Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Letter

From The Independent:

"The psychologist Frank Smith in The Book of Learning and Forgetting chronicles how the current schooling model has only been in existence for the last 120 years. It was based on a plan used to produce soldiers for the Prussian army.

Corralling children in groups of 30, segregating them according to age, and perceived ability, forcing them all to attend to the same material at the same time ... none of these approaches favour learning and all fly in the face of years of experience, which show us that the most effective way to learn is the classic one: that of being apprenticed to someone with whom you identify and whose skill you wish to learn. Although I am a qualified teacher, I would be the first to acknowledge that some of the very best home-educators have no teaching qualification, just a desire to help their children and an open mind. "

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

> the most effective way to learn > is the classic one: that of
> being apprenticed to someone
> with whom you identify and whose > skill you wish to learn

Yes! This is the good argument.

Note this is not impossible to happen at school, although it usually happens accidently.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it can happen accidentally. I just caught a bit of an interview on the radio with a teacher or some one from the comprehensive that has apparently 'created' a good number of well known musicians/pop singers, e.g. Amy W.

I wonder if that was a case of informal apprenticeship - with one inspiring teacher? The bit of the interview I heard asked a man who was the worst behaved at school. He answered that they had all been lovely (or some such thing). Good for him!

D