Expansion of Freire's Analogy of the Current Education System

This past week, I read Lawrence Summer's speech (http://pospapendix.blogspot.com/2008/11/lawrence-h-summers-speech-on-january-14.html) on why women are underrepresented in the higher academic positions in faculties of science and engineering. In addition to this, I had to read a piece supporting Summer's remarks by Stephen Pinker and another debunking Summer's remarks by Jane Spelke. One of Summer and Pinker's arguments is women are underrepresented in science and engineering due to innate biological differences. Spelke unwinds this claim through a series of arguments, and simply states, there is no evidence to suggest that there are biological differences. However, all these professionals noted that men and women learn differently. In the class discussion of these pieces, my group and I started critiquing and complaining about the current education system, and how it does not adequately address students' different strategies of learning. From this discussion, I would like to expand Paulo Freire's metaphor further from Pedagogy of the Oppressed (http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html) to one of my own, and discuss whether the developed world's model for education should be propagated.

I think our education system (before university and at times even in University) is like a toothpaste factory. The factory takes empty tubes (students) and fills them with the same toothpaste (“knowledge”) in the same way. Then, the tubes are capped because the factory has filled them enough. Finally, every tube is assessed on the same factors that the factory has deemed suitable.

The empty tubes is similar to Freire's that our current education system treats students as empty receptacles that need to be filled. The teacher is an omnipotent being, and the students are, “an empty 'mind' passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside (Freire 2).”

Additional part of the problem children have different strategies for learning but our current system does not recognize this. Freire states there needs to be dialogues, open conversation, but perhaps, this is not even the best strategy for learning for particular children. I think Freire commits the same harm that he accuses society of. How can we reconcile children's different learning strategies?

Furthermore, we assess students on the same standards. Personally, I agree that there has to be some way to compare people, and a common assessment is the easiest and most efficient way of doing it. However, I think that the assessment needs to ask questions that appeal to these different strategies equally. Spelke suggests why boys tend to do better on the SAT. She suggests that a majority of the SAT questions are framed for the predominantly male strategies of problem solving. When girls are taught to use the other method, girls and boys scores become more equivalent. I find it flabbergasting that the assessment for entrance into higher academic institutions is biased towards the male strategy, but we assess everyone with it. I would just like to be noted that I am not generalizing, and saying that all males tend to use the male strategies and females use the female strategies. There will be variation in the sexes and cultures.

In addition, society only values certain knowledge and skills. The toothpaste tube gets evaluated only on certain components. Is there a drawing section on the SAT or ACT? Is there a philosophy section? We use these tests to evaluate students entrance into higher academic sections, but exclude students who have focused or have strengths in other subjects.

I suppose since I have just lampooned the current education system and compared it to a toothpaste factory, I should suggest an alternative, but I do not know exactly what an alternative would be. My two main suggestions would be the following:

• Small class sizes especially in the early years of education to give the teacher the opportunity to learn the students different learning styles and abilities.
• Create more comprehensive assessments that test a range of skills and can be solved using a variety of learning strategies.

Its difficulty because I feel the system we use is so ingrained in our culture and the way we live that changing it is next to impossible. I strongly feel that current mode of education is detrimental. It leaves out certain people because of the way we assess people and what we consider important.

In terms of development, I am not sure why developing countries should follow our model when it has severe flaws. I think the mold should be broken, and development agencies should consider new methods of teaching. Again, I am stuck on exactly what this would be. United Nations Development Program should rethink grading, subjects, and teaching styles. I recognize that there are limited resources in the developing world, but I feel as though we should be investing our money in a better system instead of the one that we are presently using which excludes and hampers certain students.