Parvin Peivandi
IB Reflection paper, August 26th 2014 Day 2
9-12 Service Learning
The service learning experience got me reflecting on how education has changed over time and shifted to a kind of experience based learning in a community in which both learners and community benefit from the education. This is parallel to what IB education aims for the passionate long life learners who care about their world around. Looking back at the educational system that I went through, I can hardly find traces of the experience based learning in the community. We were studying in closed environments with traditional system of schooling that considered knowledge as a separate entity of the every day life around us. I remember how our different interests and capabilities were neglected and we were like the slave of the books.
I remember once I read in one of the old Persian literature books that a philosopher was traveling in a karevan with group of people and a robber invaded all the luggage including the philosopher’s bag of books. The philosopher was crying that he has lost all his knowledge while a wise man in the group came to him and said the knowledge that can be stolen is not worthy at all! And this advice comes to my mind again that if we want to be effective educators, we need to acquire the true knowledge that is based on the real experiences of the life, otherwise our knowledge is not practical and useful.