A school for humanity

What would the best school look like, in a perfect world?

What examples from history can we try to emulate? What makes them special?

Speaking of a utopian education system will often conjure images such as that of Plato’s Academy in the days of Ancient Greece:

We imagine a supportive community of students engaging in rigorous discussion and inquiry. Ideas that were created in this time period are still relevant in the modern field of teaching, such as the Socratic method, where students are not simply fed answers, but learn through exciting dialogues with teachers, where their existing conceptions are challenged and their intelligence is sharpened.

(With any mention of Ancient Greco-Roman society, I feel compelled to provide a disclaimer that there is a danger to overly simplifying and glorifying this time-period. Ancient Greece was far from perfect according to my (and hopefully the reader too) personal ethics, but I will commit this infraction for the sake of making my point in this article.)

I bring up this imagery because a lot of people assume that our modern school system is built upon these foundations. People believe that the issues we may encounter as individuals navigating this school system, are unavoidable, and have always been this way. By creating a false lineage, the current education system cheats its way into unearned credibility and discourages us from demanding a better education.

The design of school as it exists in our current time is highly influenced by the Industrial Revolution. With an explosion in population density, and methods of creating value, the ruling class found a new demand and desire to use the people on the planet to create profit for themselves. Our schools are not places of learning, but factories, as described by many critics:

A factory is not concerned about creating the best conditions for its workers or products. It concerns itself with eliminating waste and measuring production.

Waste is eliminated through structure, everything is timetabled, every hour is assigned to course requirements. The operators can get away with ignoring student wellbeing and hide behind the excuse that there are other priorities that need to be addressed first.

Production is measured through assessment, and whether the assessment plays a role in the development of the student is irrelevant. Assessment produces scores and ranks.

If a task is stressful, or poorly explained, that is not a flaw of the task, but just a way for the system to filter students.

This is why so many students feel unsatisfied with what they are getting from school. The factory school is brutal by design. Even if on the individual level, the teachers that work in it wish to be kind to students, they cannot disobey the systems that have been put in place, and so unwittingly inflict cruelty upon their students.

In Plato’s allegory of the cave, a prisoner who has spent their entire life in darkness believes the shadows cast on the walls to be the extent of what their life is. Plato’s cave is about the effect of a lack of education on how we perceive the world and ourselves. The cave prisoner is ignorant of the outside world, and the light that casts the shadows they see.

The struggles that students experience in their schooling, they only accept because they have not seen outside the cave: learning is tiring and painful, it always has been. Any task we are given feels unnatural, hence the universal experience of procrastination. We can’t do anything without sheer force of will and the threat of punishment.

Have you ever considered that procrastination is not a sign of individual weakness, but a symptom of a system where we are given tasks which elicit meaningless suffering?

It feels like school doesn’t exist to make us smarter, it is simply a sorting mechanism to arbitrarily determine who is more valuable than the other; who gets to have a higher status over others.

Some students are crushed in this factory. Others survive by playing the game.

Rote learning, cramming, cheating, are all actions that have no positive contribution to our development, and yet students do it anyway. They psychologically injure themselves in order to be scored higher, and then throw the full weight of their self-worth behind this artificial ranking, convincing themselves that they are better than their peers to justify the self-harm.

See beyond the shadows

The only way out is to break free of the system. That means to do away with everything that is not designed for the empowerment of students.

What does an alternative look like?

I would say that it is a school that lets both teachers and students, be human again.

I’m often asked why I’m a chemistry teacher.

Is it because I think Chemistry is the most important subject to learn?

Of course not!

Is it just because I am good at the subject?

Surely that is too reductionist?

I teach chemistry because it happens to be the particular discipline that I am passionate about, and it is the medium that I use to create fulfilling learning experiences for students. Chemistry is how I express my humanity, which is an appreciation and curiosity of both the natural and human world. A school that allows teachers to be human is one that gives them the support and freedom to do the same for their subject of choice. Teachers are not machines, and it is for that reason that they cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence.

Letting students be human means to treat them with respect. If we antagonise students through cruel assessment, of course they will lash out. If we infantilise them and give them no say in how the classroom and school is run, of course they will fall to their instincts and create disruption.

It is for the same reason that I am a chemistry teacher, that Sydney Science College is a STEM high school. These subjects are merely the medium through which students receive a holistic education. In our opinion, it is an optimal medium because it has the most generalisable skills to be applied to other fields of study and suited to the ways that people interact with a technological society. But what we preach as an alternative to the current education system could also be created in a performing arts school, a sports school, a religious school, and even a generalist government school.

What is important about Sydney Science College is not that our academic results are one of the best in the state (they are). It is not that our teachers are ridiculously credentialed (they are). It is the fact that the entire organisation, from the board of directors, to the teachers, and to the students; they have a shared dream of creating a space for a real education.

When you strip away the cruelty of the factory school, there is so much room for kindness. What does that tangibly look like?

Flexible and progressive school hours that allow for rest between learning, and ample time for reflection and inquiry.

Teaching that is highly personalised and personable, with teachers and students engaging in round table discussions that resemble conversations among friends, rather than a lecture.

High goals and expectations, that do not come with the baggage of overbearing pressure, but were instead democratically selected by teachers and students in consultation, pursued cooperatively.

For anyone reading this: whether you are a high school student, a parent concerned about your children’s education, or someone who is a part of the education community as a teacher or any other profession, I encourage you to really explore what Sydney Science College offers. Look at the website, the photos, the marketing copy, and when you do so, I want you to keep what I have written in mind.

Maybe it would be easier to be part of an ordinary school.

Maybe some parts about how we operate seem a little weird.

But, how would Plato’s cave dweller have seen the outside world?

They would almost certainly find it uncomfortable and foreign.

That is, until they step out of the cave and experience what possibilities await in the pursuit of education.

For the students in our Atlas community, you would have already seen how our tutoring classes feel different to school. Imagine if that experience wasn’t a momentary interlude to the hours of school and other tutoring in your life.

Imagine if every class could be like that.

Imagine going to a school for humanity.

Sydney Science College is the premier STEM school in NSW. As a Top 10 school in NSW for HSC results, we are transforming STEM education with small, focused classes of just eight students, expert teachers, and hands-on, engaging learning experiences. Our senior high school for Years 11-12, with early entry available for students finishing Year 9, offers a personalised and supportive environment where students thrive academically and personally, supported by peers who share and encourage their interests and ambitions.

Anthony Mai and Wayne Wong, co-founders of Atlas Academia, are excited to announce their new roles as advisors to the school's leadership team. They aim to strengthen the collaboration between the two organisations as they pursue a shared vision of transforming education in Australia.