[Learning & Growing - XIV]
Most of schooling is an 18 year experiment in one type of learning: memorization for tests. Success is passing and getting to the next grade, which offers a new body of information to memorize. Teacher mandated test giving is predictable, measurable and standardized. But it teaches far more than memorization; it teaches how to prepare for a life that’s at the mercy of someone else giving instructions (and watching over our shoulders to see if we’re cheating). The goal is compliance.
Self-directed learning, or self-direction in general, is too dangerous a pedagogical model. By definition it can’t be standardized and the outcomes are unpredictable. However, one thing we know for certain is that it teaches more than regurgitation of facts and figures; it teaches how to contribute inertia, passion, self-motivation, and engagement for a lifetime. “Passing” is measured by understanding not grades. The goal is individual contribution.
And we wonder why so many people accept the story as it’s told to us, buy into conspiracies, and never doubt the people in power…we’ve been practicing it in school since age 5.
