The Great Lesson In Teaching From Non-Teacher American Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead – “Teach How To Think, Not What To Think.”

I saw the Facebook sharing 07 Aug 2022 titled “The State Of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” with the subtitle/comment, which is itself a judgment on Philippine education: “Bakit kulelat ang Pilipinas? English kasi ang medium of instruction.” (Why is the Philippines dead last? Because English is the medium of instruction.”)

The source of the document is The World Bank (worldbank.org). I now investigate it as a bonafide teacher – an alumnus of UP Los Baños with a BS Agriculture course major in Ag Edu (Civil Service Professional 1964. 80.6%). So?

After examining “The State Of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” – this Filipino teacher says: “All in all, the document is inconsistent and insufficiently debated upon! The World Bank has much to learn!”

The document as quoted says:

Prioritize teaching the fundamentals. Given the staggering loss in institutional time, learning recovery efforts should focus on essential content and prioritize the most fundamental skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that students need for learning within and across subjects and for more advanced learning in the future.

“Staggering loss in institutional time” refers to the 2 years of pandemic controls. It recommends to “prioritize the most fundamental skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that students need for learning.”

“Literacy” – and the comment that somebody quotes is to teach in Pilipino/Tagalog and not in English. But in fact, as a teacher I know that literacy is not “the most fundamental skills” to learn – I now point back to you what the above image shares:

“Children must be taught howto think, not what to think” – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist.
(“Children must be taught” image from deviantart.com)

Who is Margaret Mead? From History.com(history.com/topics/womens-history/margaret-mead):

Mead discovered her calling as an undergraduate at Barnard College in the early 1920s in classes with Franz Boas, the patriarch of American anthropology, and in discussions with his assistant, Ruth Benedict. The study of primitive cultures, she learned, offered a unique laboratory for exploring a central question in American life: How much of human behavior is universal, therefore presumably natural and unalterable, and how much is socially induced?

“Universal human behavior”? It must be the thinking.
“Socially induced human behavior”? It must be what one learns.
So, teach the universal: Teach thinking!

For instance, instead of teaching “2 + 2 equals 4” only, teach:

2 + 2 = 4
3 + 1 = 4
4 – 0 = 4
5 – 1 = 4
6 – 2 = 4

What is the lesson there? There are many ways to skin a cat!

There are 2 ways I know of thinking: creative and critical. What I have just shown you is critical thinking – not yet creative thinking.

Now then, if you want examples and examples of creative thinking, note that in this latest blog of mine – Towards A New Eden  – I already have almost 1,000 essays.

I always write creatively. And yes, if you teach creative thinking, your students will enjoy every minute of it – and so will you!@517