Re: Things that make me go WTF?

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:44:42 -0700, Robert Uhl wrote:

The problem is not that we don't know how to educate children--we do;

<snip, without, I hope, changing any context)

Witness the war on rote memorisation: what good, the modern educationist
asks, is it to learn mere facts?

If a teacher is completely opposed to all forms of rote memorisation then
there's a problem. By the same token, it's of very limited use,
particularly above what should be learned in early primary education (say
to age 10). While having automatic recall of 8x7=56 can be useful,
it's limited. Beyond that you have to remember techniques, not facts.

The only reason I'm not a qualified secondary science teacher is that I'm
continuing my education and therefore haven't got the certificate I could
have (weird options, but that's academentia for you). I would *very*
rarely use rote memorisation since it's not going to help anything but
remembering a single fact. If I can mesh that single fact into a model of
the world, then the kids will have at least as good recall of it and be
able to apply it. That is, they'll be learning better.

If rote memorisation mattered to knowledge any one who knew ctrl-alt-del
would be a computer expert. Knowing what you can do with those three keys
is more important.

--
Dave Hughes | dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Coming to work with a faraway look and a really heavy gym bag starts to
look like a marvellously good idea." - Dan Rutter
.