writing this for a video I have to submit for a job interview – but it’s a good question I’d like to revisit one day
What’s my pedagogical philosophy?
My dream education system has 4 key outcomes for every single learner:
- to know the self: confidence, gifts and potential
- to strive towards goodness: a deep sense of responsibility, justice and love
- to love learning: growth mindset, curiosity and creativity
- to have humility: respect for diversity, knowledge and what we don’t know
The most important word above is every. Every learner deserves an education that helps them – in all their unique potential & gifts – succeed.
Our problem is one of misaligned incentives. Successful schools in the modern education system aren’t prioritising every learner…especially if it’s at the expense of the school.
the problem with modern schooling
The modern school is not built for every learner – standardised curriculums, rigid timetables and inflexible assessments are not a recipe for building a system that leaves no child behind.
Students are individuals, not grade machines. But when everything is seen through the lens of your grades…you get treated like machines. Push the top ones harder. Fix the ones at the bottom. Here are two stories:
At 15, my friends and I got called into an office for a teacher to “strongly encourage” us to drop Mandarin as a subject. We were failing and he didn’t want our elite boys’ school to look bad (or perhaps his KPIs). The fact that we were having fun learning wasn’t even a question asked in that room. We dropped Mandarin.
As a mentor in an after-school programme focusing on socio-emotional learning, I asked my 10 year old mentee: why are you here?
I thought he’d say to learn, or to hang out with friends or to have fun. Something intrinsic, something self-driven. I was naive. He said, with zero sarcasm and the sincerity only a young child can have:
Because I’m stupid.
When we rank students based on grades, this is what happens to those at the bottom. Whether we have a cynical approach like my teacher or a compassionate approach, the message remains the same: you’re not good enough. You’re not working hard enough. You’re bad at learning.
They’re not stupid. They can certainly tell that their teachers think they are. And despite having the rest of their lives ahead of them bright with potential, they might actually believe us?
humans are born with the love of learning
Humans are born with the love of learning. Nobody forced me to learn how to walk – and so even when I fell, I never wanted to stop trying.
Schools then teach this love out of us.
The job of every educator who loves our learners is to rekindle that spark. Relight the flame within. The world will be brighter for it.
