From the Greeks to the present

I believe that the analysis of education and pedagogy stems from a single root, it has been looked at through one particular lens, for eons. Most of our western world´s takes on education stem from the metaphysics,the classic greek phylosophers and their conceptions which forged belief systems ,deeply rooted systems that still stand to this day. We have observed and read and analysed education from a perspective that is common ground to us all in the western world. I wonder what information we have on education prior to Communism or even during,why not?- in China or Asia or other forms of education in the ancient worlds of Latin America? Why not amalyze them? We keep going back to the same sources for most everything, the Greeks. And we study people who have studied them in turn. That´s why I most enjoyed these last series of videos with professor Moore as I enjoyed his take, one where Emotional Intelligence is mentioned and considered, where we accept that we are flawed individuals who make mistakes and we are, as individuals, a work in progress, one where there is no longer a stigma with making mistakes and the student is considered a human being. Also,I found particularly useful and I agreed with the point of view of Eisner or Mcintyre for example on teaching being an art, being able to adapt and improvise to get through to the student, is truly an art. I wonder then, if ,to get good teachers, the arts should not be as important as other subjects in school curriculums as Prof. Ken Robinson states? I remember having a good teacher when I returned from South Africa to Argentina and having had mostly bad teachers too, around that time. In South Africa I was bullied by both students and teachers; most teacher lacked empathy and in a system that enforced physcal punishment, and as a sensitive child who had migrated,I was made to suffer as my needs, I recall, were overlooked. I was made to swim without being havinf been actually being properly taught to swim for instance (I learnt at age 40), so I had plenty of bad teachers if in fact, a teacher should adapt to his student,observe his/her needs, be empathic and the like. Another bad teacher here in Argentina just was more of the same; I remember her because she could not understand how I had no idea of Argentine history and it´s political figures. When I finally spoke up,I was changed to the afternoon shift where my new teacher was comforting,created the right environment for me to learn, was considerate and understanding, and that, though I had plenty of reasons to be sad at this move back to a strange and unstable country, was enough for me. That for me, at least at the time, was a good teacher , she helped me to adapt One thing which we have yet not studied in this course is education in a world that is changing faster than we can adapt to it. What role for education and educators then? To prepare the world or to prepare for it? We have prepared for it,while we have changed it so much that we have to prepare in order to fix it up again and education systems seem to still be working around the idea of preparing for the world and not so much in making it a better place. So, here I would agree with Freire and his take on Pedagogy of the Oppressed. “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” This still holds very true today. Educator Politicians who draw up Educational syllabuses and systems will keep us in the same loop. We are-ecologically and with other threats such as A.I.- at a time in the world were we cannot afford this luxury. Although I believe that we could learn more easily by letting go of the "classics" and their lens through we which we have observed the world, I do agree with the initial idea of a pedagogue being someone who accompanied and prepared for life, I believe it is still valuable today, kids feel really lonely and isolated adn we don´t seem to be using the right tools to help. A good teacher must therefore prepare for life but for the life to come, a life which we will create for each other. How to do it? By teaching firstly what it is like to live as a community, in harmony,addressing each others needs. As professor Moore so aptly put it, there is Education "for the poor" but "why should there be poor in the first place"?