Every end of term, when I brought my report home from secondary school, my dad would shut me in his small study with him and shout at me for not trying harder. He always told me I could do better. He might have been right but I was so bored with what I was being taught. When I'm bored I have the attention span of a gnat!
I love learning now, and I often look for webinars on subjects that appeal to me. I have a special interest in Tudor history and I never tire of reading about it or watching documentaries on the subject. If I'd been able to study that at school I'd have flown!
An excellent piece, as usual, "Children have the ability to learn without fear as their birth right. We take this away from them in the name of achievement and learning. We take it away with stickers and stars and certificates for attainment. We train them to think that learning is about assessment and results, and then we are surprised when they ask us if this will be on the test.
And most of the time, we do this without ever considering what they are losing."
John Holt wrote about this in How Children Fail, way back in 1958.
In the immortal words of James Herndon, this dumb class sure can't learn (How to Survive in Your Native Land).
Brilliantly written as always.
Every end of term, when I brought my report home from secondary school, my dad would shut me in his small study with him and shout at me for not trying harder. He always told me I could do better. He might have been right but I was so bored with what I was being taught. When I'm bored I have the attention span of a gnat!
I love learning now, and I often look for webinars on subjects that appeal to me. I have a special interest in Tudor history and I never tire of reading about it or watching documentaries on the subject. If I'd been able to study that at school I'd have flown!
An excellent piece, as usual, "Children have the ability to learn without fear as their birth right. We take this away from them in the name of achievement and learning. We take it away with stickers and stars and certificates for attainment. We train them to think that learning is about assessment and results, and then we are surprised when they ask us if this will be on the test.
And most of the time, we do this without ever considering what they are losing."