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The Forum > Article Comments > The illusion of schooling > Comments

The illusion of schooling : Comments

By Phil Cullen, published 27/2/2012

When it comes to teaching, teacher knows better than anyone else.

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Predictable Hasbeen, really predicatable.

I agree with Phil that this constant testing is a farce, and a dangerous one too but I am also painfully aware of (at least in Qld) the parlous state of our education system.

All of us are involved in this too. Parents who pay scant regard for what goes on in schools and fail to take up their responsibilities to front at the P&C meetings, which are filled with (filled as in, there's a handfull of regulars who never demand any performance from the principal and focus only on fund raising, these days for the chaplain not anything the least bit useful)and teachers who really should not be doing the job.

School principals are very poorly trained beyond knowing the jargon to propel their careers in a structure that is not the leat bit interested in 'education'.

Politicians who keep interfering for a few votes but refusing to demand better performance from students, staff and parents.

While doing my undergrad degree, some years back, I was in classes with 'new teachers'. They were simply so dim it was painful to think of them as fronting a History class.

We still have Science teachers teaching, and being allowed to teach, Creationism in state schools in Qld!

No, the current crop of teachers should not be trusted with anything but neither should principals be given more power.

I suspect that a half intelligent child could learn more, in less time, via a computer based home learning system than they get through the current school system, but to reduce schooling to that, as with university courses today, would miss an opportunity to have children cooperate within the school with each other and adults.

The schools of today are coercive bullying workspaces where it is a miracle that any child learns anything.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Monday, 5 March 2012 9:06:46 AM
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TBC,

Good post...but there's no reason why a child who isn't "schooled" should miss out on refining his/her ability to cooperate with others. My son is 10 and hasn't been to school since pre-school. He's comfortable in the company of people of all ages because most of his life has been spent amongst them. He's confident and happy to self-direct the majority of his inquiries. He also constantly asks questions of the people around him. He gets an answer straight away and isn't required to put his arm in the air to ask it. He's never worn a uniform and is not required to sit NAPLAN tests...more time for real learning.
Posted by Poirot, Monday, 5 March 2012 10:17:56 AM
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