What are our lives
about? The cycle of life is basically being born, living, then dying.
And throughout that lifelong journey we are learning.
Learning to
survive, learning to thrive, learning from our experiences and the
experiences of others, learning together in families and groups,
suffering from lack of learning, accumulating learning (knowledge),
applying or failing to apply learning, benefiting from learning,
becoming learned, and passing on learning to others with a sense of
having lived a fulfilled and meaningful life. At least that is what
many of us hope for.
The reason I like
the word ‘learning’ is that it implies there is something that we need
to learn, that we need to apply, that we need to benefit from. The
activity of learning, on its own, is insufficient without the content
of the learning; the purpose behind it and the substance of the effort.
In teaching and learning, there has been an ongoing struggle between
the substance of education (the content), and the form of education
(the systems and policies).
The substance of an
education includes learning knowledge and developing skills, and it can
be measured in academic success, the well-being of students, their
values and ethics, their employability, participation in class,
engagement with research and teachers, a sense of belonging and pride
in the alma mater, the ability to sustain relationships, the
applicability of what they have learned in everyday life, and what they
are able to achieve through the application of their minds and bodies.
Very often, this
substance is expressed in institutions of learning via various forms;
such as attendance in class, hours of teaching time, place of learning,
class size, teacher-student ratios, policies and processes,
qualifications of teachers etcetera.
In young adulthood,
sometimes we have good substance in imperfect form – the National Youth
Service Corps is a good example. I don’t think anyone debates the
tremendous value to our graduates and to national identity of the NYSC,
but because the form, the way it is managed and the risks the youth
corps members are exposed to, are unacceptable, people are agitating to
‘throw the baby out with the bath water.’ Thus, we lose all benefits
and impact of NYSC on employers, young lives and our nation – in effect
the substance of the service year – because the organization behind it
is not responding well to changing and deteriorating societal
conditions.
Electing to discard
substance, rather than to improve the form it takes, can only take us
backward; the way our infrastructure, our educational institutions and
our traditional values have gone backwards. Does anyone dispute the
life lessons inherent in many of our native traditions?
Abhorrence of some
of the practices employed to teach those lessons has led to the
traditions themselves being abandoned rather than changed. The result?
A generation growing up without imbibing the necessary values and
without home training.
Our native
intelligence is very wise. A child with good home training but without
formal education can develop the basics with just a year of adult
learning because they have received the substance of a real education
at home. The values that are embedded through our home cultures, of
respect for elders, manners, cleanliness, teamwork, caring, hard work,
and long hours should not have been jettisoned when the opportunity of
sending children to school appeared. That was an opportunity to improve
the substance of our education by adding to it. Instead, we invested in
a new form and lost the core substance that sustains us as a people.
Seek substance Is
this where we are going wrong, by confusing form and substance? Making
things look grand instead of making them work? Building a school, even
if it does not deliver an education! Opening a beautiful restaurant
with an attractive menu, when the service is bad and half the dishes
not available. The titles – Chief, Senator, and Manager – come with
responsibilities. Without the burden of accountability and the results
of their work, the titles are meaningless and empty.
Let’s stop treating
form as substance. Don’t respect anyone for having a job or position if
they are not doing the work that comes with it. The reason for the job
is the work. Without it, it is valueless and un-deserving of respect.
Let’s stop focusing
on appearances instead of on worth. Driving a big car when you do not
have money to fuel it, or wearing designer clothes when you cannot pay
school fees is capital and energy diverted from productivity and it is
a big shame. Let’s stop investing in form rather than substance. Look
for the school where your child can get the best all-round education in
academics, behaviour and attitude, rather than the latest ‘in-fashion’
school where all the ‘big’ people’s children go. Of course, if that
school is also the best, then that is a lucky coincidence.
Seek substance, demand substance, fight for substance. Form, and ‘for show’ can come afterwards.
