Oh ye who have short memories,
understand that a pre-schooler’s place is NOT in a classroom, but in the great
outdoors from where the poor child was yanked by the parent and thrown into a
pre-school, with an untrained teacher, who just has decided to have a day care
center, to earn some money at her home and call it a pre-school.
The link below which is to the pre-school
which won UK’s pre-school of the year encourages the children to play outside
in ALL WEATHER and in England it is COLD, and by this they both improve their
immune systems that will help them for a lifetime and also as they make their
own toys, they become creative at an early age, in an era we are desperately
searching for means to make our kids more creative.
We have obviously forgotten our basics,
when we had NO toys to play and made all our toys from whatever we could grab
from outside, from shells, to seeds to anything that looked interesting that we
found or picked up on our daily outings with our elder, usually sisters, keepers,
or nannies or mothers, depending on your caregivers. No wonder then that large
families have tended to perform better despite all the odds than small ones in
becoming successful by their own efforts.
Don’t we ever learn? It is not too late
to start again, to remind ourselves that we can learn from the past and also
from practices of the past. This link above is a very important eye opener to
the doubters, that the systems we had in the past were actually quite state of
the art and contemporary. It makes a lot of sense. Today, all creativity has
been removed from all types of schools.
How easy is it to encourage people to go
outside. It costs less, it makes it easier and when the children who are
children after all enjoy playing in the rain, the hot sun, in all weathers, we
only have to do what is needed to make sure they don’t get hurt badly, as
getting hurt is also part of toughening up.
Do remember that pre-school education is
more important that University Education and it encompasses all kids not just the bright and the fortunate. It is time our leaders and
educators understand it, (or go back to school to learn it is so) and take action to beef up the quality of the teachers
by taking those who are genuinely interested in teaching kids, and giving them
a million dollar training on all aspects as well as using creative toy building
from the great outdoors. Of course the best pre-school teacher is worth their weight in Gold so they must also be properly compensated and appreciated within the community.
They will then return a billion dollar dividend by
laying the ground work for the future of our Country, namely today’s children
to actually find their niche and contribute to society without delay.
Trust me if resources are channeled here, we will in 20 years be bringing the most valuable resources of our country, our well educated youth, into the work force to contribute to the economy in ways that we could have only dreamed of before.
The solutions are there, it just has to be implemented. Now Minister of Education and leaders of our tiny Island the ball is in your court.
8 comments:
To think the great Sri Lankan knowledge traditions have been lost because of the uneducated donkeys that have been elected to parliament.
Back then kids learned about trees, plants, medicinal plants, basic ayurveda for cuts and bruises. How to fish, clean and cook in a pit, identify the bird sounds and know when the monkeys call, that an animal is nearby.
All this was taken away, and kids put into class and given a silly book the same silly book every child in the country is given and told to memorize to pass an exam. How absolutely mad is that. That is retarded.
So time for a revolution in education, first getting teachers from poor farmers, when they are NOT busy on the land, and paying them a retainer to take the kids OUT of school and take them on nature walks and show them the world around them.
The problem is the teachers unions will not allow that. The teachers in village schools are waiting for a transfer out of that school, as quickly as possible. They have NO interest in the education of kids. They wont allow farmers to do that proposed above, and they themselves don't want the responsibility of taking the kids on nature walks as they don't know jack shit.
After all they are all products of the poor education system themselves, they know no better. How to break this vicious cycle?
No teachers in village schools because of the above issue, and so they are closing and kids are sent by bus for long distances to the nearest town to school. Exacerbating the problem. 3,000 schools are earmarked for closure in the next few years as they have less than 50 pupils in each.
Its a no brainer. Pre-school years is the most important for a child's future, whether they go to a formal school or get a grounding, and allowed to explore by their caregivers, usually parents.
It therefore important to educate all caregivers on how important these formative years are to the rest of that person's life, more than all the time you spend in school in fact.
We place the least emphasis on the most important period of children's lives. It is time to change that, the sooner we do, the quicker we can solve the time bomb that will otherwise blow Sri Lanka out of existence by their own action or inaction.
Turn every school that is closed, into a community center, with one section for seniors and the other for pre school. Here the quality of community life can improve, and seniors can take turns in teaching the children about their childhood, climbing trees, and collecting medicinal plants for their home, helping their fathers with agriculture and mothers with weaving and handicrafts etc. This is a win win situation. The creative spirit will suddenly emerge in these bright young minds. Today they are muzzled, and come A level they have NO brain left.
Today the closed schools are dens for drug addicts, and are gradually crumbling. Education Department release these schools to community use, dont hold onto them like you do now, and let them rot. Use your brains if you have any to revitalize our rural areas.
There are no educated people in Parliament capable of making the best choices for the Country. Time to send everyone who has ever been elected packing. Surely the rest of us cannot be as bad as those who have gone before us?
Cool down bro!
Nature walks and medicinal plant collecting? when was that? seventeenth century?
Hay, remember we lived in caves, hunt, fish and forage
nice post and very salient issue about improving the quality of education for youngsters in an area that is often overlooked or not thought too much about.
I would say regarding one point you made in the broader essay that large families tend to be more successful because they develop good social skills because they have siblings around all of the time but also they benefit from a wider social network which opens up opportunities that non-networked individuals might miss.
I know some distinguished physicians and scientists of Sri Lanka who came from village schools from poor backgrounds and got into good schools after their grade 5 exam equiv. This was over 40 years ago. They said they had an all round experience as kids and that is why they were able to manage in society.
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