John Cowan - More than school

I was talking this morning on the phone to a friend in China. He mentioned that high school students there start school at 8 in the morning and finish at 9:30 at night. On three out of four weekends they will do remedial classes, and they work hard on studies during their holidays as well. Phenomenal. When the only way to get ahead seems to be getting into a good university, you can understand the whole system putting pressure on kids to study like that. It’s just that I don’t think it works. Of course their hard work delivers great scholastic results; it’s just that I don’t think academic results are the only or even best measure of a great education.

A couple of years ago a Korean TV crew interviewed me. South Korea is proud that its students now have the best marks in the world. But they were here in New Zealand to find out why it was that they could observe that, in spite of their ‘better’ education, New Zealanders had more initiative, creativity and entrepreneurial skills.

Let’s be clear: education has worked for these Asian countries – in only a few decades education has transformed their economies.  I don’t doubt or disparage the value of a great school education system. It’s just I think that school is only part of a great education. The education your kids get when they work next to you in the garden is valuable too. The education they get out in the boat is magic. The education they get on that holiday in the tent is irreplaceable.  The education you get building a trolley or exploring with friends is ultimately, superbly useful.   Rote learning might stick a lot of knowledge into heads but I think it is the practical and lived-out learning you do in families, and at home and in the playground and sports field and on holidays that equips a brain for real use in a real world.

I believe that progress at school is incredibly important, but doing schoolwork should never be at the expense of getting a good education.

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