AH GAN’s EDUCATION CREED
Posted: 27-06-06 Tue 3:16 pm
AH GAN’s EDUCATION CREED
I like to feel free. I like to see children living in freedom. So, I seldom cane or blame my students for not finishing their homework. It is not easy for me to do so because most of the schools today always stress the importance of the UPSR result. I couldn’t count out how many times I have been called into the headmaster’s office. However, I still insist on my belief in education after all. If you know me well, you will know what people keep on calling me- a stubborn and strange egotist. Am I?
Here, I would like to share the following arranged-statements with you:
‘Freedom means doing what you like, as long as you don’t interfere with the freedom of others. The function of the child is to live his own life-not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the educator who thinks he knows what is best. Learning is not a forcing process and we should wait until the child comes to his own opinion that it should be done. Freedom is necessary for the child because only under freedom can he grow in his natural way.’
On the other hand, childhood is actually playhood; and whatever system ignores that truth is educating against the natural way. Sacrificing young life for mastering working skills or learning varied knowledge may be necessary, but I dare to say that it is definitely not an ideal education system. The only thing that the present system can produce is a generation of robots. Everybody loves the little obedient child who will one day turn into a numb citizen-a good thing for the society.
We all have failed our next generation.
I like to feel free. I like to see children living in freedom. So, I seldom cane or blame my students for not finishing their homework. It is not easy for me to do so because most of the schools today always stress the importance of the UPSR result. I couldn’t count out how many times I have been called into the headmaster’s office. However, I still insist on my belief in education after all. If you know me well, you will know what people keep on calling me- a stubborn and strange egotist. Am I?
Here, I would like to share the following arranged-statements with you:
‘Freedom means doing what you like, as long as you don’t interfere with the freedom of others. The function of the child is to live his own life-not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the educator who thinks he knows what is best. Learning is not a forcing process and we should wait until the child comes to his own opinion that it should be done. Freedom is necessary for the child because only under freedom can he grow in his natural way.’
On the other hand, childhood is actually playhood; and whatever system ignores that truth is educating against the natural way. Sacrificing young life for mastering working skills or learning varied knowledge may be necessary, but I dare to say that it is definitely not an ideal education system. The only thing that the present system can produce is a generation of robots. Everybody loves the little obedient child who will one day turn into a numb citizen-a good thing for the society.
We all have failed our next generation.