Why don't more schools teach this way, especially in the lower grades? There is a University that is founded on just this principle: http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/ Comments welcome on whether you think this is a good or bad education. http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/tcs_and_karl_popper I liked this quote: "In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Robert M Pirsig recalls his experience of teaching rhetoric to students at college. He took the approach of not marking his students' essays or indeed giving them any grades whatsoever with the effect that the students realised (eventually) that they could recognise the quality of their essays themselves, and improvement naturally followed. "Essay" is a good word, of course, with its origin in the French "to try". I believe it is within us all to enjoy the trying much more than the empty receiving of good grades, and if children learn at an early age in this way, that is all to the good. Well done TCS!"
short, we have concluded that it is possible and desirable to bring up children in such a way that their learning is motivated entirely by the problem situations within their own minds, and not by externally imposed incentives or penalties. _____________________________________ Here's a problem. A person (child or any age for that matter). They put the clothes in a washing machine.They put in soap, but fail to load the machine properly, result is poorly washed clothes. They acknowledge the results are poor. They ask an adult for help or read instructions. Conventional education. If they do it wrong again I must impose an incentive or a penalty. --------------------------- Same problem, different scenario. Poorly washed clothes. Child acknowledges results. No change in method of washing clothes. Why? Because that is the way mom did it. Well, your answer might be is that mom has done it wrong all these years. Ok, the person realizes this, mom could be wrong. But the child continues to do it incorrectly because, this way of doing laundry is a way for the child to maintain the bond with mom, if the child changes the way something is done, you are asking the child to give up a connection with mom. The child is not motivitavted within their own mind to solve this problem.
Informally, I have asked around, if college kids are as smart as they once were. The reply was, yes, but there are not as many of them. I wonder if our intellectual enviroment is as free or as conducive as it once was to creativity. Maybe the media, corporate climate, the govt frowns on people solving their own problems.
Schooling equals indoctrination. We don't want thinkers... or those that think too quickly, too far ahead. Oh my goodness, the anarchy
we have concluded that it is possible and desirable to bring up children in such a way that their learning is motivated entirely by the problem situations within their own minds... ------------------------ Recipe for suicide?
everyone thinks they got a little genius on their hands.. the reality is certain skills such as reading, righting and rithmetic must be taught. do you want your little johnnie running around the room 'free expressing' or do you want him taught the sum total of human knowledge to date? plenty of time for him to selfexpress when he's out of school looking for a job
My wife has been a 2nd/3rd grade teacher, inner-city, for 20+ years. I agree with teaching the basics, and teaching them well. She is forced into a box with No Child Left Behind bureacratic nonsense, parents who don't pick up their kids, parents who can't read the notes that are sent home, and all the other social issues we have to deal with. Even through all this, she develops a solid bond with each and every class, and each student. Teaching guitar, or voice lessons to the kids who show promise, staying late (too often) to take kids home, etc. These kids actually learn their arithmetic and can read, generally, on or above grade level. She "tolerates" the extra nonsense, and still focuses on the core learning. We have to continue to do the core teaching in the early years. It sounds so basic and trite, but without these basic tools, which now include some computer skills of course, these kids would not be able to get into history, Socrates, economics, but with these skills, they will hopefully continue to grow our societies in the manner that we have been able to do for the last couple of centuries. I see the glass as half full, especially in the lower grades, and if the Government would let teachers teach then all of our kids and grand-kids will be better off. My 2 cents. Don
Even through all this, she develops a solid bond with each and every class, and each student. Teaching guitar, or voice lessons to the kids who show promise, staying late (too often) to take kids home, etc. -------------------- That is very nice of your wife. She is a great person.