Wants vs Needs
Who wants a million dollars? I see that hand... and that one... and the one in the back... whoa, steady on there champ! Unfortunately, I can't quite afford to be giving away a million dollars just yet. I was merely grabbing your attention! Now that I have it, please, take a seat and get comfortable. Take a load off, grab a drink (probably grab a drink and then take a load off - drink getting is difficult once you've already sat!), and sit back for bit of a read. Hopefully I can regale you (or at least keep your attention for a few minutes!) with a masterpiece of literature (or the rest of this post).
I was driving to work yesterday, and I got to pondering about my classroom. Nothing mind-blowingly amazing, just thinking about stuff in general. You ever have those times? When your mind just sort of races, and by the time you catch it, you are about twenty-seven thoughts, and five intersections, from where you began and you can't for the life of you figure out how you made it from Point A to Point B. Yeah, I get that a bit. Just start thinking and... whoosh! Time goes on a hiatus and I'm transported to the next point in my thoughts (and journey) instantly.
Anyway, I digress...
As I was saying, I was driving to work yesterday, and I got to pondering about my classroom. Nothing mind-blowingly amazing, just thinking about stuff in general, when I got to thinking about how I needed a haircut (like I said, start with one thought, end with another!), but that I didn't really want to get one. I mean, c'mon. Haircuts cost heaps, take time out of your day, and are a general pain in the arse, because everyone wants to spend the next three days talking about your 'fresh cuts' like you're the first person to ever venture into a hairdresser's.
The very next thought after that, got me thinking about the topic of this post. I'm not sure if you noticed, but in the previous paragraph, I said, '... I needed a haircut, but that I didn't really want to get one.' If you missed that little bit of subliminal mastery, you might have noticed the big banner at the top of this post shouting to all and sundry: 'Wants vs Needs'. Yes, now that I've wasted 3 minutes of your life, leading you to this point, I would ask for a bit more of your time, taking you a little further into the recesses of my mind as we take a quick look at needs and wants.
What About Needs and Wants?
As I thought about needs and wants on that drive to work, I quickly moved from thinking about the need vs want of a haircut, to the needs and wants in society, before further narrowing that down to needs and wants as associated with our education systems (I'm taking a bit of liberty in using the word 'our' here, because I don't know exactly how the education system in your country works, but I can probably take a 'stab in the dark'). The education system as it's currently situated in Australia is quite outdated and is slowly trying to pull itself out of the 'dark ages' to embrace the needs of our technologically advanced students. Now don't get me wrong - it's not that we don't have computers in Australian schools - far from it - it's just that the model of schooling is fairly outdated - it hasn't really changed much since the 1960's - maybe longer. And to this outdated model, our students we send.
In the business sense, needs and wants can be defined as per the goods and services available to satisfy them.
Whilst food, clothing and shelter are traditionally referred to as basic needs required for survival, access to health and education services are considered essential wants in most societies today1.
You see, needs are the basic necessities of life. Think, 'what do I really need to survive?' type stuff, whereas wants are more goods and services that you can survive without, but would be nice to have. We can even further classify wants to include essential and non-essential wants.
The lines of these categories have slowly become increasingly blurred as society advances and changes. What was once a non-essential want, may now be deemed an essential want in today's modern era. Generally, essential wants can be satisfied by items such as washing machines, refrigerators, computers and cars, while non-essential wants are much higher priced items, including overseas holidays, name-brand clothing and gym memberships to name a few2.
So how does this fit in with schooling? Well, I'm not sure it does, in as much as, I'm not sure many people would agree, but remember, this post is the result of a thought that germinated a few days ago. So let's unpack this a bit more.
You see, education is seen as a want, meaning it's nice to have one, and I think we could all agree that this is indeed the case. Being educated is great! For the most part, it opens doors, and generally speaking, gives you a leg up in life (I know, I know, there are plenty of successful people who have never really been formally educated). In Australia, and I'd hazard a guess, most first world countries, education, despite being a want, is available to every child. There aren't many children living in the first world who don't have the opportunity to attend school. Compare this to third world countries, where education is often a want that remains unmet and if it is, often in quite squalid conditions, where learning is not actually easy at all.
I remember while completing my education degree, one of the lecturers commented on the fact that in a classroom, students have the right to learn, and teachers have the right to teach. In many countries, this is not the case because children are so busy, striving to fulfil their basic needs, that they don't have the time to even contemplate their wants. And yet, walk into any given classroom on any given day in a first world country and you are likely to find a student who doesn't want to be there, doesn't think they need an education, or simply doesn't care. All little Johnny can hear is Fortnite calling his name from the PS4.
There's this basic premise in life, where we want what we don't have. The catch-cry of children when asked which one they want is: 'I want the one he's got!', and this is the same with education. You see, driving in my car during my 'though-attack', I got to thinking that the problem is, many governments of first world countries have deemed that students need an education. They force them into often outdated institutions and make them sit through very industrial-era type lessons. Many of these governments have even passed legislation that forces students under a certain age to remain in school unless they meet certain, quite stringent, criteria. In South Australia, education is compulsory. You must be enrolled in and attending school from when you turn 6 until you turn 163, and even then, in order to legally leave, you must be enrolled in another approved learning plan until you turn 17.
Remember 7 minutes ago, when I was so clever and opened this post with that creative hook? You may not, so to save you from scrolling back to the top, here it is again: 'Who wants a million dollars?'. Remember now? Yep, good! I asked who wants a million dollars, because to want something tends to drive one further. Those children growing up in third world nations who cannot get an education really want one. So when they get the opportunity to attend school, they do so with gusto. When they get the opportunity to learn, they listen with baited breath, sucking in every morsel of information.
Huh?
If you're now at the point of scratching your head and grunting out a confused, 'Huh?', then don't panic. My idea, the one which actually took much longer to develop here than I thought, is quite simple.
In a nutshell...
I think that everybody wants an education.
Everybody.
However, in some first world countries, education has been turned into a need. The governments of these countries has determined that students need to be educated, therefore have deemed it necessary to create laws to ensure this happens. So now, what we see is students not wanting education because it is forced upon them. It's kind of oxymoronic in a way, but I think it could be a plausible idea. Like most things - necessity is making school undesirable for a number of the students in our classrooms.
Compare this to images and film footage you see of students in third world countries, where they are so overjoyed at being given the opportunity to learn. I've seen images of students clutching a small blackboard and a piece of chalk like it was worth that million dollars I mentioned earlier. Their little faces so full of happiness that they can actually write on something. Oh, if only our students carried this same demeanour into our classes each and every lesson.
Wrap Up
As I close, I need to qualify and acknowledge that I've been quite general, even stereotypical, in comparing first to third world countries in regard to education, and how students react to being educated in these different environments. I am fully aware that many students in first world countries are also disadvantaged, and struggle to find good education, and vice versa, so please don't feel I'm being ignorant, or uninformed.
I would like to thank you for reading, and as usual, encourage you to comment with any thoughts, suggestions, questions, or simply, whatever, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Remember, this is just an idea. I'm likely way off the mark, and there are also many other reasons as to why we might find some students not craving education as much as others, but I think the underpinning take-away I would like you to get from this is, that I want our young people to love being educated again. I love teaching them. It'd be great to see enthusiasm return to their faces as they begin to reignite that unbridled thirst for learning.
References
- Fusco, A., Business and Enterprise Core Workbook, Adelaide Tuition Centre, Bowden, 2016.
- Fusco, A., Business and Enterprise Core Workbook.
- SA.GOV.AU
- All images from Unsplash.
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Personally, I think you hit the nail on the head. I recently read somewhere that when there is something that needs doing, but we don't look forward to doing it, we should make it a want. Eg. "I want to do the laundry because I'd like to wear clean clothes" or "I want to clean the pots, because I don't like eating from dirty plates."
I think one of the problems with our education system could be that it can't cater for individual wants. Someone who struggles in a certain subject, or even with a certain way it's being taught, can begin to dislike that subject. There might be something they would be passionate about learning, but the school might not teach it.
A good teacher can find the passion in each individual child, but the classes are so large that it can often be hard for them to do that. Do you sometimes find that the education system, as it's set up now, can hinder both the teacher and the student?
Hi @minismallholding, thanks so much for your response. I do find that the way our education system is currently established to be quite restricting, both for teachers and students. There is a lot of research going on at the moment in regard to this very outdated model, and how it can be made more relevant. The problem is, it will take time (and probably quite a bit of time), however, done right could be very rewarding.
I think one of the problems stems from the fact that teachers are bound by the government to teach what the they deem to be the most appropriate content at the time they write the documentation. Each subject has certain standards that students are 'judged' against, and it is very difficult to deviate from this curriculum.
We also, and this is the English teacher in me speaking, have situations such as the one that follows, where we no longer have every opportunity to assess basic skills such as grammar, spelling and punctuation, especially at Year 11 and 12 levels (while I still correct this, I cannot actually grade a student down for poor spelling). Students are, for the most part, purely assessed on the content of their assessment task, and these basic life skills take the back burner. This has been the case for a number of years, so we now have a situation, where students who graduated Year 12 five years ago and commenced a teaching degree are now in classrooms teaching what they learned those few years prior. Unfortunately, unless they know better, they probably weren't corrected in regard to basic English skills, so they are now teaching this incorrectly to a whole new generation. It's slowly becoming a vicious circle (I hope that makes sense!).
Yes, that makes complete sense and is somewhat concerning. I hope changes can be made so the education system doesn't continue down that path.
I completely agree, but where to start?!
This is a great post with lots of interesting points to ponder. It’s also extremely timely for me, as I just had a conversation with my dad the other day about needs vs wants vs ___ (something I’ll get to in a minute)
I will admit, education is not my forte when it comes to policy (though it does interest me and I do have opinions about it, unlike immigration where I don’t have a clue 😛). I agree that our model in (in the US at least) is outdated and geared more towards preparing future assembly line workers. There should be more flexibility in the classroom and less compulsory curriculum for the student, but I don’t think it can drop to zero. I agree that every child does indeed want to learn, although they vary wildly in what they want to learn about. I think the solution is a bare minimum of core requirements (ugh, reminds me of the phrase “Common Core”, a disaster here in the USA in my opinion) and then a slew of electives, free time, unstructured group projects, and guided mentorship/apprenticeship. Labor intensive to be sure, but if I’m making my wish list (want list?) why not go big?
I want to live in a society where everyone can read and write. But I really don’t care if someone can’t multiply or divide. I want to live among people who know how our government works, but I don’t care if they don’t know who the first president was. Less Washington the man, more Washington D.C. Make history optional. The people who want to be there will still go. It might even surprise us all to see the students who show up when it’s not forced or when they can participate on a pass/fail or even audit basis. History is just one example - 90% of required classes could propbably be made optional.
Anyway, back to my bigger picture. I think in addition to needs and wants, we also have rights. And just like you separated needs into essential and non-essential, we also have both inherent and given rights. The right to freedom of religion is inherent to each human. The government does not “grant” you that right, it just recognizes and protects a preexisting perk of being human. Driving a car, on the other hand, is a granted right (or privilege, if you like) which can be regulated, controlled, and revoked. You do not have an inborn right to drive your car down a public highway. The government grants you that right.
Where it gets tricky, and where the conversation with my dad came from, is the “right to keep and bear arms” in the United States. My dad had been arguing with a coworker who said he “needed” to own an AK-47. I would not agree with that statement, and neither did my dad. No one “needs” a military style rifle. But where my father and I diverge is on whether we believe a US citizen has the right to own a military style rifle. But even if you say yes they do, you still have to distinguish between an inherent right and a right that the government grants you. I won’t soil your peaceful education post with anything more than that regarding firearms 😉
I think it is easier to frame this dilemma in the context of health care (which is my forte), so here I go. I think people definitely have esssntial needs when it comes to health care, especially with chronic diseases or serious illness. I believe that everyone has the granted right to receive emergency treatment, palliative care, and stabilization of acute episodes. However, I don’t believe humans have an inherent right to health care. That is my major disagreement with many people on this issue, but there you go. I don’t believe that anyone is entitled to receive the best medical treatment science can offer. Again, I’ll just leave that at that.
So to come back around to your education post, we’ve established that there is a need to educate the populace and that most people want at least some degree of education. I think the missing link here is to define whether or not any of this is a right, and then further whether it’s a granted right or an inherent (aha, I just remembered “inalienable” is the term I should have been using) right. I’m not sure where I fall on that question. I’d love to hear what you think, though!
Thank you so much for this thoughtful reply @dollarandsense - you've added even more to contemplate with this response. If only I had greater voting power! I find insight and conversation such as this worth much more than the small change I can offer currently.
I'm going to throw a curly statement out there - it relates to rights. Now, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this notion, I'm merely putting it out there as a what if. You see, I struggle sometimes with the notions that the word rights elicits in me.
Personally, I see the word rights stemming from the word entitlement, and once we feel we are entitled to something, it brings about all sorts of misinformation and problems. Your firearm debate example highlights this (which by the way, I don't mind you bringing to the table in this thread. It's a difficult debate, one I'm glad Australia sorted out years ago!). The coworker your Dad had the argument with believes he is entitled (because he has a right) to own an assault rifle, but what actually makes him entitled to this? And while I'm sure your Dad's coworker would argue that the government has said he does, we can then extrapolate this out to, well, what gives the government the 'right' to grant this to him, and so on and so forth (probably quite philosophical actually - what came first, the chicken or the egg?!).
To get back the the curly statement I mentioned earlier, let me pose it as a question: What if we don't actually have a right to anything?
Now, please don't misinterpret this. I'm not arguing that you're wrong - far from it. I'm just playing devil's advocate and throwing something different into the ring. What if we're not entitled to healthcare, firearms, or any other item we come into possession of? What if it's just that we're lucky enough to live in countries that can offer opportunities that we now take for granted? Like you said in your post - I'm not sure where I fall on whether we actually have the right to something or not. Maybe rights are determined by where one lives as opposed to anything else. I guess someone who is seriously ill and had never received medical treatment before would just be super pleased to finally get some - right or not.
Long story short, if we were to settle on rights existing (because in reality they do), and we were to determine education as a right, then I guess it would be an inherent one. But then that summation is only really as true as the circumstances you are born into. Many children born into poverty or under the rule of tyrannical governments probably don't automatically have the right to education, inherent or granted.
Difficult to answer, @dollarsandsense. Thought provoking, but not easy to answer.
Indeed it is not easy! Love jumping in on an interesting conversation such as this. The dialogue is its own reward!
I like your "granted rights" as being linked to the entitlement mentality. That just because you have a right to something does not obligate anyone else to give it to you.
Also interesting point of view - that there are no rights. I still want to say there have to be some inherent and inalienable rights. For instance, everyone has the right to be free from slavery. But then prison is a form of slavery if you squint hard enough... so maybe you're correct in that there are truly no rights! I will have to think on that more.
For what it's worth, the UN has "decreed" or whatever that there are a certain number of fundamental human rights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
In case you're in the mood for some light reading XD
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a historic document that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on 10 December 1948 as Resolution 217 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. Of the then 58 members of the United Nations, 48 voted in favor, none against, eight abstained, and two did not vote.
The Declaration consists of 30 articles affirming an individual's rights which, although not legally binding in themselves, have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, economic transfers, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions, and other laws. The Declaration was the first step in the process of formulating the International Bill of Human Rights, which was completed in 1966, and came into force in 1976, after a sufficient number of countries had ratified them.
Hah! Didn't know this was here!
I'm glad to get you thinking @dollarsandsense. Not enough people do that nowdays!! Just to reiterate, I'm not stating I'm right, but I do think there may be merit in that ideology. Would really like to hear your ideas once you've pondered for a while.
I have heard that the UN have their 'bill of human rights'. Not so much because I sought it out, but more so because I have heard of it from other teachers - humanities and history teachers mainly.
I'll follow your link and have a bit of a read very soon.
I have a little Father too :)
Extrinsic motivators undermine intrinsic ones.
If you do A to get B, you don't enjoy B.
Go for a drive, it's nice, fun, fulfilling.
Go for a drive to get to work, and it's tedious.
Kids are naturally curious, right up until you force them to learn stuff; then the curiosity dies.
I know because I was an inquisitive kid, and didn't care to start learning again until my early 30's.
Formal, mandatory schooling damaged my love of learning so much it took more than a decade to recover.
If the purpose of learning is to avoid punishment their love of learning will inevitably die.
Thanks for pointing that out, dude.
I don't think I stopped enjoying learning, but I'm quite similar in as much as I didn't really enjoy it until it became a choice rather than a chore. I think once it became a choice, it suddenly opened up a plethora of frontiers you could look into as well, rather than the limited scope of what a school can offer.
I can't help but remember that series (I think about 6 parts) you pointed me to a few year back from the '80's, I think it was. I can't really remember a whole lot about it except it was created by an older man who was talking about the much needed reformation of school systems. Do you happen to recall what it was called? I wouldn't mind getting my hands on it again.
Milton Friedman. Free to Choose.
Highly recommend. Also praxgirl on YouTube.
Wow you write so well. Resteemed. Following you too.
Thanks, @jacinta.sevilla, will repay the kindness.
I think everything you said could also be applied to the US educational system. I consider ourselves lucky that we were able to homeschool all three of our children for the entirety of their education.
I certainly don't believe it's the answer for everyone (in fact, our homeschool evaluator tried with her daughter for one semester and it was a disaster - lol), but I sometimes wonder what would happen if more families did. I'm thinking it might then lessen the classroom load on public school teachers, who in turn could focus more individually on the students that remained... 'tis a lot to ponder before my second cup of coffee... 😊
At any rate, I wish you the best of luck in finding ways to encourage a love of learning in your students. You sound like the very best kind of teacher!
I must admit, @traciyork, I'm contemplating home schooling my children. It would be a break from work, and a chance to really get to know them and give them a positive start to life.
Isn't it interesting that often when you try to perform in your chosen career, your find it more difficult than not doing so. I always loved cooking, but purposely did not pursue it as a career, because I thought it'd become more of a chore than something I really liked doing. Currently, I use it as an unwinding mechanism, and don't want to sully it as a chore because I have to do it constantly.
I know I'm a bit biased, but I HIGHLY recommend it. 😊
And actually, when I first decided to homeschool, I figured we'd do it just for the first few years. I'd thought about becoming a teacher during the fourth year of my psych major, but wasn't able to pursue it, so I thought it made sense for us. 18 years later... LOL!
If you decide to go that route, you'll definitely find there are tons of resources available, so much moreso than when we started. Best of luck to you, whatever you decide.
Yeah this happens probably 16 hours of every 24 hours to me... My mind and thinking NEVER stops.
But onto the needs/wants topic...
My dad always taught us from a very early age the difference between needs and wants in life.
needs- what you have to have to survive life
wants what you think you HAVE to have in your life or the pure mortification of not having what your friends have is a matter of life or death in social circles
Yeah.. we had all our needs met... the wants? We had to get part-time jobs while in school to get those.
Thanks for replying, @goldendawne. I tend to agree with your Dad. Meet needs because they are generally things you need for survival, and take care of wants under special circumstances such as birthdays, and at Christmas (or get a job when you're old enough - as you stated). I guess that education, if deemed a want, would fall into some sort of special-circumstances category whereby it should be a priority because it is important; just not forced or contrived.
I remember asking my mom once when I was 9 or 10 if we were rich or poor (we were probably in the 60th percentile if I had to guess). Her reply was great:
Great attitude that I try and keep today.
That's such a great sentiment from your Mum. I'm going to make sure I remember that for my kids!
Some people really take wants as needs and for granted when it may just be something to make them feel good.
The haircut example I find is a need for me, because I get sweaty easier with more hair as it isn't thin, this can lead to lack of sleep due to being uncomfortable, leading to the possibility of making a mistake or something else going wrong in the chain of events.
But there have been other times for things I thought of as a need (while I was much younger) but they were wants. So it is good to know which is the thing you are thinking about.
That's true @thegoliath, despite the classification that society gives to different needs and wants, individuals will find that what one person deems a want will actually be a need, and vice versa. I can see where you're coming from in the case of needing regular haircuts - especially if there is increased chance for error.
Thanks for your comment.
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STOPi love education so much that if i were a millionaire i would be a professional student ... great concepts and interesting writing. found you on SB.
Thanks, @eaglespirit. I think I'd be inclined to do something similar of money were no object. However, on the other side of the coin, I do enjoy teaching too, so it would be a tough decision.