“Dare to dream the impossible. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”‘
– Eleanor Roosevelt –
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AT ZANE
Arguably every business operating and providing services in education and online learning should ideally establish and develop their business operations upon their individual educational philosophy. It is our educational philosophy at Zane that provides our motivation and commitment to succeed and achieve the goals they have set themselves.
At Zane, we share the educational philosophy and belief that each child is an individual with their own natural skills and talents, and that those attributes should be identified and developed as an important part of their academic education. Our educational philosophy believes that by encouraging the development of those skills and talents, we play an important part in enabling each young person and student to achieve their greatest individual potential.
Our educational philosophy also recognizes that the education of our children is as much the responsibility of the parent in the home, as it is the teacher in the classroom. Academic knowledge and the life skills learned in the classroom should further develop the foundation of social emotional life skills and values encouraged by parents, if future generations of students are to lead happy, fulfilled and rewarding adult lives and achieve successful careers.
Zane recognizes the importance of understanding that each child and student is an individual and should be educated as such. Our educational philosophy leads us to believe that if we are to achieve that goal, then we can no longer rely on a 250 year old system of education that continues to attempt to mass-produce learning. If we intend to truly innovate education in the 21st Century, this is where we must begin.
The needs and requirements of both the 21st Century community and employers, have well outgrown a factory-style approach to learning. The value we bring to our children and future generations, will depend on how we can adapt to the learning needs and abilities of the young person today.
As parents and teachers, we share a desire to see our children and students become successful. However that outcome is often largely determined by how we measure success, and what we actually consider that success to be. As parents and teachers we often also become the primary and most important role models for our children and students, and with that comes an enormous responsibility. Our educational philosophy becomes an important part of how successfully we fulfill our role-modelling responsibilities.
Calling for change, devoting the resources to enabling that change, envisaging how that change should be shaped and implemented, is the territory of the visionary and the brave. Yet education is one of the most conservative fields. It is a field where few are prepared to take risk, and one where copious research is demanded first to justify any potential change. Zane’s educational philosophy prepares us to meet that challenge. Our work with Zane Education and our efforts to promote the importance and benefits of Visual Learning and applications in Special Needs Education was the an innovative beginning.
True innovation has never come without some degree of risk. Ex-President Jimmy Carter once stated “Go out on a limb …… for that is where the fruit is”. But change we must for fear that we continue to make so many of the same mistakes we have made in the past.
14 Facts That Motivate Our Educational Philosophy
- All children are born with natural skills and talents unique to them that should be identified and developed.
- Today’s system of education mass-produces learning and often fails to enable the individual to achieve their great individual potential.
- All students need to be encouraged to understand that ‘who they are’ is more important than ‘what they own’.
- Education needs a greater focus on the development of life skills, thinking and self-motivation rather than simply academic knowledge.
- Natural talent, life skills, personality type and real world knowledge should play a role alongside academic knowledge in college and career choice.
- How we seek to improve education should reflect actual problems we experienced ourselves at school, rather than just a reliance on technology.
- Developing the ability to think, analyse and develp problem-solving skills will stimulate greater creativity and innovation rather than only relying on memorizing academic facts.
- Academic curriculum learning must include the practical knowledge every student needs to address the real-life situations they will encounter in their daily lives as adults.
- Testing for the sake of testing marginalizes many students that do not flourish under pressure of being tested simply for the sake of it.
- Parents should never see a place of learning as magical way of absolving them of their parental responsibilities. Parents remain the most important teachers in every child’s early life.
- Colleges and universities should be less focused on their activities as profit-making businesses and more on employing teaching staff with real-world experience of the subjects they are teaching. Practical experience must accompany the theoretical.
- Career guidance should play an essential curriculum role in schools rather than a supplemental activity.
- Special Needs Education must focus more on identifying and developing the capabilities of the individual student, rather than the diagnosis and theoretical causes of their perceived and often misunderstood limitations.
- The cost of higher education and vocational learning could potentially be shared with those that that will benefit from the rewards. Future employers are ideally placed to do that.
If you share our interest and passion for the topic on this page or educational innovation in general, then please contact us using our Contact Page to arrange an introductory conversation.