LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Brian Astill <brian.astill@flinders.edu.au>
  To  : Andrew Halliday <andrew@recalldesign.com>
        Andrew Halliday <andrew@recalldesign.com>
  Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 14:04:57 +1030

Re: OT: Re: Re: UNIX &&|| Linux training

On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Andrew Halliday wrote:
> This email raised two issues that are surprisingly interesting to me, when
> considering myself as a 'techie'.  I am particularly interested in the
> efficiency of education - I think this is because I spent the entirity of
> highschool and university HATING what I was doing, but simultaneously
> 'admitting' that I was picking up some _invaluable_ skills.  This, to me,
> suggests inefficiency; a few pearls of wisdom floating in an ocean of
> <insert expletive>.
> It is my belief that the education system needs MASSIVE reform

You mean you want every school/college/institute/university to
accurately determine each student's precise future requirements and
then to tailor-make a special 100% relevant and enjoyable course for each
student?

You are talking about individual (and extraordinarily intuitve) tuition which
no bulk education system can provide.  Incidentally, people develop and change
with time, so the likelihood that the tutor's decisions about what to provide
turn out to be wrong, is high.

Institutions can't provide individual attention, and it must be remembered that
'universal education' was never instituted to provide education, but rather to
be the means of socialising the lower classes, and preventing troublesome
nuisance youngsters becoming rebellious and dangerous adults.  It is educators
who have tried to meld their agenda with this not-very-noble idea and grabbed
the opportunity to provide a lot more, albeit with limited success. 

That education of any kind takes place in schools surprises me.  Most
government schools these days have teachers dealing with so many students at
once that they are obliged to spend most of their time maintaining discipline. 

I have always thought that the Waldorf approach of treating the person in a
holistic way concerning mind body and spirit made sense, and that the 
Summerhill (A.S. Neale) idea of self-managed disciple and voluntary
participation was sound.  However, few such schools exist, so it is not possible
to know whether such ideas would be effective universally.  In the meantime I
guess we should make the best use of what we have.

"If you think education is expensive, try living without it"  ( a partly
relevant quote from an unknown source)

 --  
Regards,
Brian

********************************************************
Dr Brian Astill  Visiting Research Fellow
Flinders University Institute of International Education
********************************************************

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