Education,lifelong learning,social classes

How has your experience of school shaped you as a learner, and as an adult? There was a really sharp contrast between the schooling I received in South Africa and in Argentina. Needless to say, in South Africa in the 70's we were part of apartheidt so there was a clear education of the social classes or basically a social education which upheld a system in place.That having been said, it shaped the way I though for a long time to come.Argentina,with all its pitfalls,was not a racist country and so what ideas I had if any, in that respect faded away, what did stick with me for long was more than an idea, but fear. Fear was instilled in me as we were educated "under threat of",as a consequence I abhor teaching my students under threat and despise situations where I cannot get them to respond otherwise.That fear persisted with me until a couple of years back,after therapy and coaching. I cannot precisely recall how primary shaped me as a learner, I do remember having acquired order and pragmatism a lot of which were lost in secondary, (funnilly enough!) but it did give me a lot more creative freedom. As far as social classes and schooling in Argentina, the public schooling system in many parts of the country, was and still is today, concerned about keeping kids in schools and out of streets, and getting them to have breakfast and lunch. Socially, shcooling was much more intersperesed.There were kids from the lower classes, middle low, plain middle class and middle to upper classes al attending the same school, though oddly enough,I recall that many of the richer kids were somehow put together in the same course too. I do not think that we learnt any different learners but have to agree some learnt faster than others depending on social class.There were no private schools in my city back then, no uniforms or the kind. We did have, the same as in South Africa, technical or commercial schools and that was about it at the time.Being schooled and nothing fancy In what ways do you think your own schooling could have been improved, and what priorities do you think are the most important for schools today? Could it be said that we were taught for a change of the world?Hardly. In both countries we were part of a system and could see no further beyond it, specially between ages 7 and 14, later on at 16 or 18 we saw what was happening around us but were not involved with current issues the way they are today,much more informed. I like this concept on Lifelong learning; The idea of lifelong education was first fully articulated in this century by Basil Yeaxlee (1929). He along with Eduard Lindeman (1926) provided an intellectual basis for a comprehensive understanding of education as a continuing aspect of everyday life. I did appreciate the fact that my primary school had carpintery, photography,cooking class and some other subjects that I did not even have in secondary which prepared for life,so in a way,it was topsy turvy, when I was about to leave for the "real world" I was not getting ready in high school. Neither was I aware of the concept of lifelong learning, I thought it was University next and then life. Is it good for a teenager to know of it? Maybe not at that time but I was not taught about it and my teachers in University did not mention it as a concept per se.It would have been good for me to know about it at the time. . What priorities do you think are the most important for schools today? I do not think that any of the 3 schools I went to had a vision that kids would ultimately be the creators of a new world which is what should have been done back then. To be fair, I cannot know if that was the case, maybe they did and this world is the result.I believe that ultimately schools should prepare us for the real world, develop emotional intelligence at all social levels, but not to prepare us for what´s to come but to mould it,to change it for what we really need, considerate to the environment and to other human beings.Ultimately get an education that does that and all else will follow suit.