March 01, 2009
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Humanistic Teaching
An approach to learning English
Chris Hunt
The Wise Hat
How much of what we think of as good teaching is grounded in common sense, and how much of what we think of as common sense is actually sensible?How much of it is really cultural superstition clouding our senses with a combination of envy and fear? Please have a look at the following quotations. Which ones do you agree with, and which ones leave you shaking your head or gnashing your teeth?
Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Einstein
All crimes, all hatreds, all wars can be reduced to unhappiness.
A. S. Neill
The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we taught children to speak, they'd never learn.
William Hull
The young person in school is monstrously confronted by the BARBARIAN in unforgettable form. The latter possesses almost limitless power. Equipped with pedagogical skills and many years of experience he trains the pupil to become a prototype of himself. The pupil learns everything required for getting ahead in the world - the very same things that are necessary for getting ahead in school; deceit, pretending to have knowledge one does not have, the ability to get even without being punished for it, speedy acquisition of clichés, subservience, a readiness to betray one's fellows to the higher ups..."
Bertolt Brecht
Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we have strip mined the earth - for a particular commodity. And for the future it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children.
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Matthew Arnold
The purpose of this column is to prod at our assumptions about teaching English in particular and education in general. I'm sure my assumptions are different from yours so I hope that you will also help me question and examine my own. I chose the quotations above partly out of a duty to be provocative and partly because I want to show where I'm coming from. With the odd quibble I agree with every word. I think it fair to say that we human beings are plunging into a calamity of our own making. In the book Ishmael, Daniel Quinn compares modern civilization to an early aviator pedalling a flying machine in free fall. The aviator is under the illusion that he is flying. When he notices that the ground is rushing up at an alarming rate he simply concludes that he needs to pedal faster. The real problem is, of course, that his contraption was designed without an understanding of the laws of aerodynamics. His machine is broken, cannot fly and will never fly. In a similar way, Quinn argues, modern human beings are ignoring laws of ecology and dooming society to collapse. We believe we are civilised and our modern, capitalist, consumer culture a pinnacle of achievement. The aim is development, seemingly at any cost. Accordingly, we have factory lines, factory farms and, I think, factory education. Raw, vibrant material goes in at one end and processed material comes out the other. Everything and everyone must be tested rigorously. Standards must be maintained. The function of schooling is to process children into being useful, productive members of society, but this function is flawed.
Even if modern society were healthy, and there seem few indications that it is, I would question the idea of processing children. At its root, this harkens back to the idea that children are, or should be, vessels to be filled with knowledge. Children have a duty to accept what adults determine they need to know. We even have a concept for this - "performing at grade level". But I think the function of education should be to help children become self-actualising. I was going to write that the function should be to help children become independent learners, but actually children are natural learners even before birth. It takes years of schooling to destroy their natural independence.
One measure of the health of a society, I think, is the degree to which it needs to shape the minds of the young - the less indoctrination, the healthier the society. Why is it that in developed economies schooling is essentially compulsory? We make children go to school and, in general, give them little or no choice about how they will spend their time. Are we so insecure, or are there other reasons? And, is our education system really the best we can do for children, and for society, or are there alternatives. What do you think?
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I applaud your attempt to get the ball rolling....but I'm going to have to disagree with you.
First, you list of nice selection of quotes from famous people. Unfortunately, all of them are famous because they were genius. They are/were at the top (3?) percent of intellectual thinking and brain power. Not all of us get to be emperor.
Einstein at age 12 knew more about math and science than his teachers did. How many of us could say the same things about ourselves? None can because we read this article and comment.
Ironically, Einstein grew up to be a scientist and a teacher in the very system he insulted. The plot thickens....
Lastly, if you should ever study sociology in any university you will learn about institutions of society. Three of them are the military, the prison system, and the school system. These three institutions have many things in common. I'll leave you to discover them.
Again it was a wonderful daydream but it is time to wake up now and go to work. Sorry to spoil your fun.
It always amazes me that many people seem to forget the resilience of the human spirit and need to satisfy curiosity. Einstein himself should have known this.
It is no miracle that curiosity survives formal education because it will no matter what. If it did not then we would not be sitting at our desks and typing on a thing called a computer to a system called the Internet.
Of all the quotes listed I think the best one is R.W. Emerson's. This is the goal every teacher should have.
You asked the question is our education system(s) the best we can do and I would say "No, it isn't." but I do think that it is a process that continues to change and grow. Since I have taught at schools in my home country and have seen teachers do amazing things to help children find ways to get curious about what they are learning. I think there is an amount of "self-actualization" going on within the schools.
Unlike Brecht and a couple of others I prefer to be optimistic and look at schooling as something that has worked for humanity for these many centuries and has shown that within it students can develop skills other than Brecht's pessimistic outlook. However, that does not mean the system does not need to continue to change, and it has just ask anyone over 60 then ask the 40 somethings, etc.
I think few people would say that our systems, educational, financial, and political, are perfect but they appear to be the best for the current stage of development. Resting on that would be wrong, though.
I would disagree with Daniel Quinn's analogy and say that the pilot has not yet left the earth but continues to pedal, make improvements to his/her machine, try again, then make more improvements, and continue the process. I am done with pessimistic views of society and systems because those views are essentially self-perpetuating, if you look for the 'wrongs' they are there. I would advise to look at how great things are and how great things could be as we seek to improve what we already have. Humanity has not yet begun to fly!
I will leave you with this quote:
Humanity's greatest gift to humanity is the ability to create.
Cheers
Steve W.
Hi Steve,
I do agree with you that one should avoid wallowing in pessimism. But I do think humanity is facing some very serious problems and that the systems we have been using are edging us closer and closer to disaster. I think Quinn's analogy is pretty apt. Time to use a parachute! Actually, he was arguing that it is not yet too late to change our culture if enough people wake up and take notice. That could happen, and there are one or too signs that it is happening.
Cheers,
Chris