The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Championing education > Comments

Championing education : Comments

By Dale Spender, published 25/5/2007

Countering the critics: let's face it, even Shakespeare could have usefully used a spell checker!

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. Page 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. All
Waterboy, students with specific learning disabilities or the learning disabled can only be defined as such by psychological testing by qualified Psychologists. It is a travisty to try and make a child conform with normal classroom functioning when they do not have the ability to do so. The human brain keeps developing until a person is around 25, its a possible argument for beginning teaching young people later than we currently do.
Posted by ant, Monday, 28 May 2007 8:20:41 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Ant,it seems we're pretty much in agreement apart from one small quirk of language.

You said "It is a travisty [sic] to try and make a child conform to normal classroom functioning.."

Hallelujah to that!
Thenormal classroom environment is certainly a travesty of education and justice.Itis no coincidence that corporal punishment waspart of the earliest classroom environment to 'motivate' children to attend tothe pedagogue inorder to learn.

Also ".. its [sic] a possible argument for beginning teaching young people later than we currently do."

Assuming you mean thatwe should defer subjecting children tothe traditional school environment then I entirely approve of this. It's plain common sense that 5 year old children don't belong in a classroom. Their ability to learn atthis age far outstrips the ability of the average teacher to respond to them individually, let alone en-masse and while they certainly need social interaction with peers it is sheer lunacy to immerse them totally in a social environment consisting almost entirely of their age-peers.


Children learn when they are motivated and the normal functioning of school serves to de-motivate most children and slow down the learning process, hence the retarded social and intellectual status of so many late teens in our society. The only strategy schools ever had for motivating children, the stick, has, thankfully, long since been banned, leaving schools with no strategy at all to motivate children and the fundamental flaw in institutional education is finally exposed. It is a very poor way to 'educate' children.

Virtual schools will provide the flexibility and the resources children need for learning at the rate that best suits them. They will not be constrained by the classroom rigours which are so counterproductive to real learning. The virtual school will suit children very well,allowing them to use their naturally powerful inner motivation to drive rapid learning. Given the opportunity,I believe children will take themselves off to v-school ata very early age and will have conquered most of the hard stuff long before they ever see a traditional classroom. The school of the future is available now and it looks FANTASTIC!
Posted by waterboy, Monday, 28 May 2007 10:42:00 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Ant, you said

“I know your [sic] right in relation to spelling being seen as a sign of intelligence by some people; but as indicated in my last post people can be very talented but have a specific learning disability in say spelling.”

Let’s test your theory.

What do you make of Oliver? Is he a dyslexic genius or a semi-literate dilettante? On the basis of his contributions to OLO would you employ him to teach history in your school?
Posted by waterboy, Monday, 28 May 2007 11:35:53 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Those who can do, do
Those who cannot do, teach.
Those who cannot do nor teach, teach others how to teach.
Garth Boomer and Dale Spender belong to this class of educationists.

It's about time we get real in education. Leave out the fancy talk and froth coming from theoretical educationists and make sure that real learning is taking place.
Posted by Philip Tang, Monday, 28 May 2007 11:51:48 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
"This does not mean that I am less smart, less wise, less educated." - Fencepost

In one sense it does: The typical extinction curve of knowledge gained is 80% over five years. Of course, that applies to me too.

Greenfield posits that young people have an adpative intelligence; whereas, old people have a crystaline intelligence. Translation: The former are flexible but not knowledgeable: The latter knowledgeable and inflexible.

Achieving high grades can simply reflect "smarts" with regard to preparation, such as, reviewing old papers to produce template base answers and using primers. Receiving low grades in examination settings can be a results of examination anxiety.

An eighteen year old, sitting a 1966 paper in c.2004, would have structural problems. I acknowledge that matter. For example, I can parse a sentence and take grammically correct dictation. If you are ten years older than, me, perhaps, you, unlike me, are fluent in Latin?

Logic in philosophy maintains argument from authority to be a fallacy [Popkin et al.]. The kernel point here really is that "facts" are not correct or incorrect, because an authotity states it so. Nonetheless, citation research, scholarly literature and even Forum debate, is common practice.
Posted by Oliver, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 1:21:22 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
ant,

Good comments.

1. Pych tests are important. For example, an under performer with high verbal intelligence might be a poor reader owing to a specific problem with short term memory affecting reading abilities. Relatedly, reading [used for learnining] is a cultural aboration not a biological function, having no "direct" underlying genetic cause. Rather, a product of several functions.

2. True. The brain matures c. 25 years. Representational thought commences around twelve years [Piaget]. In the teen years, while there is intellectual progression, there is also a level of emotional regression. A person in their early twenties might have an adpative, open and flexible mind, bit, the person can lack the maturity to make major life choices such as marriage.

[aside; Our immune system matures in our forties. Relatedly, Richard Dawkins has suggeste older people might all be a genetically superior to the mean for the total population, because this group has not already died from inhertiable factors that reduce survivability.
Posted by Oliver, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 1:39:24 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. Page 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy