writing paper

How to achieve good life through education?

I will discuss what is the good life (ideal society and real society). And how does

education help us to achieve our goal to get good life, the importance of education. I

also want to talk about the different between pedagogy, curriculum and policy a little

bit, and discuss what is the best pedagogy in my opinion, what is the best curriculum

in my opinion, what is the best policy in my opinion. I also want to talk what kind of

problems of education we may face and how to solve them in the process of getting

good life. And what is the good life we will have through education.

1. What is the good life for us, for society?

a) In my opinion the good life for us should be we do not need worry

something. Such as, money, power and right. So we can have a happy life,

that is can also called good life.

b) The good life for society should be autonomy (Appiah, 2011) and equality

(Li & Yang, 2013 )

2. The real society’s problem

a) Not everyone have chance to be educated. For example, some minority of

China (Ryan, 2019) and people cannot be educated because tuition (video

“Sen. Bernie Sanders on college tuition).

b) The economic inequality of the urban and suburb in China (Li & Yang,

2013).

c) The racism inequality of the people. White people have privilege position of

the education (Mclntosh, 1998)

3. Why we need education. The importance of education.

a) Everyone should be educated because “education helps us earn knowledge

of the world and helps us have opinions on things in life” (peer view from

Helen Chen) and “education is crucial to participating in the society,

whether it be politically, economically or in day-to-day interactions” (peer

view from Carina Chan).

b) Better education often can give us better job for making more money and

salary, that can cancel the money worry. And when people all can have

good education, they may do not need worry about the inequality of power

and right. If we can realize a assumption, the education will help to solve

some economic problems (Anyon, 2011)

4. The best pedagogy

a) Children can learn what they want. Happy is important to the children (Neil,

1960). And a example from the video “Boy who did not want to learn to

read- Children of Summerhill 1998”.

b) Education in Finland and Education in Singapore are different. The

education of Finland shows more freedom and less pressure of students, but

this pedagogy may cause some problems like some students may not study

and they will lose competitive in their future. The Education in Singapore

give students more pressure and more work they need to do. They have a lot

of homework, not much vocation and they need go to tutoring after school,

But the good thing is they can learn actual skills they need for their jobs in

the future (video “Why Finland has the best education system in the world”

and “inside Singapore’s world-class education system”).

c) The pedagogy should not be bank system. Should not be like the students

can only learn what teachers taught. What kind of knowledge the student

will learn should not depend on teachers (Freire, 1968).

d) The children need to do some handwork such as, make the net for studying

Saanich culture. Using their hands help them can remember better and

actually feel the knowledge (Claxton and de France Roots, 2018).

e) The pedagogy in UW should be best, we have some freedom, different

cultures and we can choose what we want to learn.

5. The best curriculum

a) Multicultural: less racism and more pluralism. More pluralism can make

education fairer and adapt for many students who has different background.

For extending pluralist, that needs CSP’s help to demand “pluralist

outcomes that are not centered on White middle-class” (Alim & Paris, 2017,

p. 12). For example, “When instructing select readings, they should include

selections of reading from diverse authors” (peer view from Qin Chen).

b) Mental health: teaching students and keeping their mental health is

important. Generally speaking, the healthier a student is psychologically,

the better his study will be. (Hooks, 1994).

c) Learn what students are interesting: students can choose what they are

going to learn and what they do not want to learn. (Neil, 1960)

6. The best policy

a) Chinese contemporary policies are becoming increasingly inappropriate in a

transition from redistributive to market economy. So Chinese policies have

some problems right now. If the problems can be changed, the policies will

be good (Li & Yang, 2013).

b) The policy to realize the assumption of education (Anyon, 2011). The first

is “the U.S. should fully fund and otherwise support all low-income

students who are accepted by a college or university” (Anyon, 2011, p. 79).

The second way is we should provide meaningful vocational options for

these students who cannot go to college while they study in high school

(Anyon, 2011).

7. What is the barriers and how to eliminate these barriers

a) Racism – the purpose of schooling is closely making youth perform white

middle- class norms is the most common problem. It is kind of unfair issue

for youth or communities of color. “White skin people have more education

than other racial groups” (peer view from Sophie Guan). For solving these

problems can extend pluralist (Alim & Paris, 2017). “The CPS can decenter

white gaze in the curriculum by having curriculum based on the students”

(peer view from Becky Chanthaphone).

b) Education do not improve — In China, although its recent economic

increase fast but that doesn’t led to equal improvements in education. The

increasing of economic even makes some get disadvantage. For example,

minority is poor and many left-behind children, more private education and

international schools (Ryan, 2019).

c) Government intervention (video “ban of Muslim headscarves in French”)—

The ban in French does not give freedom to the children and people, and

that may make parents to pull their children out of school. “ Given this

predicament, justification of the ban on religious symbols based on the

principle of protecting individual basic rights may have the unintended

consequence of creating worse circumstances for those girls’ future

autonomy” (Gereluk, 2005, p. 267). The French legislation of this is too

tough, that may oversteps. For solving this, government should give

freedom to the people and step back. For example, only ban it in public

school without a tough altitude (Appiah, 2011).

8. Good life should be no worry, and we can live in a no racism and equality society.