This image, from an unknown artist, depicts a classroom where the parents are all identical wooden people, the children are identical wooden people, the children entering the system are still natural trees and the teacher is an axe. My conclusion is that this image is intended to show that the education system is flawed, as it stifles creativity and dreams clones.
The teacher being shown as an axe suggests coming down bluntly upon the children’s creative thinking, which has aggressive and scary connotations Painting the teacher as scary and aggressive suggests the artist’s disillusion with education and creates a negative image of it.
The children in the classroom make me feel sad. It suggests that school is rigid and structured, discouraging of independent thought. The image of the children links to the image of the adult. The parent is exactly the same as the children, only bigger. This suggests that the children are being viewed as mini-adults, unlike the view of Piaget. The adult seems to be throwing their child back into the system, likely because they do not know any better.
In the classroom, the children are learning from an apparently un-stimulating environment, judging from the image. There is nothing on the walls and, and the teacher is just standing at the front talking and the children appear to be listening passively, having been broken down by the system. The windows of the classroom do not show anything outside, and the walls of the room are completely bare, giving the impression to the occupants that they are enclosed in the room, and by extension enclosed in formal education.
The new child is depicted as a tree in its natural form meaning that they have not yet been damaged by the formal education system, and suggesting a sense of innocence and freedom which is about to be taken away from them. I feel a sense of dread seeing this child being thrown into the classroom, much like they do not know what else to do with them. Looking at the picture, I can see a lock on the door, and can see that the child is too small to reach it, meaning that they cannot physically leave the room. This suggests that the children are trapped within the formal education system until they are released at the end of their schooling, by which point they will be as stifled and generic as the children in the image.
This portrayal of the education system leaves me feeling unhappy. When I become a teacher, I would like to think that I will not come across as scary or aggressive in any way, as I believe that it is not a good way to learn, and I will want children to feel as comfortable to approach me as possible. I believe that children are all individuals and should be treated as such. Therefore I dislike the way the children appear to be sitting as I think it would allow them to work together together, which could impair their learning. They seem to be being taught in a way that does not involve discussion or any kind of group work, which I believe is the most effective way to learn and consolidate learning.
When I am a teacher, my classroom will be the polar-opposite of this one. Children will sit in an arrangement that allows them to interact with each other effectively. The classroom will be colourful and the walls will have things on them to encourage learning. They will be encouraged to speak to me as well as each other, and I will do my best to ensure that the children do not fall through any gaps in the system and become confident individuals.
I found the photo at the link below.
