As we reminisce on our day of liberation, I can’t help but reflect on its materiality in education. Have you ever wondered why toddlers are filled with excitement to go to school and will grab a pen and a book whenever an opportunity arises to doodle unceasingly? What then makes them hate school with venom later on? The answer is simple — education is simply not an act of freedom.
Bell Hooks, an American author, feminist, and social activist, has it that educating as a "practice of freedom” is a form of teaching and consequent learning that is engaging and exciting for both teachers and students alike. In this "practice of freedom,” both parties are equal "players” in contributing and sharing in the learning experience. Students are not just taught information that they are expected to commit to memory and recall when asked; rather, they learn to think critically in a non-conformist, unconfined way. The deduction here is that teachers who educate as a practice of freedom teach not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of students.
When students are taught in this "liberal” manner, the lessons they learn carry over into their lives outside of the classroom as well. Hooks recalls that in her younger years, before racial integration, her teachers made it their goal and worked with them to ensure that they would fulfil their intellectual destiny. To achieve this, the teachers made personal connections to their pupils by getting to know each of them and their families. During that time, she describes school as the place where she was able to reinvent herself without having to conform to someone else’s image. I wonder whether our students would say this about our schools today.
I cannot speak on how it has always been for students, but I know that during my generation in school, students, for the most part, weren’t thrilled to be in school every day. This is not only due to an unwillingness to learn, getting educated is a hard commitment, and humans tend to have trouble committing to hard tasks. So, regardless of being hard, I believe that if students make it to school every day, whether they want to be there, or their parents force them to, teachers should use the opportunity to change students’ mindset. I believe teacher-student engagement will maximise when schools stress that education is more of an individual process, and not just an oven where everybody gets baked into the same cookie. A school’s goal should be to expand a student’s mind and that’s it, not to get them into a good college, get them a high-paying job, make them famous, none of that.
Liberal education is the best thing that can happen to us. We are born with an insatiable thirst to constantly learn and grow, to be changed by ideas. We are born curious and we are excited when we discover new things and concepts. However, somehow, somewhere in school, learning becomes boring, uncool and unexciting. If we start our lives with a natural love for learning and a pleasurable endeavour, yet somewhere in the course our youth lose this drive, something must be wrong with the way we are educating. Educators must view it as their personal mission to keep this natural inclination alive and to nurture and help students grow with it.
Most pessimists and conservative teachers will disagree on the claim that liberal education may not be very practical. They argue that educating in this manner requires that both students and educators be involved and engaged in the process. Truly, very often this "give-and-take” is not present in the classroom and therefore, hampers this kind of educational experience. But this is exactly my point: education should be engaging to get the students more motivated.