Pandemic imposes new challenges on education
Much discussion these days by parents and educators is about the future of education for children at all levels from preschool to college. The unexpected dependence on online teaching as schools were forced to close in the face of the pandemic, has led to various appraisals of this modality of education as compared to students with teachers in classrooms.
With a new school year approaching, thinking about education going forward is subject to the unknown. As in conjectures about the economy, what is necessary and desirable on one hand, may be unrealistic in terms of health and well-being. Increasingly, schools throughout the country are searching for ways to open schools and teach children safely.
Complicating the question is the concern being expressed by teachers at all levels about threats to their own health in returning to the classroom. Parents in turn are concerned for the health of their children and ultimately their own, despite the degree to which working parents have depended on their children being at school.
These factors have been superimposed on earlier ongoing discussions about the purpose of education. In higher education, because tuitions have soared requiring students to borrow more, liberal arts have begun to seem like a luxury and increasingly schools have been judged by how well they are preparing students to earn a living. In this approach the value of education is determined by how it is translated into dollars in the future - not only dollars in themselves but also specific routes to earning those dollars.
Some lament the shift away from liberal arts toward practical courses like engineering and business. The fear is that college is being turned into trade school whereas the original purpose of education was to prepare people for citizenship and leadership, and to enhance their capacity for creativity. Thinking about education as an investment that focuses on the rate of return is an approach based on concrete results rather than on harder to define individual growth and development and reflects a different set of values.
There is nothing wrong with going to business school, but this presupposes that a high school senior is clear about the future direction in which he or she would like to move. This leaves no room for personal growth or expanding interests and negates the idea that education is for any purpose other than maximizing one’s income. Nor does it allow for the kind of creativity that when given room may lead not only to a more fulfilling life but also often to lucrative ends. Think Steve Jobs or others who left school to follow their true passions.
The changing purpose of education seems in part related to a recurring idea that issues of poverty and economic inequality are to be solved by education.
Beyond concern about rising inequality in our own country is concern about global competition and comparison to the apparent educational superiority of other countries. Although a hallmark of our culture is individualism, increasingly education is being asked to serve ends other than the growth of the individual student. And yet it is the creativity nurtured by education in the past that has been a source of much noted national strength.
The increasing dependence on online education as a tool in meeting the ongoing crisis appears to give greater weight to the emphasis on concrete practical content. The potential for finding mentors and inspirational teachers is diminished in the absence of person to person contact. The challenge remains finding ways to expand interests, stimulate creativity and personal growth in young people, in the context of a new reality.
Elaine Heffner, LCSW, Ed.D., has written for Parents Magazine, Fox.com, Redbook, Disney online and PBS Parents, as well as other publications. She has appeared on PBS, ABC, Fox TV and other networks. Dr. Heffner is the author of “Goodenoughmothering: The Best of the Blog,” as well as “Mothering: The Emotional Experience of Motherhood after Freud and Feminism.” She is a psychotherapist and parent educator in private practice, as well as a senior lecturer of education in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Heffner was a co-founder and served as director of the Nursery School Treatment Center at Payne Whitney Clinic, New York Hospital. And she blogs at goodenoughmothering.com.