Doctrine is human work. The systems are not built for this.
Doctrine is human work. The systems are not built for this.
Education is structured as a system – standardized, measured and scaled. But the training does not work that way. What about teaching? Doctrine is human work – improved, emotional and deeply personal. This difference is more than philosophical. This is a practical, daily problem for teachers.
I. Education is a system. Learning and teaching are not.
This is a challenge: when systems lead solutions, but people do the job, friction is inevitable.
II. The systems are made of parts. People are not.
Education as a system is made up of parts – and these parts can be designed in any number of ways. That is, they are subjective because we as individuals are subjective.
III. Objectivity is a useful illusion.
We become objective only under intense control by others, and even then this objectivity is temporary. After moving from an object of study to something familiar – from being to man – objectivity is lost.
(For the biologist, the species becomes primates, becomes a monkey, a friend.)
IV. By losing objectivity, we are gaining in connection.
It is through this loss that the human connectivity is acquired. And it is through connection that we find our interdependence. With how we connect with people, spaces and ideas, we begin to make sense of ourselves. One shapes the other.
V. The system is not – and can’t – plan for it.
Education does not have a mechanism to support this process. This work falls on teachers. When this does not happen, there is no brain of learning. It becomes a shell.
(This is when academics pass from a worthy team of knowledge to a mechanical process that downplays their own wisdom.)
Systems do not plan people. They talk in code. Teachers speak human languages – and this weight is quiet.
VI. Systems don’t talk. People do it.
Systems use binary language. People use emotion, gesture, silence and laughter. The system cannot talk to the teacher. The curriculum cannot talk to the community. But students and families and teachers can. They are the only real parts.
VII. Reality is a cycle that we build and review.
How we see ourselves shaping how we see the world. And how we see the world forms who we think we are. We construct and build a reality that returns to our identity.
(Think about how you looked at 17 vs how you see yourself now – and what caused this change.)
VIII. Teachers translate two incompatible languages.
This is a continuous process that education constantly interrupts – because it never learns the language of the individual student. The child with this story sitting in this chair. Teachers are translators – more important in both humans and the system and extend between them.
IX. Systems decrease. Teachers are humanizing.
When the system prioritizes effectiveness to people, knowledge becomes evaluations and certificates. This is not malicious. It is predictable. Systems are looking for the measurable and throw away the rest.
X. Technology enhances the system, not human.
Edtech promised relief. But without human-oriented design and communication, it simply loads the system-it crosses every angle, illuminating any ineffectiveness, accelerating every point of pressure.
The best Edtech can do – without the voice of teachers, students and families – is a break.
XI. Start with the person, not the system.
If knowledge, wisdom, literacy and critical thinking are still our goals, we must start not with programs but with people. With the conditions that help these qualities to appear in the real world. We work back from people, not ahead of policies.
XII. Ask better questions.
We could do more bad than we start with a question:
If knowledge releases the mind, once released, where does it go?
And then ask:
How can education make room for flourishing and not just function?
