Individual, the majority of us thought education was doing fine, & paid it no attention.

Meanwhile the feminists decided that girls were better at home work/assignments, than boys, while boys were better at long term retention of information & examinations of those facts.

They worked their way into positions of authority, & slowly changed the whole system from one of imparting knowledge, to one of producing nice open book assignments.

Now we have a university student body who know nothing but how to Google, although all too often can't understand what the search actually throws up.

We find that the feminists have changed education to a sewing circle type organisation, where other realities are becoming accepted.

Do be careful crossing any bridges designed ten years from now, they just might be using some other reality to keep them standing..

Did the “old school” ways really work?
Pied piper,
Yes, those pupils built Australia whereas the new pupils are tearing the Country down & strip-sell it. Yes, I'd say definitely the "old schools" did work !

Once past the essentials of teaching the thre r's. maybe teachers should concentrate more on encouraging children to open their minds and think, as opposed to stuffing them with facts only, and no opportunity to contribute.

They need to be able to challenge and discuss what is put before them, and teachers should welcome their participation. Maybe putting aside time for group discussion would not only give the teacher feedback, but challenge children to think for themselves.

Usually in a classroom the disruptive children are either bored becuase they are bright, or the ones who can't grasp what is being taught, so are also bored.

So, should we start by training future teachers to take more heed of the children, and concentrate less on just presenting facts, and leaving it at that?

Quite so, worldwatcher...except that teachers are trained to present the facts that children are required to be stuffed with. They are doing society's bidding. Modern industrial society doesn't particularly want it's minions to be able to think for themselves, so it trains them up to depend on others to think for them so they can do their bit and toe the line.

Here's a good quote (that would probably sit well in your new thread :) from George Bernard Shaw.

"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."

Poirot,

Your observations are spot on.

George Bernard Shaw summed it up in a nutshell. Wish I could do that.
You should post that quote on the other thread too, together with any more good ones you can think of to share.