Mr Howard said the government would continue to press its case for the need for an education system that is “built on traditional orthodox methods of instructions”
I was interested to read this statement on educational policy from our Prime Minister, John Howard, recently. I mean, what are “traditional orthodox methods of instructions”? We were chatting about this at work today… and came up with a few ideas such as the cane, chalk-n-talk, etc., which of-course is not what was intended (I hope!). But for most people, the idea of “traditional orthodox methods of instructions” evokes some picture of teacher-centric method of disseminating knowledge and/or skills, requiring learners to absorb and practise and obey. But is this what John means?
Should learners be empowered to set the direction of their own learning? In what contexts, at what ages? I was incredibly interested today to read about Ricardo Semler on Artichoke’s blog (thanks Leigh):
“For nearly 25 years, Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazil-based Semco, has let his employees set their own hours, wages, even choose their own IT. The result: increased productivity, long-term loyalty and phenomenal growth. ” April 1, 2004 Ricardo Semler: Set Them Free
… he’s turning his attention to something grander - shaping Brazil’s next generation. Education without compulsion… The man who believes in managing without managers wants to teach without teachers. His Lumiar primary school in Sao Paulo uses tutors and ‘masters’ instead. The masters are architects, astronomers, painters, musicians real experts chosen by the students themselves to come for weeks at a time. It sort of helps if they are not teachers. The thinking is that children want to learn and that ordinary schools stop them.
There’s a lot wrong with traditional education. The real question is why do we think we have anything to add to that field and what we find is that the adults that come to us after being uniformalised and homogenised over the years and calcified in the school system, they come to us ready to follow orders, to understand what it is we want them to do, and we’ve realised that the only way to change this, and it’s very expensive and difficult and long to change it with the company, the only way to really change it is to start working at the moment that society does all the harm to them which is really at two.
Wow. Looks like Brazil is at least going to try different things in education (along side “traditional orthodox” educational options I’m sure). I wonder if we can be so bold in Australia.
(It’s been great to read recently about the 24hr school in Parramatta and to watch a video interview with the director of Catholic education talking about the new learner-centred schools that they are trialling… maybe in Australia it’s the private sector that will need to innovate first?)