Short Essay on Mass Education Versus Individual Education – Under the present system of mass education by classes, too much stress is laid on teaching and too little on active learning.
The child is not encouraged to discover things on his own account. He learns to rely on outside help, not on his own powers, thus losing intellectual independence and all capacity to judge for him.
The over-taught child is the father of the news-paper-reading, advertisement-believing, propaganda-swallowing, demagogue-led man the man who makes modern democracy the farce it is.
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Moreover, lessons in class leave him mainly unoccupied, and therefore bored. He has to be coerced into learning what does not interest him, and the information acquired mechanically and reluctantly, by dint of brute repetition, is rapidly forgotten.
Quite naturally, the child, being bored and unoccupied, is also mischievous. A strict external discipline becomes necessary, unless there is to be chaos and pandemonium. The child learns to obey not to control himself. He loses moral as well as intellectual independence.
Such are the main defects in the current system of mass education. Many others could be mentioned; but they are defects in detail and can be classified under one or other of the three main categories of defects sacrifice of the individual to the system, psychologically unsound methods of teaching and irrational methods of imposing discipline.
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We need a new system of universal education of the same kind as that which has proved itself so successful in the training of defectives and infants, but modified so as to be suitable for older boys and girls. We need a system of individual education.
Important Points to Remember about this Essay:
1. In present mass education there is more stress on teaching than on learning.
2. Dependence on others deprives child of intellectual independence and judgment.
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3. The over dependent man makes democracy a farce
4. Being bored by learning mechanically and repeating uninteresting things the student becomes mischievous.
5. Thus external discipline of obedience is imposed to check chaos.
6. All defects can be classified as sacrifice of individual to system, unsound teaching method and forced discipline.
7. We need a system of individual education suitable for infants and defectives modified for older students.