Voicing Opinions

The credit for the main concepts behind this article are due to the superbly insightful book “How children fail” by John Holt, still going strong for nearly 50 years.

Little Jimmy walks to school with a pound coin burning a hole in his pocket. But not for long as he exchanges it for 2 fingers of fudge and 4 atomic blasters.

Sat in his chair in class a little while later, his teacher asks him what 2 + 4 equals. For once, he knows the answer – he bought 2 fingers of fudge and 4 atomic blasters for exactly 1 pound. So he confidently announces ‘one’.

His teacher is ‘teaching’ him arithmetic, and tells him his answer is wrong, and tells him the ‘right’ answer.

This ever common situation creates a cascade of problems, all damaging to the child, most of which are beyond the awareness of the teacher.

First, the teacher has failed to understand why Jimmy gave the answer he did – he fails to understand where Jimmy’s understanding of the world has gotten him to. In a class of 30, this is a very hard matter to resolve, I will readily admit, but that does not stop it being a problem.

Second, the teacher has used abstract symbols without even understanding that they are abstract. They are so familiar to the teacher that he cannot see them as a young child can. In essence, 2 + 4 = 6 is an algebraic equation with the algebraic terms missing (2x + 4x = 6x). It really means 2 of something plus 4 of the same kind of thing equals 6 of that kind of thing. This is implied, and thereby assumed by the teacher without making sure that the child has a matching understanding. Young children are very very flexible thinkers, unrestrained by years of reinforcement of what is correct, so to Jimmy, his answer was actually very correct. His algebraic terms were simply different : 2 of one thing plus 4 of another thing cost 6 of another thing again (2f + 4a = 6p).

This brings me to the third problem – that the clear and correct understanding of the problem from Jimmy’s perspective – was refuted. His world view was said to be wrong – without explanation as to why. This can and does shatter the confidence in children. And because the algebraic nature of the ‘correct’ answer is never explained, the child enters a state of confusion. Rather than embracing and learning about the world, he is propelled backwards.

The fourth problem is that he can grow fearful of the teacher – an authority figure who is apparently the proprietor of what needs to be known, but what is not properly understood by many, whose position cannot be questioned.

This in turn can lead to a fearful parrot-like mimicry of the ‘correct’ way of doing things. This is not learning – this is a transient memorisation of things not understood.

Teaching must only operate, if it is to be effective, on the basis of learning, not a mechanical absorption of ‘facts’. But if we insist on teachers being qualified to degree level, many levels removed from the mindset of the children they will teach, are we not in danger of filtering out the wrong type of teacher?

In the UK, and across much of the world, there is an obsession with paper qualifications. As I have said before, they often merely supply just a snapshot-in-time measure of a narrow band of capabilities of a person. Yet they are promoted to be the vital components of education required to compete with others. The quote I offer below shows that someone without decent qualifications but with job and life skills may sail into jobs that the qualified flunk.

It is from “Among the Hoodies” by Harriet Seargent, referring to a business start-up guru called Scott :

The year before, Scott had interviewed 52 graduates. On paper they looked ‘brilliant students’. Each had three A’s at A level and a 2:1 degree. He shook his head. ‘There’s a big difference between people passing exams and being ready for work’.

This was obvious even before the interviews began. Out of the 52 applicants, half arrived late. Only 3 of the 52 walked up to Scott, looked him in the eye, shook his hand and said good morning. The rest ‘ambled in’. When he asked them to solve a problem, only 12 had come equipped with a pad and pencil.

The 3 who had greeted him proved the strongest candidates and he hired them. Within a year they were out due to their ‘lackadaisical’ attitude. ‘They did not turn up on time in the morning. For the first 6 months, a manager had to check every one of their emails for spelling and grammar. They did not know how to learn. Their ability to ‘engage in business’ was ‘incredibly’ disappointing and ‘At 5:30 on the dot they left the office.’”

It would seem to me that the highly rated school and University grades should come with good English skills be default.

But it is evidently not the case.

By teaching to the test, and allowing students to use spell checkers to aid their English, they failed to acquire the basic skills.

Where was their education for interviews and a working environment?

The only 3 seen fit to be given a job then failed to turn up on time, as if the ‘education’ they received was a passport to a salary and an easy life. As if they had done the hard work already.

This article highlights, at last, a key consequence of the dumbing down of eduction :

Is America Becoming an “Idiocracy?”

Here is the part I wanted to highlight :

We are mentally lazy. Our education has conditioned our brains to circumvent deliberative and creative thinking wherever possible through rote memorization and robotic learning of formulas and principles. We have not been taught how to think for ourselves, we have been taught what to think based on what past thinkers thought. We are taught to think reproductively, not productively. We have been trained to seek out the neural path of least resistance, searching out responses that have worked in the past, rather than approach a problem on its own terms. This kind of thinking is dehumanizing and naturalizes intellectual laziness which promotes an impulse toward doing whatever is easiest or doing nothing at all.

The narrow, prescriptive nature of lessons, coupled with equally narrow exam methods and the teaching to these exams kills our creative and exploratory natures. Lateral thinking is almost a lost art …