Four Convenient Myths of Education

There are four main myths of modern education:

1. That all students of the same age should be in the same school level or class.
2. That school should be timetabled.
3. That students should have streams, tracks, or fixed subject combinations.
4. That teachers should specialise.

The first three of these are issues of administrative convenience, based on various ideas such as Piaget's now somewhat discredited concept of stages of learning, Bentham's Panoptikon for prisoner surveillance, and other systems designed with the assumption that all humans behave similarly or ought to do so. The fourth also assumes that this is so of teachers, that teaching ability is something that can be trained as a specialisation, and if so, it works only if the training is keyed to a particular subject or group of subjects.

It is this last one which irritates me the most; the first three can be passed off, explained away, or excused partly on the basis of administrative concerns (more about which, later). However, if a person can learn many subjects from different teachers, why can't a person teach many subjects to different learners?

I think that only the absence of hard work, cognitive effectiveness, and communications skill might be obstacles to the ability to teach any subject well. This absence, however, should not be the case in anyone who has graduated from the system of education in which he or she is deployed to teach. After all, hard work, thinking and communicating are three basic traits all systems should imbue the student with in ANY system.

The main reason, going back to the other three myths, is that of administrative departmentalism. Administrators are happy to divide people into neat groups, in what is called a Fordist arrangement. This form of specialisation is economically tidy. It is also efficient but not effective, because it ring-fences knowledge in a world that requires transdisciplinary prowess.

And that brings me back to the idea of putting administrators in charge of systems. About two millennia ago, Paul of Tarsus, in a letter to the church at Corinth, spoke at length about spiritual gifts and the building-up ('edification') of the Church as a whole (you'll find this in chapters 12-14 of the First Letter to the Corinthians). He went so far as to rank the gifts of the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:28).

In that ranking, he placed the gift of apostleship first; that is, the ability to establish and provide strong foundations for an organisation. Prophecy was second; that is, the ability to look forward and provide direction for an organisation. Teaching was third; that is, the ability to provide education and disseminate knowledge relevant to the organisation and its goals. These were the three major, numbered gifts.

He then listed as subsidiary gifts the following: wonder-working, healing, helping, administration, speaking in tongues — in that order. Indeed, he spent all of chapter 14 of that letter pointing out that the gift of speaking in tongues is of the least importance, especially if no interpreter is present or no interpretation is provided.

This is a key to breaking up the myths of education. Good education is provided by establishing firm cognitive foundations, mapping a way forward, and teaching each person to find their way through the map based on the principles earlier established. Mass education, like Fordist mass production and mass food provision, has corrupted good taste. Or as Paul pointed out in chapter 15, "Bad company corrupts good character."

In the case of an impoverished state in which paucity of resources forces standardisation or 'optimal' resource allocation, perhaps the first three myths have to be supported. But whomever aspires to be a teacher, that person should take a good hard look at the idea of specialisation and realise that teachers can, and should be able to, teach anything.

All it takes is sufficient preparation, time, and effort. And of course, if you're that teacher, bear in mind that no matter what language you think you're speaking, it's a good thing if your students understand what you're saying.

St David's Day (2011)

Today is the 125th time that St David's Day has marked the years of the Dauntless Hero. Like Christopher Wren, it can be said that should you want a monument to mark his time on earth, just look around you. For unlike the stark superior edifice that is the Gryphon Hold, the work of the Hero is manifest in the many Wyvern Citadels that dot the landscape.

For a century and a quarter, the work has been that of men who felt the call of God. They sacrificed health and home to bring to others what they felt was good. They did not seek to gain glory, nor to make a gaudy spectacle of themselves. You can imagine then quoting from the first epistle to the Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and now another builds upon it. But let every man take heed how he builds upon it.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet only as one escaping through the flames.

Last night I read in words of iron about the sadness of the present day. The Wyvern leaders of the past sought to deny no man an education, but to let all come who would, and to teach all regardless of standing or faith. Yet now, opportunities are denied in the name of 'excellence' and 'awards' and the false silver and gold of this age.

David of Glyn Rhosyn, however, had words to relieve this melancholy. I quote again, as many times before:

"Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."

If we can live up to the lives of those fathers who did the good work and did not count the cost, who worked without fame or large reward, who did not count status and power among the masters to be served, then we can tread that path as well. And on this 125th anniversary of the Wyvern Citadel, I wish all my brothers and sisters the best that is yet to be.

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[ Other St David's Day posts ]