Thursday, June 30, 2005

Steiner schools enthuse children for learning

As opposed to other schools?

Heard Professor Philip Wood on Radio 4 this morning talking about how Steiner schools offer a useful model to mainstream education "in their focus on the whole child" and that they "enthuse children for learning."

What the bloody hell is a school doing if it is not enthusing children for learning?

Oh, sorry, I forgot they're just supposed to be about the imparting of knowledge: nothing to do with thinking, enthusing or learning.

I'm not saying Steiner schools are without faults, but if we're identifying that a key difference is the way that they enthuse children's learning then something is very wrong regarding what education has become (failings in the policies of successive governments?)

Meanwhile, the Shuggy's of the world plough on with the thankless task of delivering a curriculum that limits the possibilities for inculcating enthusiasm of learning (and, in many instances, contrary to its proclaimed aims, knowledge).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How do you teach some-one to think?

I can see that you could offer them a subject and invite them to think about it, but then they are simply doing what they can do anyway! So how do you get them to think 'better'? And how do yet set a standard for what is considered to be 'better' thinking? And who decides what these standards shall be?

Oh dear, I'm glad I'm not a teacher.

By the way, my comment, and your final comment, on the post below do not seem to appear on the main page, only on the page where one types a comment. Thought you ought to know.