Education is no rocket science!!

Education is no Rocket Science!!!

A couple of years ago, a friend who is a doctor and have to say a bit up himself, asked me what I did for a living. We schooled together and there was a bit of a history between us. Anyway back to the question, what I did for a living – I answered, I am in education. My friend who shall remain unnamed answered back, It’s not rocket science is it? You work in, stand in front, talk and your job is done!

Well my reaction to his first question :-# – education is no rocket science – Damn right, it is Not Rocket Science, in fact it is harder than that and I went on to explain:

Every component in a rocket has a predictable behaviour and you know as a scientist exactly what you can expect from it – the exact outcome. It remains the same every time. Thus assembling a rocket is a simple matter of putting the components together carefully, making sure that the output from one component feeds into the the next that is attached to it the right information. However in education, each component (student) is uniquely different, they can not be controlled, as a matter of fact, they should not be controlled and the outcome from each is absolutely unpredictable! If I were to assemble a rocket using these components, it will be a damn hard task, don’t you think?

My friend – speechless! He it seemed had just landed from the land of arrogance and full of ego!

In my 8 or so years in education, I have to say that teaching is probably one of the most difficult job, if it is done right. Each student in the class is uniquely different, they have their strengths and weaknesses and each will react differently to a certain task. In my experience, just as a scientist has to build a link or relationship between each component he/she assembles, we as teachers have to do the same every time and everyday. A rocket scientists job is done when he/she knows exactly what the relationship is, however, a teachers job is never finished! He/she has to keep building and working on this relationship every given time. That is of course, the teacher is not just standing in front of the class talking as my friend perceived it to be.

The reason why I have written about this experience now and not when it happened is because earlier this week, I attended my institutes annual teaching and learning symposium and the keynote reminded me of the importance of ‘RELATIONSHIP’ in education. I don’t see the differences between the students as a weakness and that I as a teacher have to bring it to uniformity rather I see it as a strength that if nurtured in class could enable us to learn from each others experiences and knowledge and this action enables the relationships to be established. If these conversations were to happen frequently, you are assured that the links between the components will start to form and this will enable you to build a spaceship that is UNIQUELY different. Where each component is not programmed rather act on their own accord and regularly improve their own performance as they continue learning.