{"id":212,"date":"2013-04-04T16:41:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/21stcenturylearners.org.uk\/?p=212"},"modified":"2013-04-04T16:59:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:59:04","slug":"how-could-education-be-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21stcenturylearners.org.uk\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"How could education be different?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been writing my \u2018Level 3 Assignment\u2019 for Sapere<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> as I work towards becoming an accredited trainer in Philosophy for Children<\/strong>.\u00a0 In the process I have encountered some fundamental questions: \u2018What are the purposes of education?<\/strong>\u2019, \u2018In what ways are children distinct from adults?<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018What are the implications of our answers<\/strong>?\u2019\u00a0 Heavy going!<\/p>\n

One thing I learned is that there are no definitive answers to such questions.\u00a0 I also realised that I have a responsibility to keep on asking them.\u00a0 Schools have a massive impact on the identities of our children<\/strong> \u2013 whether they do so wittingly or not.\u00a0 Many of us now accept that children are capable of \u2018thinking for themselves\u2019 far more extensively and at an earlier age than is suggested by developmental models of childhood such as those of Piaget and Kohlberg.\u00a0 Yet the basic model of mass schooling was established in a bygone age when the prevailing view of childhood was very different: children were not expected to challenge the paternalistic authority of the school and they were not thought able to make a meaningful contribution to the community.\u00a0 They were taken to institutions away from the adult world, grouped according to their age (not interests or aptitudes) and mechanistically prepared for a distant future in an industrial world. No wonder they became disenfranchised! And if we persist with the same model of schooling without considering its impact on the identities of our children or how the future that awaits them has changed then we risk perpetuating an anachronistic system that continues to disenfranchise young people.\u00a0 I always find this video from Richard Gerver<\/strong> thought-provoking. It is perhaps a little dismissive of the importance of knowledge, but certainly makes the case for valuing skills and attitudes!<\/p>\n