March, April and May are the
months of summer for the Philippines. The schools have finished for the summer,
the weather is a few degrees even hotter than usual and the community we live
with is generally a little less busy.
The
Technical training department where we work is, however, for the moment still
working. The students only spend one year studying so there is no time for a
long summer holiday. Lessons will continue until Saturday 14th April
then there will be Final exams, remedial lessons for some and only after that a
week of holiday before the new semester starts.
Despite
the continuing work there is a feeling of summer. One of the aspects of the
department which is very striking is the environment in which it sits. Part of
the routine of the daily chores, and the community service given out for
punishment, is to care for the gardens. The technical education building is
surrounded by greenery both decorative and edible. Growing fruit and vegetables
is very much part of the routine. We teach in very pleasant surroundings.
All
of the practical needs of the department are fulfilled by the students;
cleaning, painting, gardening and even walking the department’s dog. Any
repairs which need to be made are done by the students. As a result there is a
real care for the physical surroundings, very little is broken and nothing is
vandalised. However on a deeper level there is a sense that the building and
surroundings look lived in. Things look like they have been made by students;
there is a rustic-ness which I think is both homely and an important part of
the department’s ethos. The students have to do practical work but crucially
they also feel a real sense of collective ownership, there is the space for the
individual to be creative and to be themselves. Perhaps without this sense of
ownership and potential creativity the chores would feel more like a form of
servitude than a form of service.
If
there was one aspect of the routine here which I could transplant into the
British education system it would be this routine of community service balanced
by a sense of collective ownership. Such a culture could do a lot to offset the
obsession with individual attainment which currently reigns in most British
schools. What we too often lack is this space to serve others in a way which
allows us to give something of ourselves.
Hm ... I like what you are saying. I wonder how we might inspire a sense of collective ownership in our schools and colleges? Particularly in 6th form colleges where students may only be there for 2 years. And on a wider scale, how might we inspire a sense of collective ownership in our local communities? Presumably this would lead to a greater sense of community and belonging, less vandalism, and less crime altogether.
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