsibility within the group. Most activities are experienced as a team to foster cooperation and sharing.

Councils: a team council will organise activities and tasks within the small group, making decisions together and assessing the common life; delegates from the team council cooperate with the adult responsible for organising activities, managing the common life; a Grand Council or General Assembly will bring together all youth to take major decisions, choosing activities, evaluating the group’s life, deciding on common rules.

Law: a set of values from which young people are asked to evaluate the group’s life and to provide common rules.

This organization into a small “republic of young people” allows to exercise skills such as cooperation, communication, self-organization; it develops in young people the ability to assess situations, to solve problems, to make joint decisions, to establish and modify rules. It is an active method to develop citizenship and democracy.

This “togetherness” is not built by chance: it is based on the desire to accomplish a common project; on their ability to decide together on a common horizon; on a family of friends who share values and live to a common spirit that opens the team to the rest of the world.

By ensuring youth participation in the educational process, the adult is the guarantor of this collective action, he is there to help the team knit their own structure, their own “legends”, motivations, their decisions, their expertise – in other words, what they have to offer.

Education in the real world

Many educational trends have developed strategies for learning beyond traditional school curriculum. The child or learner is no longer someone into whom knowledge is poured; he becomes the master of his own learning. The child becomes the one who develops his multiple intelligences: he himself can choose what he will learn. Thus, through active teaching, he will choose not just for himself but also for and with his community of peers – sharing projects, organization and action. The teacher will ensure that these projects promote full personal growth but considering individual differences.

This way, the child is developing in all areas and not only intellectually. He is exploring the world in accordance with his preferences and making it a little better. This vision of the human being – often found in the new pedagogies – wants to make the child or learner meet his own reality. And by doing this, letting new knowledge emerge. This educational adventure allows to create real bridges between youth and the world – at the heart of an adventure that, more than anything, is human.

Dialogue

It is firstly through dialogue that a liberating education can work. In Greek Dia means “between,” logos means “word.” Hence, dia + logue = “the word between us.” Paulo Freire is convinced that learners have enough life experience to be in dialogue with any teacher about any subject and will learn new knowledge, attitudes, or skills best in relation to that life experience. We must at all costs refuse the attitude of conquest which aims to impose knowledge to others; while ignoring their experience, their culture, their way of expressing themselves, their interests, their successes. We cannot educate someone by taking withdrawing what is important for him. That would not be education – it would be sheer oppression.

Educational projects

If this educational approach appeals to you, you can implement it in a large number of voluntary educational projects in both industrialized and developing countries, for example:

Taking a role in a non-formal education movement: summer camps, Scouting, Guiding, etc.
Taking a role at a local social centre.
Participating in campaigns to educate youth socially disadvantaged groups (refugees, immigrants, ethnic minorities, orphans, street children, etc.).
Helping physically or mentally handicapped youth at risk of social exclusion.

But you can also learn from this approach if you choose a career in education, as a school teacher, a professional or technical trainer. The renovation of teaching and education is yet to be done. It requires the commitment of people who find innovation a pleasure. Have fun!

The young are capable of anything! You decide what “anything” will be. [Fernand Deligny in Seeds of riffraff, 1945.]

In the “Toolboox” you may find some useful sheets that can help you in your educational projects.

You may also want to have first a look at this illustrated speech of Sir Ken Robinson on Education :

Sir Ken Robinson (born Liverpool, 4 March 1950) is an author, speaker and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies. He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001) and was knighted in 2003 for services to education. (Wikipedia)