The best educational system an institute could follow in teaching its students is a free system. And it’s true with educational freedom as well as all other aspects of freedom, that it cannot be granted with no limits. The question arises, however, on where to set the line; where’s the limit.
By common sense, freedom must be there but it shouldn’t be unlimited. If you send a child to school and give it all the resources there is, the child could harm himself. If you want to teach a kid about automobiles and he wants to try and drive a car to apply the learnt concepts, you can’t just give him a car because you “apply the concept of free education.”
There are three main aspects allying in the freedom of education:
1. freedom to learn or not to learn.
2. freedom as what to learn.
3. freedom of opinion.
The first one lies in the hands of officials. Every living person has the right to get an education. If someone wants to learn, then the person must be granted the freedom to do so. Also a limit exists here, for when a child goes to school not willingly, and asks for the freedom to stop getting this education, then the authority must interfere. A person that age does not acquire the required level of maturity to make such a decision; he/she does not recognize the consequences of making such a decision and the importance of what they’re doing. Therefore if someone doesn’t want to learn, then they should be granted that freedom when they’re old enough.
Freedom in choosing what to learn, also has its limits. If a first grader says he only wants to learn English because math is hard, it is not in his best to make that decision. What if he grows up to find that he in fact loves math? Not to mention the importance of learning the subject. It’s necessary and only when he grows up will he find that the freedom of granting him power to make such decision was actually destructive.
It comes later on in high school where students must be given electives, when they were in fact exposed to all aspects of subjects and know what’s in their passion and ability. If a girl does not want to learn physics, then she shouldn’t be forced to learn it – after she has studied and made that decision of course. Also in university, and that’s the State’s job, all students must have the freedom to enroll into whatever path they decide to choose, and also to change from it if it turns out to not work out. It’s the State’s responsibility to provide a good education in all sectors for all people (all genders, all ethnic groups…). It’s also the society, family, and even school’s duty to not force any type of oppression or force on students regarding to what to study. Whatever their hearts tell them to, they must have the complete freedom to do.
And the third aspect is the most important, and it lies hands on in the classroom. This in fact is the thing that leads to mind-opening and attracts students to education. This is the way to develop and achieve great things. When a student wants to question a mathematical formula, a historical (told to be) fact, even an institutional law or policy, the student must be granted the freedom to do so. Here also lies a governmental, societal and institutional responsibility in having an objective education. For example, as much as I advocate the Palestinian issue, I must admit that the way I was taught the issue in school was subjective. The right is obvious, and students must be granted the right to give their opinions and declare their political position based on facts not their teachers’ opinions.
Objectivity must arise especially in the teaching of liberal art subjects. If a student studies a novel for literature class, then this student must have the freedom to declare his/her opinion regarding it or its author in class. In history, students must be allowed to question the facts they’re learning and whether or not they’ve been given right ones. In studying about wars or so, the side to which they lean for shouldn’t be imposed on them by the teacher but they should form their own opinion based on the facts they’re presented.
Students must learn facts only, and if they’re presented with opinions then they must be given the opinion, and the other opinion. It’s a right to receive an objective education, and it’s also a right to be granted the freedom to give opinions regarding what she/he is learning.
The benefits of a free education are truly unlimited. Not only will it create an incentive to learn, but it will also satisfy the student. It will open people’s minds to great aspects to which they will lead to true prosperity.
Revolution.
**I think I ran out of theme complaints.
