Let me hit the basics first. I think we may have to reinvent the definition of a Student or call those who get themselves enrolled to study with something other than using the word Student. The same may be required to re-define the word Teacher for the 21st century.
Why am I saying this? We started of defining Marriage as a holy wedlock between a woman and a man. When that marriage took a new meaning we started of with calling it as same-sex marriage. However, when that did not get accepted as holy, the marriage of same-sex couples soon got redefined to say ‘Civil Union’.
I am now wondering whether there are similarities existing for the 21st century to re-define Teacher-Student relationships. Let’s take a moment to see how schools stand in the 21st century in promoting Teacher-Student relationships.
Firstly, we keep hearing sexual relationships between teachers and students. With that we have dealt the first blow to the real meaning of attending a school by a student.
Secondly, we keep hearing about school violence that has progressed from a mere bullying to killing innocent lives. Does the meaning of school as a place where we worship acquiring knowledge has changed drastically? Does it not bear truth to real seekers of knowledge that the learning has changed to an extent where it is really getting scared both mentally and physically to acquire the same knowledge?
Thirdly, the tolerance levels of students to discipline has changed to such an extent students nowadays do not hesitate to attack those very people who are trying to bring some discipline to teach them. Even the school administration is failing to support teachers in this regard. Even in sport when an unwarranted situation develops and there is doubt to the cause of it, the benefit of doubt is always given to the party who got threatened. Here it is not normally the case.
Fourthly, where can we find the really meaning of school? Is home schooling an alternative? Or this drive to educate each and every person with policies such as ‘no child is left behind’ has taken a turn to the worse? If so, can we use the technologies that are available now to enable the learning than to find fault with the ways in which the education is being delivered or administered? Most often than not it has been found that the finger-pointing starts to protect the system rather than to improve the system.
Putting it all together, a place called school has taken a new meaning in terms of delivering education to the masses. Even the well wishing parents of a child have no control on their children as many laws that exist to protect children from child abuses have been abused by children themselves.
As a parent, who got most of the education when schools were respected and teachers were respected, I now know that this is not the case. Either we can fight or we can adopt. Fighting the system results in more stringent laws being placed and monitored and becomes more prone to abuse and complex.
If so, why not adopt and what does it take to adopt?
Why not redefine the schools, the teachers and the students with newer words that relate to the teacher-student relationships more closely tuned to the 21st century meaning of education than to the 20th century? That’s what I am thinking one of the ways to adopt.
With that, a teacher can be redefined as an educationist. However, the truer meaning of a teacher will still be there but will be limited to situations where a student has voluntarily elected to enroll to study – not forced by the education system. With that I am hoping most of the tax payers money that is spent to teach arts and sports can be privatized to adopt a much more friendlier ‘use and pay’ system. It will reduce the tax burden on citizens who just want their kids focussed on getting themselves educated rather than get distracted to play a sport or play and instrument. I am no way saying that arts and sports are not needed, but they can be turned into more specialized schools. There are always arguments that schools should provide exposures to such academies at a very young age, and I am all for it, but through specialized schools.
Redefining the meaning of student for the 21 century is much more difficult. If we can take out arts and sports out of the schools, except those needed to maintain the basic physical and mental health, we still can use the word student and only for those who have registered themselves voluntarily.
But there should be many more things happening to make this adoptive process to work.
There should be a no-liability clause for teachers who are dealing with those students who have been enrolled only on the consent of their parents. The responsibilities of teachers and parents should be shared equally if parents want their kids to attend the school. It is unfair to blame schools when parents themselves cannot exercise the same level of discipline at home that is being exercised at schools. The laws may have to be amended and monitored for abuse by parents. I always felt that it is better to have the laws applying to adults more than the kids. However, the age of a child to be considered as an adult should change with times. In earlier days, the knowledge got imparted slowly and it took kids to reach a certain age before being truly recognized as adults. But that has changed. We have been seeing adult like activities being undertaken by kids who have not even reached their teens. So why stick to an age that is no more appropriate to classify as kids age.
These are my opinion and in no way questions the authority of a school or a teacher or a parent or the forms of laws as they exist today. It is up to law-makers to delve on these opinions of a parent to see how strongly it is felt in the community to make appropriate amendments to address the welfare of the younger generation. We keep saying that they are our future, but we should make them aware what future holds for them if the journey is undertaken on a path that ruins that very future we wish them to have. Hence, I am saying that it is better to look at other options and include COL as one of them.