There's an interesting item over at the Passionate Web site that has the intriguing title, "Most Classroom Learning Stinks" (ok, they use another word for stinks, but I'm keeping this G-rated). The author postulates that
- The problem with most corporate/adult learning programs is that they're just like school. And the problem with school is that it stinks. It works against the way the brain wants to learn.
The best learning occurs ina stimulating, active, challenging, interesting, engaging environment...The best learning occurs when you're actively involved in co-constructing knowledge in your own head, not passively reading or listening.
The author then goes on to discuss a school her child attended, which sounds kind of Montessori. I know these programs have lots of fans, my grammar school was similarly structured (or unstructured), and it didn't work for me. Then I stupidly went to Hampshire College, which at the time had a similar process to the one she describes, and that didn't work for me, either. But now, as an adult learner, I crave exactly this type of system. I think kids need a little more structure and direction than we supposedly grown-up types do--or maybe they just didn't have the knowledge to execute those educational concepts well back in my day.
But now we do. Let's use it.
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