Freedom of Education - Which Hat and Which Side of the Fence?

The biggest challenge in debating and wading through the myriad of arguments and decisions about education, is knowing which hat you're wearing and which side of the fence you're on. As if there are only 2 sides... 🤣

I wear more hats than most people I know, which clouds and colours things and makes most issues less tidy.

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

For starters, I am a business owner and an employer, in Thailand, with a post-graduate level education from Australia but working with often illiterate and functionally-illiterate people from multiple language groups from across Thailand and Burma. My business struggles enormously to find people to work in the office, do the accounts, to package orders for delivery etc because literacy and numeracy are not really standardized.

I have had endless problems with low-level production workers who can't measure out 100 grams on a scale. I have staff who need a calculator to work out 16 x 3 and can't manage courier or postage calculations. There are many more vague educational issues that are hard to define; just yesterday, I needed a shipping box for 8 bottles and the young woman brought me a box that barely fit 4. She doesn't have the spatial or conceptual thinking skills to be able to guestimate something.

Yesterday I needed receipts sorting for the 2019 end of year accounts, and it was an issue that the young woman I asked to do it struggles with the dates when they are in numerical format.

But I'm also a mom of an exceptionally intelligent young woman who turns 16 this coming Wednesday. My daughter, Ploi, is half-Thai and is fluent in English, Thai and Korean. Actually, she is far more than fluent and has earned awards at national level for English and Thai languages, Public Speaking, Science and Art. As it happens, right now, we're having lots of conversations at home (just her and me - a little solo-mom-2-wheeled-bicycle family) about university, gap years and what skills, study, career desires expectations she has.

As I said, my thoughts about Freedom of Education depend on which hat I'm wearing and which side of the fence I'm on, that day.

Image by Pezibear from Pixabay

In many ways I would like my daughter's education to be more free. For example, in order to study chemistry, she HAD to also study Pure Math and had to do it in a different class group away from her friends, who all chose the "easy math" stream.

Mama, have you ever really USED calculus since you left school?

🤣🤣🤣

I was honest with her. I have owned my own business in both Australia and Thailand for 29 years. I can't even remember what calculus IS!! 😆 I told her, up front, that really the ONLY math I use daily is percentages, calculating area and volume, simple addition, multiplication etc,and basic formulas for spread-sheeting. I use a calculator and I have an accountant. End of story.

In the end, she CHOSE to do calculus because she doesn't want to dumb herself down and she wanted to prove to herself that there IS no boxing in of "humanities people" vs "math-science" people. In her Year 11 mid-term exams 2 weeks ago for calculus, she got 55/50 for the pre-test (bonus question) and 82% for the real exam. Her logic? Keep the options open and the GPA up.

With my mom-hat on, I would prefer her to ditch calculus and to study Chinese as a 4th language. And I'd like her to study art history, only it's not taught here at secondary school level.

So would I, personally, like the choices for education to be freer?? Oh Sweet Goddess Yes!! What I'd REALLY LIKE is to have her at school half-time, doing concentrated classes in core subjects of our choice. Sort of like a buffet. We'll take 2 biology and 1 chemistry, 4 Thai language and 2 Advanced English, with 2 Korean classes, 2 Chinese lessons, a side of world history and a tiny helping of functional math once a week. Instead of the one hour a week for art, let's have one half-day per month art seminar and let her finish her project, in her own time, in the well-equipped school art room or at home. I'd like her to be part of an entrepreneurship team, working on a real-life entrepreneurial start up. I'd like her to be able to go to crypto-currency seminars. School sport? forget it. But a regular yoga class and gym time she can build on when she's off to college? Yes please.

I'd also like it all to be paid for by someone else. 😆

I'm NOT a fan of 100% home-schooled or unschooled, simply because we see SO MUCH of that here in Thailand among westerners who are exempt from the strict attendance requirement for Thai citizens. Chiang Mai, Thailand, is a mecca for disillusioned westerners who want to homeschool without rules, or unschool, but who don't always have the resources or the skills to manage or support that well.

Consequently we know more than a few young kids my daughter's age (15-16) who WANT to do things in their later life that they are already not able to participate in. Cos they only speak one language (English) or they have no solid grounding in math or science. We actually know Thai children who have one home-schooling western parent and a Thai mom who defers to whatever he wants; subsequently, the child can't read or write Thai properly (although speaks fluently) and consequently is already unemployable in their own country at age 16. We know half Thai-German kids whose western parent thinks they will miraculously learn German to full fluency in 6 months during their gap year, so they'll be able to avail themselves of a free university education back in the motherland. 😲

My employer self would like the opposite. Hard core rigid math and language curriculum, standardized task tests (externally monitored) that I, as an employer, can request to see. Cos I'm really at the stage of having to revert 50 years and setting my own simple entrance exam to assess numeracy and literacy before I waste my time to go through a job interview!! Quarterly exams for potential employees, no guarantee of employment but we'll short list you if you get great scores. 😆 Mostly, in that exam, I'd like to set basic problems for them to resolve:

We have received an incomplete address in our online store. Do you (a) google it via google maps and complete? (b) phone or email the customer to clarify and give more details? or (c) delete the order so your work is finished on time?

An unexpected wholesale customer arrives without an appointment. Do you (a) phone the boss and ask what to do? (b) take their full contact details and make an appointment for when the boss is back? or (c) tell them the boss is not here and close the door?

🤣🤣🤣

Personally I would prefer far more relaxed years of education, with half-time schooling being possible. I would like MORE STANDARDIZED TESTING GLOBALLY at Years 3, 6, 9 and 12, as they have it here in Thailand. What I've learned is that my 15 year old is MILES ahead (by 1-2 years) of her Australian peers in languages, math and science, but lagging behind in world history and "softer" subjects like geography. She's not had nearly enough sport (ball skills lacking) but is programming a computer like a pro and earning her own crypto-currency on #Hive already. Today, Saturday, she's hanging out at school (voluntarily) to paint a mural on the new Green Shop that the Student Council (she's the Vice President) is initiating as an entrepreneurial fundraising-educational project. She's currently studying for IELTS and SAT tests that she expects to take privately, as proving her competence for global college options is just considered normal here.

Funnily enough, preparing this Hive post, makes me realize how much more flexible education has been here for us in Thailand. No, it's not cheap to go to a world class bilingual school here but it's far more affordable than it would be in Australia. Ploi is hoping to study at the Incheon, South Korea, campus of the University of Utah (a world top-100 university), and she currently wants to double-major in Psychology and Communications. Classes would be in English but she's fluent in Korean so could manage to live and work there quite easily. During Covid Quarantine she has been keeping up her Korean language skills using Duo Lingo. Next term, starting in October, we hope to find her a private Korean tutor.

Ultimately, what this post has made me understand, is that the freer the educational systems and structures, the MORE hardcore the Standardized Tests MUST be. Not just Standardized Tests for university admission, but for any future employment.

This post was written in response to the #educationdebate challenge hosted by the Homeedders community #hive-199420: Education Debate Challenge #2 How Important is Freedom of Education?. You still have time to respond and join the debate - entries close Monday 10th August.