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strange_raptorsAll unawares, I was reading yesterday's Guardian education supplement. Along with the usual oddities (a story on marmite's place in scientific research), there was an article entitled "Slumdog reveals learning treasures". Aha, I thought to myself, a feel good article about something innovative in education - that sounds wonderful!
Except that it sort of wasn't, because it had quotes like this:
"Having watched hundreds of Indian children learning without teachers at the Hole In The Wall computers, it became obvious that all children can work by themselves, if they want to." ~ Professor Sugata Mitra
"It [Hole in The Wall] proved that if you encourage individual learning, and give children interesting questions to look into independently, the learning process is sparked by curiosity." ~ Professor Sugata Mitra
But wait! I hear you cry. Surely this is what autonomous education is all about? Surely anyone with the slightest grounding in education who has read anything by John Holt (1923-1985), for example, knows this.
"... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it." ~ John Holt
"The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners." ~ John Holt
Sound familiar? So, why has it taken this long, this long, for these ideas to still (still!) be greeted as new and innovative? Why are children still treated as mindless rebels who must be sat down, forcibly, and made to learn what the government wants? Why is it the case that the government doesn't recognise autonomous education as a valid form of education?
I know Prof. Mitra is one of the good guys, and what he's done has been really fantastic and great. But why is society so messed up in its way of dealing with children and their education? Why are we under this collective brainwashing that says that schools work and that this is how we raise our children - by making them spend 6-7 hours a day with strangers learning things by rote that they have no particular interest in so that they can progress to learning more things by rote that they have no particular interest in with a different set of strangers? Do we somehow not feel responsible for our children's education? Has the government thoroughly convinced us that we have no place educating them ourselves?
More and more I find myself drifting towards the thought that if you do not have the time or the inclination to educate your children then you have no place having children; that such a thing is quite simply irresponsible.
Every day I consider teaching as a job. In my spare time my thoughts drift towards lesson plans and ways of challenging the kids, of inspiring them, of encouraging them to reach the very peak of their potential and then some. I am a rebel teacher, seeking to bring down the system from the inside. I would question the protocol, form a subversive reading group (alá Dead Poet's Society), tell them about opera and music and the world, listen to their debates and ideas. And I know this isn't what school is like. I know I wouldn't last two minutes in an inner city comprehensive. But there are times when I'm so full of myself, so confident in my abilities, that I think I could make a difference.
Except that it sort of wasn't, because it had quotes like this:
"Having watched hundreds of Indian children learning without teachers at the Hole In The Wall computers, it became obvious that all children can work by themselves, if they want to." ~ Professor Sugata Mitra
"It [Hole in The Wall] proved that if you encourage individual learning, and give children interesting questions to look into independently, the learning process is sparked by curiosity." ~ Professor Sugata Mitra
But wait! I hear you cry. Surely this is what autonomous education is all about? Surely anyone with the slightest grounding in education who has read anything by John Holt (1923-1985), for example, knows this.
"... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it." ~ John Holt
"The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners." ~ John Holt
Sound familiar? So, why has it taken this long, this long, for these ideas to still (still!) be greeted as new and innovative? Why are children still treated as mindless rebels who must be sat down, forcibly, and made to learn what the government wants? Why is it the case that the government doesn't recognise autonomous education as a valid form of education?
I know Prof. Mitra is one of the good guys, and what he's done has been really fantastic and great. But why is society so messed up in its way of dealing with children and their education? Why are we under this collective brainwashing that says that schools work and that this is how we raise our children - by making them spend 6-7 hours a day with strangers learning things by rote that they have no particular interest in so that they can progress to learning more things by rote that they have no particular interest in with a different set of strangers? Do we somehow not feel responsible for our children's education? Has the government thoroughly convinced us that we have no place educating them ourselves?
More and more I find myself drifting towards the thought that if you do not have the time or the inclination to educate your children then you have no place having children; that such a thing is quite simply irresponsible.
Every day I consider teaching as a job. In my spare time my thoughts drift towards lesson plans and ways of challenging the kids, of inspiring them, of encouraging them to reach the very peak of their potential and then some. I am a rebel teacher, seeking to bring down the system from the inside. I would question the protocol, form a subversive reading group (alá Dead Poet's Society), tell them about opera and music and the world, listen to their debates and ideas. And I know this isn't what school is like. I know I wouldn't last two minutes in an inner city comprehensive. But there are times when I'm so full of myself, so confident in my abilities, that I think I could make a difference.