Wednesday 16 February 2011

A 'good' education

Somebody commenting here yesterday asked me how I would describe a 'good' education. It is a fair question. I have offered much criticism of other people's idea; what do I myself regard as an acceptable type of education? Actually, the answer is fairly simple and straightforward. In any company other than that of some home educators and the trendier kind of teacher, my notions on the subject would probably pass without any remark at all.

There is a tendency among some parents and teachers to recoil in horror from the idea of shoving facts into young children. The poor little mites should be allowed to decide for themselves what they wish to learn and if we are to teach them anything, it should be skills rather than facts. In other words, we should equip them with the tools to discover any facts which they want for themselves. This approach has seeped into the mainstream world of education, becoming almost an orthodoxy among many teachers. The problem is, as parents will know, that children might not wish to learn any useful facts when once they have been furnished with the necessary skills. They may only wish to use these 'research skills' to establish what is on the television tonight or to post offensive messages on Facebook! Does this matter? I think that it does, because a person who is not possessed of rudimentary information on various topics is hardly fit to be a citizen at all. Worse, the lack of basic facts can result in a reading deficit in children, which makes it hard for the child to benefit from any education on offer.

What sort of facts am I talking about here? It is hard to escape discussion in modern Britain of climate change, formerly known as 'Global warming'. Anybody talking about anthropogenic climate change will be anxious to reduce the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. Unless one knows that the generation of electricity almost invariably entails a coil of wire spinning in a magnetic field, or vice versa, any discussion of the rival merits of wind farms and other so-called renewable sources of energy, will be impossible. Here is a simple fact which is included in any Physics syllabus. Without possession of this fact, one will not be able to talk or offer any opinion about climate change. Teenagers might stumble across this fact by accident, but they may not. It is such a useful piece of information and so important, that we should not rely upon chance; it is something which should be taught.

There are many facts like this which will enable any adult to make sense of the world around them and take an intelligent interest in what is happening. Unless one knows what a gene actually is, a section of DNA which codes for one protein, then one cannot have any opinion on the topic of genetically modified foods. This is another fact which any person in the modern, industrialised world needs to know. It is taught as part of the syllabus of biology.

Here then, is my own idea of a good education. It is one in which adults choose a number of facts and impart them to children. They choose these facts carefully, being aware that the fact that electricity ifsgenerated by spinning a coil of wire in a magnetic field is likely to be more important than the favourite ice cream flavour of some pop singer. Not all facts are equally important and children are not best placed to make this judgement. Unless they have a collection of such facts, they will be stunted and unable to take part in conversations or even vote intelligently.

The very ability to read is hampered by a lack of knowledge. Consider this sentence from my newspaper;

'Across Cairo, 30 years of autocracy are pouring out on streams of tears and screams of joy'.

A ten year old could probably read that sentence, in the sense that she could say the words. But to read it, to understand the meaning of the printed words requires a good deal more than that; it requires a stock of facts. What is an autocracy? Where is Cairo? Has the reader read enough in the past, to be familiar with metaphor? Reading needs many facts to make it possible to decode the meaning of any but the simplest text. Without those facts, a person might be able to pronounce the words out loud in a mechanical way, but he will not be reading.

My thesis is that both a curriculum and teaching are vital for the education of a child. This means that we select certain facts and information and teach it to the child. We do this because we are better able to judge than the child what is necessary and good for her to know. There can be endless debate about the precise nature of the curriculum, but about the need for one I entertain not the slightest doubt. This curriculum must then be taught to the child. This, in short, is what I mean by a 'good' education. I hasten to add that I do not regard this as being all that is necessary for a 'good' education, but it is certainly the foundation upon which all else rises.

37 comments:

  1. Interesting that you have focussed on 'facts' rather than the relationship between the facts. My daughter's school presented her with a good deal of factual information, but, as she often complained, she had no idea how all the facts fitted together. I experienced exactly the same problem with my own schooling - even though I attended two schools with excellent reputations.

    My idea of a good education is having an *understanding* of how the universe works - at every level, from the subatomic to the cosmological. Clearly it's impossible for everyone to know everything, but an understanding of how things are related means that facts can be slotted in to ones framework as and when required. Facts alone are simply not enough.

    Sometimes the child will need to be taught; at other times they will work things out for themselves. A good education will utilise the most appropriate approach for whatever is being investigated at the time.

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  2. ' A good education will utilise the most appropriate approach for whatever is being investigated at the time.'

    Which is indisputable. Generally, the more facts that are known, the more likely it is that connections will suggest themselves to a person about the way that these facts interconnect. I am careful about this, because one does not wish to hand it all to a child on a plate. often, a child will forge her own, completely individual, connections between one set of facts and another. This is called thinking for one's self or creativity.

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  3. My thesis is that a curriculum is vital for the education of a child. This means that we select certain facts and information and teach it to the child. We do this because we are better able to judge than the child what is necessary and good for her to know.

    but what if child wants to study something else you missed in you narrow curriculm Webb?

    Old crazy Badman was always going on about a curriculm is that cos it is easy for both of you to box tick a curriculm? I guess its a good job Badman had to put his feet up and get his pipe and slippers out his way is not wanted!

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  4. "Without those facts, a person might be able to pronounce the words out loud in a mechanical way, but he will not be reading."

    Well, yes, of course this is so. But do you imagine that children who are being educated without reference to a curriculum don't acquire a great many facts?

    A teenager I know has got far more information about the effects of climate change on the environment (to take one example) from a book she chose to read herself than is contained in her IGCSE geography textbook.

    The thing is that those of us home educating without a curriculum are not doing it without a brain! If I imagined for one moment that my children were acquiring nothing but info on the latest relationship traumas of minor celebrities, or reading nothing more than a TV guide, then I would notice and discuss this with them. The situation has not arisen. Because, perhaps not surprisingly, my children choose to learn about all kinds of interesting things.

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  5. 'but what if child wants to study something else you missed in you narrow curriculm Webb?'

    Then there would be plenty of time to do so. Teaching in even the most enthusiastic and structured way should not take more than two or three hours a day at home.There is plenty of time for other interests.

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  6. 'Well, yes, of course this is so. But do you imagine that children who are being educated without reference to a curriculum don't acquire a great many facts?'

    No, I don't imagine this for a moment! I am suggesting drawing up a list of useful facts without which a child will struggle to understand the world. As I remarked above, this should not occupy more than a few hours in the day, with the rest of the time free for the child to pursue her own interests.

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  7. Webb says-Teaching in even the most enthusiastic and structured way should not take more than two or three hours a day at home.There is plenty of time for other interests.

    who defines what an interest his you? growing learning about a garden growing produce is that just an interst? or playing the advanced civil war game about usa is that just an interest? some of these games can last months or years with many hours spent over moving the army with its cannons and food the rules on this game is very adanced but i know for sure it teaches children so much

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  8. 'who defines what an interest his you? growing learning about a garden growing produce is that just an interst? or playing the advanced civil war game about usa is that just an interest? some of these games can last months or years with many hours spent over moving the army with its cannons and food the rules on this game is very adanced but i know for sure it teaches children so much'

    I am sure that two or three hours a day of teaching would leave plenty of time for these other things.

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  9. Old Webb says-I am sure that two or three hours a day of teaching would leave plenty of time for these other things.

    so in your view these things such as the advanced civil war game are not educatinal just an interest? what about buiding advanced models of boats?

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  10. Well, the guidance on home ed, such as it is, talks about an education according to age, ability and aptitude. So one of the things I would consider to be important is that the education should be challenging - it should contunously expand what a child knows, shouldn't be confined to one subject area and so on. Now obviously all of us, children included have specific interests and also talents, and it is therefore hardly surprising that they may want to learn a lot about a narrow subject area for ia period of time (if they are not in school) but I wouldn't let my daughter, for example, study nothing but ancient Egypt even when she was some what obsessed about it- we did move on eventually. My eldest is a talented musician, but he has never done more than 2 hours or so music per day (he was in school anyway, so that took up a large part of his day) - presumably if he had been at home he could have still fitted in 3- 4 hours a day had he chosen to without it impinging on a more academic education.

    The huge advantge of home ed is that it is so time efficient - even with my daughter who is a really slow learner, we could easily fit a fairly full curriculum in to a morning and have most afternoons for trips, hobbies and getting out and about.

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  11. 'The huge advantge of home ed is that it is so time efficient - even with my daughter who is a really slow learner, we could easily fit a fairly full curriculum in to a morning and have most afternoons for trips, hobbies and getting out and about.'

    Which is precisely the point. Even the most academic home education leaves afternoons and evenings free for anything which the child wishes to do.

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  12. "so in your view these things such as the advanced civil war game are not educatinal just an interest? what about buiding advanced models of boats?"

    They may well be highly educational; but are you are arguing that is " an education"? - because I thnk that the education of an above average ability 14 year old should be much more than that?

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  13. Teacher Julie says-They may well be highly educational; but are you are arguing that is " an education"? - because I thnk that the education of an above average ability 14 year old should be much more than that?

    Of course the advanced civil war game is an education its a very hard game to play the rules are very complicated many adults can not understand it! you think of the planing that goes into moving an army with horses cannons food the terrain weather day/night supply chain the list is endless.
    build advanced boats is an education it teaches many things such as patience following instruction and when you made it you test it out on the water!

    you are like old Webb you cant think out of the box Julie and keep going back to a curriculum have you done your 3 hours of english tests today? can you just think what it must have been like to be home educated by old Webb?

    A child should be allowed to study what ever he/she wants if its about Egypt dont stop them Julie! let your daughter do all week month year if that is what she wants to study!

    We have spent almost 1 year on this advanced civil war game and we no way near finshed!

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  14. Teacher Julie says-They may well be highly educational; but are you are arguing that is " an education"? - because I thnk that the education of an above average ability 14 year old should be much more than that?

    Of course the advanced civil war game is an education its a very hard game to play the rules are very complicated many adults can not understand it! you think of the planing that goes into moving an army with horses cannons food the terrain weather day/night supply chain the list is endless.
    build advanced boats is an education it teaches many things such as patience following instruction and when you made it you test it out on the water!

    you are like old Webb you cant think out of the box Julie and keep going back to a curriculum have you done your 3 hours of english tests today? can you just think what it must have been like to be home educated by old Webb?

    A child should be allowed to study what ever he/she wants if its about Egypt dont stop them Julie! let your daughter do all week month year if that is what she wants to study!

    We have spent almost 1 year on this advanced civil war game and we no way near finshed!
    16 February 2011 02:46

    Post a Comment

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  15. get rid of the anon comment webb we forgot to sign in!

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  16. Simon wrote,
    "I am suggesting drawing up a list of useful facts without which a child will struggle to understand the world."

    We have found that when our children struggle to understand something because they lack necessary facts, they ask questions, learn the facts, and voilà, they understand that bit of the world.

    "The problem is, as parents will know, that children might not wish to learn any useful facts when once they have been furnished with the necessary skills."

    Maybe the type of child you have dictates the style you choose? If your child is obviously interested in many subjects and asks lots of questions and has already learnt many useful facts as a result, and then you read about autonomous education, you may think yes, I can see that this will work because the questioning, interested children they describe is accurate for our family and I see it happening already. If, on the other hand, your child is not like this, your impression on reading about autonomous education will be very different - it will not appear to be a good fit or a suitable method for your child so you will choose a more suitable alternative.

    "Here is a simple fact which is included in any Physics syllabus. Without possession of this fact, one will not be able to talk or offer any opinion about climate change."

    Yet I didn't learn about climate change at school but have been interested enough to learn about it since. Same goes for computers and many other subjects. I didn't need anyone else to tell me to learn about these things.

    "A ten year old could probably read that sentence, in the sense that she could say the words. But to read it, to understand the meaning of the printed words requires a good deal more than that; it requires a stock of facts. What is an autocracy? Where is Cairo?"

    If I read a word I don't know that is clearly important to the meaning and I'm interested, I look it up or ask someone. So do my children. What's so difficult about that?

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  17. "But to read it, to understand the meaning of the printed words requires a good deal more than that; it requires a stock of facts. What is an autocracy? Where is Cairo? Has the reader read enough in the past, to be familiar with metaphor?"

    Well if it allows you to sleep more easily at night, I can assure you that children educated autonomously are quite capable of discussing this issue because we had a discussion about just this issue over the dinner table a few nights ago. They appeared to have a clear understanding of where Cairo is and how the country was/is run and what this means in practice.

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  18. "if we are to teach them anything, it should be skills rather than facts."

    "But to read it, to understand the meaning of the printed words requires a good deal more than that; it requires a stock of facts. What is an autocracy? Where is Cairo?"

    These two issues go hand in hand. One of the skills we need to learn is to recognise when we lack knowledge as well as how to find that knowledge. It would be impossible to know every city and it's location in the world yet it would be obvious from the context that the writer is talking at least about a location, if not a city, in the article. The obvious next step would be to find out where that location is, if the person is interested (it's quite common to see people peering at the world map on our wall in this household). We are worse off if we have a long string of facts at our finger tips but are unable to recognise when crucial facts are missing than if we have a shorter string of facts but recognise what we need to know, and how to find it out.

    Not only is it impossible to know all of the 'important' facts, those 'facts' quite often change so we would be wrong to assume we know a fact even when we have learnt it. Borders are moved, cities renamed, new scientific discoveries are being made all the time, letter layout conventions change over time, etc, etc.

    If I can see that my children are learning many important facts and also learning how to learn, why would I need to impose a different list of important facts on them (in a formal way, against their will - they are usually quite happy for me to include various important facts in normal day to day conversations, it's unavoidable really) and possible taint their current love of learning?

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  19. "It would be impossible to know every city and it's location"

    Should have been 'its location' of course and whilst maybe not impossible, it's probably impractical for most people.

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  20. Anon says-Yet I didn't learn about climate change at school but have been interested enough to learn about it since. Same goes for computers and many other subjects. I didn't need anyone else to tell me to learn about these things.

    yor 100% right you dont need people to tell you what to learn!

    In Webb world you have to be told to do everything and then it must be checked to make sure you done as your told!

    real people learn and ask question about subjects that interest them all the time!

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  21. Well, I don't think it is a particular body of facts that marks a good education, I am happy to go with skills, but I do think that the whole apptitude bit is also important. I am also not completely sold on the idea that exams are an indication of a good education either, although I do think that for many people exams are a good measure of what is going on and also open doors to either higher study or employment.

    I am concerned though that someone with a really able child like yours Peter, can have so little interest in academic subjects...if what you say here and on the TV is a true reflection of what actually goes on at home. Surely part of providing a "good education" is nurturing those areas; you talk wistfullly about the desirability of Eton but then don't seem bothered by the fact that were he to be there, Peter would no doubt be heading for a huge range of A* grades. If you think he could do that if someone paid for it, shouldn't you being aiming that high at home?

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  22. Teacher Julie says-I am concerned though that someone with a really able child like yours Peter, can have so little interest in academic subjects...if what you say here and on the TV is a true reflection of what actually goes on at home. Surely part of providing a "good education" is nurturing those areas; you talk wistfullly about the desirability of Eton but then don't seem bothered by the fact that were he to be there, Peter would no doubt be heading for a huge range of A* grades. If you think he could do that if someone paid for it, shouldn't you being aiming that high at home?

    What did i say on TV? most of it was cut out! including my appeal for help towards cost of first class education for Peter! I wonder why that bit was cut out any ideas Julie? I also asked why HCC had refused to help fund in some where Peter home education not shown! I also asked why HCC had treated Peter so bad! HCC has done everything it can to harm one of the best chess talents to come along in many many years! if you understood chess you understand what a real talent Peter is siting at a chess board for 6 or 7 hours working out very very complex postions with a clock ticking at a very high level.I never forgive them HCC for this! if i could get my hands on that fool at HCC! if i ever track him down!

    we do the best we can for Peter(funding his chess is not easy to almost broke the bank it has had to go with out food some days! to save money dont worry Peter ate we did not! may have to do that again to pay for next big tournment!) but how can you aim high for straight A at home? you going to pay for it? now if we had the money i could soon sort it out with a private tutor to get all those straight A

    see i knew how to help with the chess I taught him to play chess age 5 he now one of the best players in the world for his age! and has played for England 2 times aboard and i can assure you its not easy playing aboard!
    dont really know how you go about teaching grade A but do you know how to teach chess in the right way? did you know chess in schools is not taught right?

    im afraid there is NO outside help for Peter so we will just carry on as best we can but i know if i had extra money how much better we could do for Peter! why dont you write to HCC and ask them to send us some? i putit to good use for Peter!

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  23. 'but how can you aim high for straight A at home? '

    Well it can be done! If I didn't feel capable of doing this, I would probably have sent my child to school.

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  24. old Webb says -Well it can be done! If I didn't feel capable of doing this, I would probably have sent my child to school.

    i see you have no answer to any of the other questions we put forward Webb!

    So what your saying if you can not get straight A at home you got to go to a state school?

    What kind of choice is that?! this wont be happening for Peter.

    you can not think outside of the box Webb you just do not have the mind to do this! is that why your such a supporter of LA's? these officers can not think outside of the box you make a good box ticker!

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  25. "What kind of choice is that?!"

    Well it is a choice that you have; I think the one thing that most home educators have in common is that we choose home education because we felt that it offered our children a better education in some way than that available in any school option we have. It isn't clear that you actually believe that - in addition you don't live in some inner city area where the schools are terrible - the statistics for exam success in both your local schools are pretty good.

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  26. I think it's interesting that you say a great deal about facts, Simon and, indeed, skills too - but you don't say very much about experiences. One of the aspects of home education that I think enriches my children's lives the most is the huge variety of experiences they have.

    If you reduce a good education to list of facts then (leaving aside how you decide on the facts...) you prioritise outcome over process - over experience. I want my children's lives to have the space in them for experiences to develop and for opportunities to be taken when they arise. To live for today at least as much as they plan for tomorrow.

    Qualifications can be useful but they don't guarantee anything - not happiness, wealth, health or even a job. I have known plenty of people who did a first class job of swallowing facts and achieving in the academic sphere but who have not found happiness in that. That's why I think a good education should be a personalised one - including lots of opportunities to experience a range of things. That may well include the following of some courses and the acquisition of some qualifications but not always.

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  27. Well it is a choice that you have; I think the one thing that most home educators have in common is that we choose home education because we felt that it offered our children a better education in some way than that available in any school option we have. It isn't clear that you actually believe that - in addition you don't live in some inner city area where the schools are terrible - the statistics for exam success in both your local schools are pretty good.

    Its not a real choice and your also unable to think outside of the box! you have nothing tooffer but the same old answers which have failed so many children!
    lets have some funding for home education if you dont want the funding dont have it but we would put it to good use for Peter thats the sort of choice i want!

    you cant inprove anything that is what is wrong with you your stuck with the same old system change scares you like it did in egypt for the ruling party people want change you can not silence the voice for change im afraid.Old Webb is like this real change in our education system scares him!

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  28. Alfie Kohn's "What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated?" is an interesting read on this subject.

    http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/welleducated.htm

    ReplyDelete
  29. Interesting article that raises some interesting questions - bookmarked for repeat readings.

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