Current location: Brighton, UK

Its a flat world after all

Posted on Thursday, May 05, 2005 @ 14:59 CET

Two very interesting articles by Doc Searls (the second being slightly more so):
Linux Journal: Getting Flat, Part 1
Linux Journal: Getting Flat, Part 2

Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.

That paragraph alone should be enough to get you interested .

- paulo

Comments:

1
Jan Nordgreen writes:
Many people in schools would agree. The interesting questions, therefore, are:

- how to imrpive schools?
- if not schools, then what?

One example of what is being tried:

Q: How is teaching different in holistic education?

In holistic education there is no curriculum set by "experts" but rather it is developed by the immediate stakeholders—teachers, students, and parents. This ensures that what is studied is relevant and meaningful. However, this means that teachers must be creative and responsive to the individuality of their students. Teachers in holistic schools cannot simply "deliver" a pre-packaged curriculum, which is a challenge to some teachers but a great joy and inspiration to others. Classes in holistic schools are necessarily smaller and there is more of an emphasis on the relationship between the teacher and student. When mechanical learning ceases, mechanical behavior (everyone doing the same thing at the same time, sitting in rows, role playing, etc.) becomes less relevant. Without this, relationships are able to be more authentic and behavior more like that in 'real-life' becomes appropriate, so that the differences between life-in-school and life-outside-of-school disappear. This helps students see the relevance of their learning to their lives, and helps generate an attitude of life long learning. It also helps facilitate the teachers' learning of themselves, their teaching practices, and their students' learning needs.'

http://simpler-solutions.net/pmachinefree/comments.php?id=891_0_1_0_C

# May 06, 2005 14:50 CET

2
Jan Nordgreen writes:
Why are line breaks not preserved when I post a comment? Do I have to enter or and codes?

# May 06, 2005 14:51 CET

3
Paulo replies:
Its a bug in my commenting script. Its on my to-do list :)

# May 06, 2005 16:01 CET

Post a comment:

You must have Flash and JavaScript enabled to post a comment.