Why You Should LOVE School AND LOVE Education

            When trying to decide what to write about for my last blog post for this course, I decided to start searching up various videos on YouTube. With such a huge variety of videos on 21^st Century learning and skills (for example: Aligning 21st Century Learning with 21st Century Learners from 21 Foundation) it is easy to feel overwhelmed by all the information on it. Ironically, one of the goals of the 21^st century learning model is for students not to be overwhelmed by facts! Then I came upon a video that came out a few years ago, one that many university students like myself, watched, liked, shared, and tweeted about. The title stands out from the rest, “Why I Hate School But Love Education” by Suli Breaks; something that sounds contradictory to most. As I began to watch this video, and was quickly captivated by this man’s words and poetic-rhythm of the rant, I realized that promoting 21^st century learning can help students not only love education and learning, but love school, too! Education can happen anywhere, at anytime, in any place. It is up to the teachers to further enhance educating students of all ages in various subjects, ideas, and innovations in a way that the students’ self-learning is enriched, thus helping to increase their love to learn! Same as I wrote in a previous posting, school cannot be just about marks, (Watch I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate by Suli Breaks) but unfortunately that is what the society we live in today focuses on – from preschool to post-secondary schooling. Enriching a student’s 21^st learning skills should be done across all levels of education – not just in the elementary and high school levels, which were governmentally governed – but also in high level education institutions i.e. tertiary institutions.

            Teachers need to make the effort to incorporate 21^st century skills into the learning process, like inquiry, collaboration, critical thinking, media literacy, and creativity. When I look back on some of the assignments and teachings I had to do throughout my education journey, I had some teachers that incorporated 21^st century learning skills, which may not have been advocated as in today’s education world. Like in the first video posted above from 21 Foundation, I had a teacher give us the exact project of creating our own country; many teachers promoted the use of technology, PowerPoint slideshows, short films, Photoshop and more, with the use of computers. We had “computer lab” time, where we worked on our typing skills, just like in languages we would work on our penmanship – both equally important to know. In today’s world, we are hearing more and more about the celebrities that were successful in the world, and did not graduate university, did not graduate college, and some did not graduate high school! However, like in the video, they loved education and developed an education in their successful fields, like Beethoven, and Shakespeare.

            Education is the key to success, but school should not be “the look”, it should not be “the distant cousin”. School should be the key TOWARDS education! Students spend so much time in school, so many years in school, and so much money for school; so why do so many students still hate school? Incorporating 21^st century learning may be “they key” to helping school get out of its bad representation, and get students of all ages to start loving school again.

            Sure, education can occur anywhere, at anytime, at any place; but if students continue to hate school, and as a result begin to hate learning…how can the education happen? Now, this post may not be the longest, but words are just words…and actions speak louder than words. I encourage watch the videos I posted within this blog, reflect on them and see what you can do to match a change in how students perceive education, learning and school. For school, education and learning should be closely related to help promote positive student learning and the love to be life-long learners!

 

 

Suli Breaks - Why I Hate School But Love Education//Spoken Word (@Sulibreezy)