Trimivium - What Makes Liberal Arts Liberal

It does no good if Mr Snooty is an honors graduate, and therefore on the dean's list, with a string of achievements in sports and other community projects if all I see is the blazing light of earnestness in Gilbert's eyes dimming and dying when Mr Snooty, with a wave of his hand, dismisses all that Gilbert has on his mind to ask of his epistemological deity. That in a nutshell sums up how our education system works to a large extent.

By the way Mr Snooty works, on the side, in a public-funded training agency, an agency which all and sundry who claims to be its ethnological kin, pays a tithe towards its ritzy presence. Imagine the irony when I, myself, is brought into head-on competition with this same agency in the very field of work I cherish passionately and dearly. Be assured attempts at working alongside it has not worked out and I wouldn't have it any other way , besides. We have different credos in our approach to education and training anyway.

Education has become one perfunctory administrative bucreaucracy without a more reflective and elaborative examination of education as in its original intent and meaning. To create thinking, reflective, committed, compassionate and wise counsel for the sciences, the industry, the community and for government. Leaders and people who would benefit mankind, not detract from it.

One performance indicator would be how many of their former students would be returning to their alma mater anytime soon, on their own accord, to meet with their ex-teachers. We are not talking of only teachers' pets but the distant and aloof ones as well.

And to acknowledge them oustide school. You may be the young hot shot of the school now, brilliant, virile and imbued with loads of sporting testerone. But once you are old and none of your charges turn to you, it is a sad indication of how much you have touched their lives.

Mr JL is one such teacher. First he called me "Fat Man" for no particular reason and called me stupid at his metalwork sessions. Even if I were slow or blur at times, does it warrant insulting pseudonyms? This is a signal for other pupils to join in the mockery and teasing. He is a man with a stentorian voice who helps out in church. But look at him now. He is an aging, stooping, old man and all alone.

Schools may claim , on the contrary, that they have done their utmost in bringing about holism in education. It still remains far off the mark. First, all stereo images of words and phrases have to be re-examined so pupils know exactly what they are mouthing. Many young pupils are using words which they only know its meaning vaguely.

I have frankly enough of "regurgitated vomit" academicians bandy about, without any practical relevance or utility. Issues go beyond the superficial semantics of words and thus the next crucial part of education ensues.

This second part is: pupils need some courses in logical and critical thinking through of issues germane to their lives. We have no use for descriptive and narrative stories with inane topical lead-ons like "One night, I was lying in bed when suddenly....", especially at the middle high school years. The pupils would have sufficient training of such creative imagination and romanticism at the elementary and junior high school years.

Even argumentative or expository topics need to have a broader spectrum of issues . It has to be something more in phase with the individual's experiences rather than a somewhat detached, out of reality and even irrelevant one. Compare "Tobacco smoking should be totally banned" with "What is your experience with tobacco smoking, either as a smoker or non-smoker. How does it affect you if ever?"

Truth is, the second re-framing would have subsumed the first anyway if the student is smart enough to be as inclusive and comprehensive as he should.

What's more with "One night, I was lying in bed when suddenly..."? How many of us would actually have such an experience.

The only one experience I had was when I woke up one night in bed when I was a precocious and pubescent 10 year old to find that I had a wet dream or that I had bed-wetted. Now how much could I go on writing on this one horrific nightmare I had, thinking I was diseased.

Did education teach me to cope with this natural physiological and circadian process or did it shut me off truth and knowledge and instead presented me with fear and an ordeal?

Chew on this!