Came across a great podcast about education. Two excellent educational heretics take on the notion that learning is memory, and that testing and data are the measure of learning. Here are some random excerpts:
“School should be the kind of place where you can have [growth] experiences that you very probably wouldn’t have in the world outside school.”
“There are a number of basic physiological differences between things in short term memory and things in long term memory. Short term memories seem to be bioelectric activity and long term memories seems to be chemical change, an actual change in the structure of the brain.”
"I think the first thing that happened, and it didn’t just happen in education, the first thing that happened in about the 1850’s was that people decided that education and agriculture and manufacturing needed to be systematized. It wasn’t a question of changing the machinery to fit the individual, but of changing the individual to fit the machinery."
In fact, in the early 20th century, one adovcate of mandatory schooling wrote "Plans are underway to replace family, community and church with propaganda, education and mass media."
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I have been doing a great deal of thinking about education, what it is, how it works, and what our system chooses to do and not do, who they empower and who they disenfranchise. A few thoughts:
1. We need to get back to raising adults. Fully capable, autonomous adults. And I don't mean this in the "we should spank 'em more and make 'em pay attention" kind of way. We ought to be teaching people from their earliest days how to take care of themselves and others, how to behave responsibly and make independent decisions without being bullied.
2. Children are inherent learners. We should get out of their way and let them learn. Most of them will teach themselves or others if they get interested at a young enough age.
3. Children deserve to be taught by people who know about the discipline they are teaching. Not by people told to "follow the textbook."
4. Educating the next generation shouldn't be the sole responsibility of schools. Everyone in the community should assist in raising fully capable adults.
1 comment:
I agree especially on point #3. The best music teachers are going to be musicians, the best coaches are going to be people who played the game, etc. My grade 11 math was the one I did best in. My teacher was Mr. Rose, and he did not need to teach by reading a book and reguritating it to the class. He just had a knack/understanding of the subject.
I also think the best things to teach people, are how to think and how to learn, so that they don't stop when they finish school.
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