Soyoon Kim

A Block
2D Studio Art II
March 10, 2014
Growing Out of Where Youve Been Planted
The Issue of Nature vs. Nurture in Education: Can We Find a Middle-Ground?

Countless times its been tackled; but the issue of education has been highlighted most
exclusively and brilliantly by English rock band Pink Floyd with the release of their song Another
Brick In The Wall (Part II) in 1979. The song goes something like this:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teacher leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom...

In essence a sort of protest song against rigid schooling in general and boarding schools in
the United Kingdom, Pink Floyd goes beyond their mainstream artistry to call out a sense of
notification in the ears of their audience. This questioning of the educational system founded by
years upon years of administration in a country so famous for its academics and discipline leaves
little to the audiences imagination as to what really goes on in these classrooms.

This all ties back to one crucial theory in the field of education and childhood development.
For centuries, scientists and psychologists alike have been arguing the fiercely debated topic the
nature versus nurture issue. Proposed by various psychologists over the years, the theme of nature
versus nurture has been a prevalent issue in psychology ever since its birthwith proponents of the
nurture side such as Jean Piaget and the proponents of the nature side such as Sigmund Freud and
others, the issue has remained quite unresolved over the years. Do we focus more on engaging
students on a more personal basis? Or do we leave it up to the environmentteachers, class size,
and other characteristicsto solve this seemingly endless issue? There are no real answers to this
question besides continuous experimentation and trials. Trial and error: seeing what might and
might not work in situations such as these.

Its important to keep in mind, at all times, that everyone the right to education is a universal
entitlement to education, recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Right. In other words, everyone regardless of any internal factors is entitled to education
through any meanswithout discrimination. In todays classrooms, this is not much of the
problem.What really poses as the issue now is refining ideas of education and how best to educate
our future generations through a combination of understanding the internal and external factors that
affect their learning in their formative years to adulthood.

On a more personal level, I have experienced and witnessed this phenomenon myself. As a
volunteer at the Chungsol Community Welfare Center, I have seen what kind of effect the
Soyoon Kim
A Block
2D Studio Art II
March 10, 2014
environment and teachers with which students grow up with affect and change their attitudes about
certain ideas. Every Friday afternoon, I walk through the ash-blue doors into the classroom with
faded walls, mismatched desks and worn school supplies scattered on the shelves. As I reach the
front of the room, I quickly realize that my presence is thrilling to not a single one of my students, a
fact made obvious by the rows of uninspired faces staring blankly at the whiteboardjust another
day at the Korean Chungsol Community Welfare Center.

As an artist, I have always believed in arts power in changing not only our perception of the
world, but also our actions within communities. For me, art has been a medium through which I can
communicate my thoughts and make palpable changes in the world. Therefore, I set out on another
artistic interventionmy effort to change social situations through creative art projects. This time,
by making small yet meaningful changes to the classroom environment, I wanted to encourage the
students to develop a love of learning and pursue higher goals.

Thus inspired, I reached out to my fellow Optimist Club officers to brainstorm ways to
revamp the old study space. We decided to brighten up the classroom by repainting the doors,
adding colorful murals, and rearranging the layout to facilitate more mobility. Wanting to create a
colorful and lively atmosphere in each classroom, I designed cork-board murals to embody various
themes, including exploration, identity, curiosity, and creativity. After weeks of planning and
discussions with the community center directors, we set out to work. We hung the artwork and
inspirational messages on the walls and arranged them in eye-catching color schemes after I
finished painting the murals.

This, I suppose, is one of the paths this The solutions to this issue are definitely not few nor
far between. There are a plethora of ways in which this issue can be resolved. However, it is
important to also keep in mind the fact that the way that we approach this issue will also depend a
lot on the way we choose to tackle it.

With these facts in mind, I intend to translate these ideas into a visual image. I intend to
create a sort of visual representation of Pink Floyds wall and incorporate my face (the mask)
onto its surface. The mask will represent the nature side of the issue (the internal qualities that
the student possesses) and the wall will represent a brick-and-mortar type education. The student,
embedded into the system, will be metaphorically strapped down. In the end, it will be able to stay
grounded, and find its way out of the entangling system through a variety of factorsthe red vines
that strap itself down breaking away, slowly, thus being able to grow free and sprout atop the red
brick walls. I want this to be a visual representation of how despite a binding force of the
institution, a combination of nurture and nature will enable this student to prevail and break out of
the system through whatever means: becoming part of it or fighting against it. In the end, the result
is the same: an individual emerges from the masses: newly born, enlightened in a sense. Not solely
a product of a certain upbringing, but an amalgamation of a string of genes, education, environment,
and sense of self.

But the visual representation is not meant to be portrayed in a negative light. Unlike Pink
Floyds message, this is not meant to decry the educational system but merely to shed light on the
importance of both factors: the nature and nurture sides of the issue that creates each student
indoctrinated in an educational system. I hope that like the student depicted in the wall is able to
Soyoon Kim
A Block
2D Studio Art II
March 10, 2014
grow green where they are placed, wherever they may be planted. Times have changed since the
days of Pink Floyd. We can only imagine the power and influence of education in the future. It is
the role of both the student and the teacher to harness the greatest potential in each other and to
raise each other up in the process, not bring each other down. With a great balance of these
elements and along with a supportive, nourishing environment, all is possible in my eyes. Though it
may not always seem to be so, the future is looking brighter and brighter day by day in the future of
education. It is now just a matter of harnessing this energy and momentum and spreading it like a
virus: an empower, educational virus.


Works Cited

""Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)" lyrics." PINK FLOYD LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb.
2014. <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pinkfloyd/anotherbrickinthewallpartii.html>.
"Education as a political issue." Modern Age 52.3 (2010): 175. Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Lerner, Sharon. "The fade-out debate: does pre-K pay off for students long-term?"The American
Prospect 25.1 (2014): 69. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. Ripley,
Amanda. "What Makes a Great Teacher?." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 1 Jan.
2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-
makes-a-great-teacher/307841/?single_page=true>.
"The dark side of The Wall." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 23
Feb. 2014. <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-dark-side
of-the-wall-6156970.html>.
Walsh, Kate. "21st-century teacher education: Ed schools don't give teachers the tools they need."
Education Next 13.3 (2013): 18+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.