Thank you for the ideas you are sharing on how to fundamentally shift education toward more self-directed learning. I wholeheartedly agree that kids need more freedom and time to play to cultivate their imagination. I also think compulsory learning is essentially useless. If there is no interest it will not stick. The most meaningful learning is driven by intrinsic motivation. I think facilitating that sweet spot where students encounter something that sparks their interest and leads them toward the path of learning more about it because they genuinely want to is an art some teachers are really good at and others are not. Thank you again for your wonderful ideas!
You've put it so sharply. Profound ideas in fresh and simple language. Often writing on education can end up seeming so vague and complex, ever critical and rarely affective. Thanks for this.
Excellent piece! While reading it, I was struck by how close your concept is to something I came across last week while doing research for a related piece. Below is an excerpt from "The New Curriculum in Georgia." It was released in 1938 and was considered a bold departure at the time. Revisions in the decades following reversed course.
From The New Curriculum in Georgia, 1938:
The most significant part of the entire effort to improve instruction in our schools is the study which teachers themselves have given to the philosophy underlying all education.. Why has society organized schools? What implications for education are there in our rapidly changing social order? What results has the supporting society a right to expect of the schools? These questions and others must continue to be answered by all teachers. The answers give purpose and direction to the teachers' work.
The aim of education in Georgia to be TO HELP THE INDIVIDUAL TO BE THE BEST POSSIBLE MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY AND TO PREPARE HIM TO BEAR THE RESPONSIBILITIES, TO SHARE THE BENEFITS, AND TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BETTERMENT OF THAT SOCIETY.
Some characteristics of a good citizen are listed and described. If these characteristics are the aims of education it follows that the teacher's job is to provide situations in which these characteristics may be developed and exhibited. Her job is not the teaching of arithmetic, geography, or history but the making of good citizens. Arithmetic, history and geography may be and are useful subject matter in her task of making·good citizens but are not the ends she seeks. Ability to solve the problems on a certain page is not the aim of work in arithmetic; but the attitude of seeking facts, of basing judgments on facts and a disposition to feel equal to a task, are some of the outcomes desired.
That a teacher should teach children, not books, is trite but true. The question then arises: What shall we teach children? The Georgia program assigns the teacher a role quite different from that of the traditional program. There she is a teacher-a drill master to see that pupils acquire a certain amount of knowledge that is in a textbook. Here she is a stimulator and guide as pupils learn.
Implicit in this task of education is a kind of school in which definite and conscious effort is made to make possible for the pupil experiences which lead to the development of self-control, a sense of responsibility and an increasing ability to direct his own activity. Such a school will provide for every child the type of education that will make it possible for him to develop to his best, will maintain a close relationship between school and out of-school life, and will enable the teacher to take into account what the child is thinking and feeling, his attitudes and interests, as well as his overt activities.
100% behind this. Though love the classical model: memorization done for the first four years, and then expanded applications of those facts. You have to know your times tables after all. We have a national-- even global-- crisis in education. Grateful to have found this newsletter.
Thank you for the ideas you are sharing on how to fundamentally shift education toward more self-directed learning. I wholeheartedly agree that kids need more freedom and time to play to cultivate their imagination. I also think compulsory learning is essentially useless. If there is no interest it will not stick. The most meaningful learning is driven by intrinsic motivation. I think facilitating that sweet spot where students encounter something that sparks their interest and leads them toward the path of learning more about it because they genuinely want to is an art some teachers are really good at and others are not. Thank you again for your wonderful ideas!
You've put it so sharply. Profound ideas in fresh and simple language. Often writing on education can end up seeming so vague and complex, ever critical and rarely affective. Thanks for this.
Excellent piece! While reading it, I was struck by how close your concept is to something I came across last week while doing research for a related piece. Below is an excerpt from "The New Curriculum in Georgia." It was released in 1938 and was considered a bold departure at the time. Revisions in the decades following reversed course.
From The New Curriculum in Georgia, 1938:
The most significant part of the entire effort to improve instruction in our schools is the study which teachers themselves have given to the philosophy underlying all education.. Why has society organized schools? What implications for education are there in our rapidly changing social order? What results has the supporting society a right to expect of the schools? These questions and others must continue to be answered by all teachers. The answers give purpose and direction to the teachers' work.
The aim of education in Georgia to be TO HELP THE INDIVIDUAL TO BE THE BEST POSSIBLE MEMBER OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY AND TO PREPARE HIM TO BEAR THE RESPONSIBILITIES, TO SHARE THE BENEFITS, AND TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BETTERMENT OF THAT SOCIETY.
Some characteristics of a good citizen are listed and described. If these characteristics are the aims of education it follows that the teacher's job is to provide situations in which these characteristics may be developed and exhibited. Her job is not the teaching of arithmetic, geography, or history but the making of good citizens. Arithmetic, history and geography may be and are useful subject matter in her task of making·good citizens but are not the ends she seeks. Ability to solve the problems on a certain page is not the aim of work in arithmetic; but the attitude of seeking facts, of basing judgments on facts and a disposition to feel equal to a task, are some of the outcomes desired.
That a teacher should teach children, not books, is trite but true. The question then arises: What shall we teach children? The Georgia program assigns the teacher a role quite different from that of the traditional program. There she is a teacher-a drill master to see that pupils acquire a certain amount of knowledge that is in a textbook. Here she is a stimulator and guide as pupils learn.
Implicit in this task of education is a kind of school in which definite and conscious effort is made to make possible for the pupil experiences which lead to the development of self-control, a sense of responsibility and an increasing ability to direct his own activity. Such a school will provide for every child the type of education that will make it possible for him to develop to his best, will maintain a close relationship between school and out of-school life, and will enable the teacher to take into account what the child is thinking and feeling, his attitudes and interests, as well as his overt activities.
100% behind this. Though love the classical model: memorization done for the first four years, and then expanded applications of those facts. You have to know your times tables after all. We have a national-- even global-- crisis in education. Grateful to have found this newsletter.