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Path: utzoo!utcsri!utegc!utai!ubc-vision!alberta!calgary!arcsun!rob
From: rob@arcsun.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: education
Message-ID: <179@arcsun.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Mar-87 11:32:07 EST
Article-I.D.: arcsun.179
Posted: Mon Mar  2 11:32:07 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Mar-87 03:49:32 EST
References: <213@fornax.uucp>
Distribution: can
Organization: Alberta Research Council, Calgary, Ab.
Lines: 40
Summary: does anything really change?

In article <213@fornax.uucp>, chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes:
> Every year thousands (tens of thousands?) of bright eyed little kids
                 ^(hundreds of thousands)
> go off to start in kindergarten.  They are by and large very inquisitive,
> adventurous and enthusiastic. Twelve or thirteen years later they exit
> the school system.  Only now they (with a few exceptions) actively
> resist learning anything.  Learning and thinking have become a chore
> to be avoided.
> 
If in fact kids do possess any adventurousness at all, it is by and large
eliminated within 3 days of entering any organized institution, including
day care. Within these settings kids rapidly become very set in their ways,
and any deviation from the norm causes them mental anguish. (Picture 24
kindergarten students whining "But Mrs. Soandso always reads the story AFTER
the special person cleans the chalkboard"). Enthusiasm fades (in general) by
grade 3. Inquisitiveness seems more a part of individual personality and
stays fairly constant. (Source for these pronouncements: Denise Aitken,
teacher).
> Why?  Would smaller class sizes help (I think so)? A different type of
> setting?  Different training for teachers?
> 
In most cases, learning is a chore. If you already believe you are getting
along fine, why bother to learn anything new? I resisted learning EMACS for
ages because vi was a perfectly good editor. It is only when you can see
a benefit from something that learning it becomes worthwhile. The task of
convincing students that school programs are useful (and indeed making and
keeping them useful) is a prime objective of education.

> A lot of these people end up becoming a drain on society.
Oh, I don't know. You and I seem to be doing fine. :-)

In my opinion, more concentration on continuing teacher education is the key.
This will prevent the change from bright-eyed first-year teachers to old
battle-axe burnouts who believe that society values them only as expensive
baby-sitters.

Rob Aitken
{ ...ubc-vision, ...alberta}!calgary!arcsun!rob
Disclaimer: The Alberta Research Council does not pay me as a spokesman, so
            they cannot claim anything I say as theirs. So there.