A Thunk is a beguilingly simple-looking question about everyday things that stops you in your tracks and helps you start to look at the world in a whole new light.
Thunk 12:
If we took the school building and moved it to Deira but left the people and things exactly where they were in The Gardens where would the school be?
Thunk 12:
If we took the school building and moved it to Deira but left the people and things exactly where they were in The Gardens where would the school be?
38 comments:
I like thunks but I just hate ones like this where I could just go on endlessly about the topic at hand.
But on topic, I'll try to summarize as much as possible so as not to ramble on and on about how I'm right :D.
School is a place of education, where students come to learn. Without the building itself I would still call it a "place"... I mean I've heard of and seen pictures of schools that are held out in the open, it may be in impoverished nations but I would still say that there is a school there. Therefore in my opinion its still in Gardens.
Btw that image is so overused, its getting annoying, we need another picture...
Well exactly as DUWANE said " School is a place of education " it doesn't really matter where it is, it can be in Karama, Satwa Or Palm Jumeriah even.
In Northern Sides of Pakistan, schools don't really even have roof over them, its just a 4 sided hall.
Yeah I Still prefer the school being in The Gardens. =)
YES !!! " The Picture Really Is Getting Annoying " Can't we change it, maybe a different angle
It would be in Gardens. The building isn't what makes the school. It's the people.
A school can vaguely be defined as a place where education is provided for as well as recieved by the people who attend to it.
So just by removing the building itself would not literally remove the 'school' as long as the concerned location accommodates the people remaining. And as Nadine has said that it isn't the building that makes the school, its the people.
So it is, in fact, in Gardens.
Please, no more comments about the picture - email me a new one and I'll change it.
Oky!!It took me a while to understand
I agree with Nadine we make Winchester a school because without us it would just be a mere building. School isn’t defined as a BULIDING where students learn it is a place where people get education and it can be anywhere.
in gardens. because it doesnt matter WHERE you learn. it can be anyweher. my house could be a school if there were people and we studied.
As most people said, its the people that make the school, not the building.
Any area can be a school if there is learning going on within it.
So, yes, the school would still be in The Gardens.
I agree with everyone else. If u have the spirit and the resources then u can have an education and study anywhere you want!! If education is taking place in a certain area then it can still be called a school. Thus i feel that the gardens is the answer.
Okay, a lot of people have already said this, but it's US that make the Winchester School. :)
They can take the fancy building away, and leave us out in the open, but WE would still embody what the school really is. Without us awesome students + teachers, the 'school' would be nothing but an empty, abandoned building, a shell of what it used to be.
:]
The building serves no purpose in education, so the school would still be in The Gardens.
I don't think it would be much of a school then. Even though it is true that the students and staff make up a large part of the school - you need facilites and a building to keep everything going, and for organization. After all, we come to school not only to get educated, but to learn discipline as well, right? I don't think it would be very possible to do that without a proper school building with allocated classrooms,etc. A school is definitely where one learns to educate themselves, but education does not go about only academically, it's about discipline and extra-curricular activities as well, which would be odd to do without a building.. :P
The school would still be in Gardens. A building does not constitute education, it is the people. It is what the people do, how they do it and the result that is accomplished by their doing.
Just to clarify - the thunk doesn't ask where will the "education" be - it asks where will the "school" be. "School" and "education" are not synonyms, as some have indicated above.
Nishika: "my house could be a school if there were people and we studied."
Interesting point. However, students go to their teachers' houses for tuitions and to study--yet, we don't say they're going to school. Students sometimes study in groups at a friend's house - but does the house become a school?
Okay,I WordWebed 'School' and I got:A building where young people receive education.
So the 'school' itself would actually be in Deira. However, for a mere building to become a school, there need to be students and teachers in it, just like a house needs people living in it to actually become a home.
^Faiza,
Good point. However, when Modern High built their new school it was called a new "school" - even though students and teachers had not moved into it. Was it mistake to call it a school?
...Yeah, this is where everything gets confusing.
In that context maybe they called it a school because they knew in the future it would be a place of learning? Ahh, im starting to get it now... The fact is that the building is in one place and people are learning in another place. So can you still call the building with no one doing anything in it a school?
In my mind, no it's just a deserted building.
So Duwane, during the summer hols our school is not a school then? :)
No, it wasn't wrong because after all, it IS a school: a building with classrooms, a gymnasium, a canteen and a library is a school by structure. But it's kind of like an unlit candle, the flame is missing.
As per my opinion, my instinct would be to say, the students are what make four walls a school, for that is why its regarded as a school, to be a common centre for education and learning.
But then again,some would ask, but if you had the school premises there, all ready and furnished with desks, chairs, boards books and material, is it not a school?
It is obviously in fact a school beacuse it contins all needed equipment for it to be regarded as a school.
But it is specified that the people and things would remain in its place, then i could call the location at Gardens would be the school, whereas the centre in Deira where the building is, could be used for anything, a shelter, hospital or government building.
Sir, id just like to mention that before we moved into the new premises at Modern, the school at Nad Al Sheba had been planned and publicized within the student body to such an extent that even though it was just white walls and sand, it was going to be our new school whether we liked it or not. And we accepted it as a school because we knew that was what it was definately destined to be even though for the first few months all it was was white, dusty, freezing cold during 12 noon, plantless, full of sand flys and exhasperatingly large. [The kindergarteners used to cry in the bus to the older kids that their feet hurt in the mornings] :(
Well, thats Mr. Roberts small problem there solved by Priyanka... Well sort of solved.
Like Faiza likes to do very often, we seem to be whirling away our time comparing schools to random things (Candles?!) and heading away from the question at hand.
Thanks Priyanka for insight into the new modern high building but no matter what the building is LIKE it only matters if it is an actual school or not.
And by the looks of your decription, even before anyone moved in there, people had the feeling that that place in Nad Al Sheba was there school.
I think it's the safest to say that a school consist of two parts- the building and the process of learning that happens within it, with all the students, teachers, desks, etc. I think if the building was moved to Deira but the students still came to Gardens, we'd have two Winchester schools...now there's a frightening thought. But none of them would be proper schools. Like marriage- you need two components to make the whole. (yay for comparing schools to random things!! ^__^)
Well, I guess it really depends. The building in Deira, is it going to be a school any time soon? Obviously, it won't be furnished with school facilities as everything is in Gardens, but WILL it be in the future? Is there a chance of students, teachers, furniture, etc. occupying it?
"So Duwane, during the summer hols our school is not a school then? :)"
Isn't that different, because we KNOW our school is a school, and as Faiza said it is occupied with all the necessary fittings, and it will be re-opened in a few short months. But with this 'building' in Deira, I think we need a little more info., on whether it is GOING to be used as a school or not.
Priyanka mentions the hype created at the contruction of their new school; even though it was empty and plain, they still KNEW it was going to be their place of study.
Sure, the area in Gardens would still be a school. Even though there's no proper 'building' or 'structure' as such, there are still students continuing to learn, and teachers willing to teach. In villages, for example, they don't have the resources (money, materials, etc) to build a school building, so they just, 'gather'? I don't know what the right terminology would be, but what they do is just, sit in a group, there's one teacher in front, and a collection of 30 students or more. That's all we need to call it a 'school'. It could be a place by a particular rock where they gather every morning; where there are rules, punctuality, education shared, knowledge of their surroundings, interaction with peers, and whatever else is done at a school.
I guess I would call both these areas a school, depending on whether the structure in Deira would be used as a school in the future. If it is just an empty, abandoned building that has the Winchester logo on it but nothing else, and no future plans of being used as an institute of education, then no, it is not a school.
Mehvash: If it is just an empty, abandoned building that has the Winchester logo on it but nothing else, and no future plans of being used as an institute of education, then no, it is not a school.
When I was a kid growing up in Dubai in the late 70s early 80s there used to be an ancient Iranian school near where I lived. It was abandoned and derelict. We used to refer to it as "the abandoned school." Were we wrong? Should we have referred to it as the abandoned "building?" :)
Well, still, just because it has the name/logo printed upon the building, and it is called a school,does it necessarily make it one? :/
Sir, just out of curiousity, how would you answer this thunk? :P
Well to be more specific.
The School is only a school when i'm in it.
Only then do people enjoy coming to school ,when I'm around :)
A School with a Zaid M. Ahsan is like a laughing man without lungs.
There's the true answer. Haha.
(To be on topic a school is not a school without students attending on a regular basis of the week and month)
Well since the people and things have been left where they were and only the building structure of the school is moved to Deira, I say that school would still be there in The Gardens, no matter where you move the school, the people and the things were left. So we could be studying or doing exams in an empty plot!
I think that the students and teachers make up the school.So if the school BUILDING was moved to Deira the Gardens would still be the school.
Aisha Bashir
10g2
I agree with Tannya. The fully equipped piece of open land in The Gardens would be where school is, but only in comparison to the abondoned buiding in Deira. Like Tannya said, you need a proper building to keep everything going in a functional manner. Being an automotive enthusiast, I would say this is very simalar to separating a car from its engine. Both things work perfectly well, but only when the latter is properly installed into the former. Besides, there are some facilities in our school which cannot be taken out of the school in the way desks and chairs can, like separate storeys. Apparently nobody seems to have thought of this yet, but because there will be only only one storey in this 'buildingless' school, we will have to spread ourselves over a much larger surface area. Perhaps we could invade the Nakheel offices or maybe even the Ibn Battuta Mall.:) The more fragile ones amongst us would probably faint with the unbearable heat at the peak of summer and we would all get soaking wet if it happened to rain in the middle of winter. The Winchester School would still be in The Gardens but it would be very inefficient.
Why, the school is in the gardens of course! Even if the building is moved, the school is more defined by its people i feel.
A school is where people come to learn.
So it doesnt matter where the building is as long as we are still learning it is definetly a school.
I guess the 'school building' would be in 'Deira', but i feel the 'school-where children are being taught' would be at 'The Gardens'. Like in small villages the children go to school with their books and pencils and they sit on a mat and a teacher has a board to teach with and that is their SCHOOL. No walls no nothing, maybe if they're lucky a roof or a shade to sit under!
A School is a School only when you learn something out of the School. It could be how to converse with people, or to learn what happened many many years ago, or why somethings happen and others dont and what is the right method to solve a problem. All this can happen when you have people ready to share and gain knowledge. So when all these people are put together in one place you can call it a School. Mr. Roberts said "Nishika: "my house could be a school if there were people and we studied."
Interesting point. However, students go to their teachers' houses for tuitions and to study--yet, we don't say they're going to school. Students sometimes study in groups at a friend's house - but does the house become a school?". Mr. Roberts, if Students group up at one of their friends houses and get Text books of the courses relevant to them and use a bit of the internet and not go to the School, it can be said that they are 'Home Schooling'. And tutions are called tutions to make it easier to differentiate between School and a private tutor. Some institutes are also called Schools, where they give support classes to Students.
Mr. Roberts:"So Duwane, during the summer hols our school is not a school then? :)"
Our School is still a School then, as We are taking a break from Our routine and nothing else. Say if the Ministry declares a holiday on a weekday, the letter to the Parents would read..'The Minstry of Education has declared a holiday and the Winchester School will remain closed until further notice.' So are you saying that the title 'School' will be taken away from the School for that one day?
It would still be the Gardens.
just removing the building doesnt change the purpose of the school. as long as people who want to study and the people who want to teach remain there, it will still be considered a school. Why, we can have a school operating in a park, or a beach for that matter. Its definitely the people who make a school. Not a particularly designed building. ;)
I think the school will still be where the people and things are and not where the building is shifted to because school is made from teachers and students and all the related things. not from the actual building. On the other hand we would obviously need a comfortable shelter to study under so the building is quite important too! :)
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