First, let us watch this small clip on schools:

While this clip is a specific reference to the american school system,the situation is not that far off in our schools. In fact, our system is more advanced. See the diagram below (click to enlarge):

It is actually quite mind-boggling to use a conveyor belt to describe the education system, but if you look at our education system, it is clearly a more advanced factory model where you not only go through all the phases of production, but there is even Quality Control to determine the value of the goods! Now watch this animation, keeping in mind that we are talking about education and the schooling system (not meat).

If you were to observe carefully, you will realise that whatever is said in the above animation is true also for education. Instead of trying to maximise profit we are trying to maximise efficiency. We put hordes of student into a small compound and expect them not to misbehave. When they do misbehave, we clip their beak ... sorry, not really but we come up with various methods to make them conform to the system. To pretend that we are actually doing something good to them, we come up with syllabi and curriculum meant to numb their mind and senses. We introduce examination systems that make them ego-involved in almost everything they do, including co-curricular activities where instead of having fun students are expected to accomplish certain tasks in order to win the Gold award (so that the school can win some Sustained Achievement Award or whatnot).

Ok, I admit that was a bit too dramatic, but if you were to think carefully, you will see the truth in this. There are two important points I'd like to make here - that students in the system are made to conform excessively, and that they are being made to construct meaning in an unnatural manner. Let me elaborate on this.

Our entire social psyche is geared towards a materialistic sense of achievement. Perhaps a result of our migrant society, where many of our ancestors came to Singapore with virtually nothing, and having to struggle to attain a more comfortable life. This social psyche is deeply entrenched into our culture that it makes its way into the Verstehen of every child even when they are young. To succeed in life we have to do well academically, and to do well academically we have to be well-disciplined so as to be able to absorb all that vast amount of "knowledge". It does not matter what you like, you simply have to do it. Blackmailed by the need to succeed, many betrayed their passion and dreams to pursue the Singapore Plan. Our conformation does not come just from external forces, in which society and schools try to make students as similar as possible in order to facilitate efficient mass- production of workers. The greater evil lies in our own willingness to conform to social and economical demands thinking that otherwise, we will not be able to survive in society! This is a point that the movie, "Singapore Dreaming" was trying to make.

Do you want to be a road sweeper? Or would you like to attain the 5 C's of Condo, Credit Card, Cash, Country Club and Car? How can you not conform?

Many may ask "if learning by active construction of meaning is true, surely it does not matter how you teach?" This argument says that even if constructivism is true, it has no implication on teaching and learning because students are still going to actively construct their meaning anyway, so any form of education will have no effect on students' ability to learn and think and be creative. This is not true. Remember Dewitt said that creativity lies in changing perspectives? It is critical that the mind is allowed to freely guess and construct meaning (hence explore different perspectives). When this is restricted, the mind still actively constructs and guess, but the range of different perspectives is limited. So there is some guessing but the mind stops quickly, as there is a fear to explore and guess further. In other words, there is a decrease in mental activity and activeness. This is what I meant when I say that meaning construction is unnatural in our education system. Recall then how Dewey defines mis-education: "any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience".

Conformation and restriction of freedom to create meaning clearly leads to mis-education. Students, through their experience in the education system (as well as society in general), become numb and timid in their active meaning construction. Having taught students from Secondary 1 to Junior College 2, I have observed that the older the students, the more jaded they are in learning. Many at the older age no longer question - when given the opportunity to explore they are simply interested in how to attain the maximum grade with the least amount of involvement. They have become totally ego-involved in their learning. That is not to say that the education system is totally evil, that there is no real education within our schools. There is education, but this is in spite of the system. There will always be people who would rebel and yet be able to survive, there would always be people so strong in character that no amount of social pressure can conform them, and there would always be families with a healthy sense of Verstehen.

Before we go to the next section, let us listen to this song, which an NIE professor played for us when I took his course on Progessive Education as a trainee teacher.

The lyrics expressed rather extreme views, but my question is: are you also another brick in the wall? Are we not creating a whole wall of identical bricks?