Hobos That Read
24-12-2006, 11:34
Anarchic Education
What we have today, in education terms, is a set environment where the lesson is completely structured and people basically aren’t interested or motivated to learn in school anymore, viewing it more of a place we have to go whether or not we like it (which is the truth really). Of course many people skip school; a recent survey has shown that over 30,000 New Zealand school kids are AWOL every day.
In Year 8 (age 12), I was introduced to a new sort of class and learning. It was called Inquiry Based Learning; I was in the test class for a new teacher to my intermediate school. Initially the class was made up of a class that graduated from Year 7 (age 11), with some leaving and a few (myself one of them) coming.
This was, and I think will stay, the best year of “education” I have ever had. The new teacher was an eccentric, he liked trying new things and he did. Our class, as the name suggests was based on inquiry learning. Doing our own research into things, and in the end cultivate it into a end product, some were posters, others Power Point presentations, and a couple of Flash productions, all of this, along with the basic curriculum. Most of the time was spent on the Inquiry things, and we were given sheets with the basic outline on them (I think I still have one, I’ll dig it up somewhere).
Each inquiry took a term (around about 10 weeks, 4 terms in a year) and in this our class managed to learn maths, English, and well that is about it. Each term though, the class gelled a little better, worked together as people a little better and generally produced better ends. All of this apart from one student who clashed with the teacher and eventually ended up being made to change classes to a “normal” class. Anyhow, this is a rather large responsibility to put on 12 year olds but all in all, the end result was that most of these people that were in this class completed Intermediate, and out of the ones that went to my high school, all but 5 (out of around 25 that went from the intermediate to the high school) or so went into the high stream classes (known as 9L, and 9G).
This class produced a batch of students that were far above-average intelligence and that have represented the high school in sporting, cultural and (and almost always) achieved highly in the things that they have represented. Not to be conceited!
Anyhow, I think if this type of education was the model, school could have 30,000 people more. Granted there is always the black sheep that doesn’t show up.
Sorry for the long post:p
What we have today, in education terms, is a set environment where the lesson is completely structured and people basically aren’t interested or motivated to learn in school anymore, viewing it more of a place we have to go whether or not we like it (which is the truth really). Of course many people skip school; a recent survey has shown that over 30,000 New Zealand school kids are AWOL every day.
In Year 8 (age 12), I was introduced to a new sort of class and learning. It was called Inquiry Based Learning; I was in the test class for a new teacher to my intermediate school. Initially the class was made up of a class that graduated from Year 7 (age 11), with some leaving and a few (myself one of them) coming.
This was, and I think will stay, the best year of “education” I have ever had. The new teacher was an eccentric, he liked trying new things and he did. Our class, as the name suggests was based on inquiry learning. Doing our own research into things, and in the end cultivate it into a end product, some were posters, others Power Point presentations, and a couple of Flash productions, all of this, along with the basic curriculum. Most of the time was spent on the Inquiry things, and we were given sheets with the basic outline on them (I think I still have one, I’ll dig it up somewhere).
Each inquiry took a term (around about 10 weeks, 4 terms in a year) and in this our class managed to learn maths, English, and well that is about it. Each term though, the class gelled a little better, worked together as people a little better and generally produced better ends. All of this apart from one student who clashed with the teacher and eventually ended up being made to change classes to a “normal” class. Anyhow, this is a rather large responsibility to put on 12 year olds but all in all, the end result was that most of these people that were in this class completed Intermediate, and out of the ones that went to my high school, all but 5 (out of around 25 that went from the intermediate to the high school) or so went into the high stream classes (known as 9L, and 9G).
This class produced a batch of students that were far above-average intelligence and that have represented the high school in sporting, cultural and (and almost always) achieved highly in the things that they have represented. Not to be conceited!
Anyhow, I think if this type of education was the model, school could have 30,000 people more. Granted there is always the black sheep that doesn’t show up.
Sorry for the long post:p