Musings on Education in the 21st Century in Australia.

We have been told by our government that the children in Australia need additional assistance with their education. New rules have been brought in to provide a greater mix of male to female teachers, there is increased spending on education, albeit within a large scale debate about the appropriateness of the targeting of this funding and the increasing use of the ‘user pays” principle that is putting some forms of education out of the reach of many people. At the same time all of the information from both the literature and from the practical hurly burly of life in the ‘real world” tells us that continuing professional development and education is the key to survival and adaptation in this new knowledge world that is far removed from the Industrial era that we have come through in the last 100 years.

I was visited by a proud father the other day who waxed lyrical about the inherent intelligence of his child. An inquisitive, courageous (it appears) and diligent child who explores the universes around himself with a confidence that seems to belie his mere 9 years of life. His proud father recalls how on a quiz night in their home town recently, his young son managed to get to the correct answers on two occasions by associating elements of life he had come across in his experience, adducing that the connections were right before blurting out the correct answer.

This same proud parent then went on to say how disappointed he is with the current education system within which his child is required to learn. On his own, with the supervision and encouragement of his parents, his son managed to acquire reading and mathematical skills at a very early age. These skills were NOT based on rote learning of maths tables or simply a result of functional exercises which set out problems to be solved. He seems to have acquired the skills by means of asking questions and trying to puzzle out the answers provided by using his intellect. His contortions with words and with figures and his athletic skills in manipulating the elements involved in his brain is what appears to have so beguiled his father.

When considering the ways in which we are taught, it is true that for the simple practical reasons which underpin class sizes and the ratio of teachers to students the reality of school life is that teachers short cut to the practical and so train out of many children their natural and inquisitive abilities to think and to explore the universe within the safety umbrella of an adult who can guide and mentor.

I wonder if this is but one of the places we are going wrong?