I have a booklet published in 1966 by the National Education Association titled "Diagnostic Teaching" by someone with the initials D.M.L. This book is full of enlightened prose on the ways children learn and, even more amazing, ways to teach within that understanding without subjugating children's natural intellectual growth and wonder.
According this N.E.A. booklet,
Beliefs: Children learn from living
Children differ in many ways
The school has an obligation to children
Learning conditions determine effectiveness of learning
Where did these beliefs go? Now,children learn from textbooks and lectures. Life has little or nothing to do with it. Now, all children are taught as if they all came from the exact same background and experiences. (Even those who receive extra help, get the same work and technique-just slower.) Now, children have an obligation to the school, not the other way around. Now, learning is determined to be effective in relationship to how good the learner is at repeating right answers.
Why did the N.E.A. publish and then ignore this work?
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Our school system is designed to make us all dumbed-down clones not able to think at all out of the educational box. The N. e. a. doesn't have any power. they may have some right ideas but publishing them is the extent of their responsibility. The answers are out there but they will never be implemented by the government or it's corporate owners.
ReplyDeleteTo stirfryum,
ReplyDeleteWhen public schools began, it was to create a populace who could work in the industrial revolution as assemblyline workers. The success of that goal is remarkable. The fact that no one sees a problem with educating the exact same way as 100 years ago is amazing!!!
I don't believe that government or corporations are keeping our public school system the same on purpose. I don't think they are thinking that deeply. Although, it does work out for them because we are definitely not taught to think for outselves.