Benjamin W. Blair, A. Legrand Richards and Andreas M. Kazamias, Philosophy
Though this project was frustrating and draining at times, I feel so fortunate to have undertaken such a study. My paper and my results are the least of what I learned. The greatest learning experiences on my part were simply seeing another system of education at work, and watching how a system functions which is based on completely different foundations from the system I grew up with.
In his essay, Education as a Science, John Dewey discusses the need to approach education scientifically. He suggests that to do so would not detract from the “art” of education. He views the art and science of education as ultimately and practically harmonious. My research offers an alternative conclusion. Dewey suggests that the supposed tension between art and science is unfounded. I believe that this tension is founded, at least on a practical level.
In education it is difficult to decide which is more important, the system of education, or the teachers’ art in education. To illustrate, let me outline what I believe are the ideals of a system and the needs of an artist.
First, lets consider the system:
I take it that the characteristics of the most desirable system (from the system’s viewpoint) are manageability, unity, programmedness, streamlinedness, uniformity, coordination etc.–in other words, all parts work together for the same goal. An example of an effective system is a body, every part of the body works together to keep the body alive and to function as a unity under the direction of the brain. If a part, say the hand, were to all of a sudden become free from the direction or influence of the brain, then we would say that there is something seriously wrong with the body system, and doctors would try to do whatever they could to restore the hand to be directed again by the brain. The hand may have a different function from say the heart, but we would not want to say that either of these are “autonomous.”
Now consider an artist:
An artist requires freedom (to some extent). A great artist is never satisfied that the final and best way to express something has already been done. A great artist is always looking for new and different ways to express himself and/or his art. The characteristics of the ideal artist seem to militate against the ideal of a system. We wouldn’t call someone an “artist” who was merely a tool in someone else’s hands. Consider again the body; the heart is a vital part of the body, but it merely obeys what the brain tells it. It would be strange for an artist to be like a heart, merely conforming to orders. We would think someone strange if he were to say: “I’m an artist, I never deviate from what the book, the teacher, the director etc. tell me to do.” An artist requires autonomy to some extent, the more the individual is an extension of something else, or a tool of something else, the less of an “artist” the individual has the possibility of being.
The tension in school is that it seems the teachers exhibiting the qualities of “artists” bring vitality and excitement into the learning process; if a school system does away with artists, then it seems it will become outdated and caught in a rut. At the same time, a great artist can exert an influence, but not near the influence of a system; Socrates was a great teacher, but Plato’s Academy influenced a great deal more people.
My project has different aims. The first aim is to find out whether this tension exists. The second aim is to analyze the effect of this tension, and the last is to offer ways to deal with this tension. My research included reading about the education system in Greece as well as general education theory, but the bulk of my results comes from the interviews I had with teachers and principals in elementary schools. I interviewed 20 teachers and principals in Athens, Greece, and learned what follows.
The Greek school system is highly centralized, the ministry of education makes most of the significant decisions about education such as what is taught, why it is taught, how it is taught, and when it is taught. There is one mission statement from the ministry which holds for all public schools. There is one book per lesson, and the time at which each lesson is to happen is ordained by the ministry, and these lesson times are furnished to each school in the form of a “school program”. In elementary school, the books are distributed free of charge to the schools from the ministry of education. Furthermore, a book is furnished by the ministry for the teacher corresponding to the students’ book. The teachers book may include such things as: a brief analysis of the students’ book; a day to day outline for lessons, and a user-guide for the teacher’s book including ways to present the material.
Though there are obviously some problems with the Greek educational system, theoretically, it is an ideal system. The “system” has decided what it wants to produce, it has ordained (supposedly after long study) the ways to obtain this product; it has streamlined the curricula as well as the way or method the teacher will teach it. If the ways or factors to reach this product are in fact ways which do produce this product, and the ways ordained by the ministry as to how the teachers are to use the curricula are in fact ways that will produce such products, then the system will produce exactly what it wants to produce. Further, if it were to study more, then it could further refine and streamline its approach to make such products, and continue until it reached the best way to produce such products.
The teachers and principals in Greece did not view the system as effective or dynamic. They saw the system as a governing body with little communication with the teachers and principals. Though on paper the system is ideal, in practice, the teachers and principals don’t feel that way. I attribute this discrepancy to the tendencies of systems and artists. A system will always tend toward uniformity, streamlinedness, etc. An artist will always tend away from these. An understanding of this tension is required before any proposed “harmonization” of these tendencies can be put to use.
My experience in Greece suggests that there is a practical tension between the system of education in Greece and the Greek teacher’s art. My suspicion is that this tension is fundamental in education. This tension is the result of the ideals of systems and the needs of an artist. That there is a tension does not mean that there is no way to put the two together in a positive way. But I don’t believe there can be any practical solutions until there is first a good understanding of the tension.