The idea of social distancing did not come with COVID-19. It already existed in learning institutions. It is during exams that students are required to out sit as far away from each other as possible.
Are written exams the best way to evaluate learning? Why is it important that the teacher comes up with questions, which are made top secret, then unleashed on the students on the day of exams.
Why should students spend a lot of time memorizing and guessing what is likely to be in the exams.
What have we done to ourselves? Are we creating a society of note-takers? Only good at regurgitating what others have said?
In this internet age where almost all information is available at our fingertips for free, is there need for memorizing the capital city of Ghana?
Do our experiences and observations account for knowledge or must it be written by a mzungu somewhere for it to count?
Why do people ask for notes? Can’t we make our own?
Why is it that whenever you teach, you can literarily see students faces begging, Mwalimu please give us a handout, give us a hint of what will be in the exams. Does everything have to come down to the written exams?
Why is it that when you ask students to work on a project that cannot be googled you throw them into an existential crisis? Why is it that when you tell students to read a book and write their own thoughts, almost no one reads and almost everyone copy pastes a review from the internet.
Is it too hard to read, think and develop a perspective about something? Have we been zombified into automatons who only want to follow instructions and do as little as possible?
Is there a way out of this? Is there a way we could show up in a learning environment with curiosity, to discover and co-create?
Is there a way to engage in a learning process without fear of failing in exams, without fear of being wrong, without trying to imagine what is in the mind of the teacher?
Why is the classroom so solemn and dull? Can learning be fun? Can we cooperate and debate, laugh and cry, destroy and create in the classroom?
Life is life
Fabio