Tell and Show

I just read an interesting article about education by Frank Furedi. I think it is well worth going to this link and reading the article.

My personal experience about such matters comes from an uncompleted Graduate Diploma of Education degree and forays into schools to do Scripture classes.

During the Grad Dip Ed, I was shocked by repeated examples of university students saying they don't believe what they were being taught, but they were prepared to jump the hurdles and do the essays in order to finish their degree. Some examples are:

• there is no such thing as absolute truth, therefore it is impossible for the teacher to transfer their ideas and experiences to the students by explaining them. All that can be done is to facilitate learning experiences that allow the students to each create their own view of reality.
• any student is capable of achieving the outcomes of any subject. If a student fails to do this, it is because they lack material support because of their low socioeconomic background, and/or they lack "social capital", in other words, the experiences and support given by their upbringing and guardians. There is no such thing as innate ability that limits performance.
• any gender linked behaviour or characteristics is a result of upbringing and environment, it is not an inevitable consequence of gender.
• Marxism is one of the most reliable way of explaining why societies are organised the way they are.
• the children must be "engaged" in whatever way possible, using interesting sounds and images. They should not be led to believe that engagement and concentration can be hard work and can occasionally be boring.

From my observation of classes, some practices and assumptions have crept in that defy reality. Despite the great efforts of dedicated teachers, it is very hard for them to resist the dogma forced on them by the education industry. For example:

• rote learning is bad. While walking around schools, I never hear classes reciting the multiplication tables, as they would have "in my day".  I have, however, seen children who can pretend they know the times tables by becoming very fast at repeated addition. This pretence falls apart when they have to do division. I suppose the successful students have to rely on the "social capital" of their parents.
• the typical primary classroom is covered in artworks, all of them identical except for minor modifications of colour and size. Obviously they have been given a model and the aim is to make a successful copy. Is the intention to encourage imagination, or neat draftsmanship?
• the primary syllabus is full to overflowing with commemoration of events such as Anzac Day, time consuming trips to museums, attempts at enforced creativity (see above), exhortations to live a healthy lifestyle (no smoking, no bullying, eat well, and in the near future, financial management for year 6...), simultaneous Mandarin and French lessons, etc etc. After spending hours and hours of each week on these tasks and on the elaborate projects and deliverables that wallpaper the classroom and impress the Principal and visiting parents and senior friends, along come the NAPLAN tests that assess the 3 "R"s and nothing else. Pity the poor teachers who have to manage all this.

It may be self-serving of me to say this, but it appears to me that the humble Scripture lesson is one of the few times in the working day of a primary school student when abstract thought is asked of them. After a day of splashing paint around the class wet room, collecting recipes from the local Chinese restaurant, growing plants in a pot in the classroom and measuring the school playground again, they walk unprepared into the Scripture class. 

There they are asked:

• the difference between a virtue and good works
• did Martha or Mary follow the better path?
• what does "trespass" mean?
• are people who do bad things bad people?
• should I hate anyone?
• if God didn't make God, who did?
• what is the difference between Anglicans and Catholics?
• did King David live before or after Saint Francis?
• did either of them live before or after Captain Philip?

It would be much easier to be splashing paint.