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My son has a real passion for lighting design. He spends every penny he has on new lights, software and books. He talks about it a great deal and looks for new ways to create effects in film and theatre that no one has thought about yet. The truth though is that he is twelve years old.
Is he a prodigy? No. Very gifted? Ummmm. He’s my son so of course he is! But the truth is he really cares and loves lighting design in such a way that he focuses his attention on it. He looks for patterns, connections and intersections between ideas and theory. He joins together the dots to create a picture so vivid that it is imprinted on his brain and like all “real” learning it will stay with him.
What goes on in our education systems cannot compete with this can it? Filling their minds with information, cramming it in like a pressure cooker until you can’t get any more in, then expect them to release it at a predetermined time and place and then judge them on the outcome. How clever are we to develop such truly advanced learning systems? (May the sarcasm be evident to all.)
There remains this huge divide between what we think the methods and conditions for real learning are and what we actually provide. The result is harmful. It wrestles the ability and opportunity to really learn things that matter from the children and young people that need it the most and at a time that it matters the most.
How do we bridge this gap between what we know to be right and what we are doing now?
We need to own up to the mistakes we are making and have made for a very long time. We flag up the pockets of resistance around the world where alternatives are being explored, and we stop beating the drum. My son matters, like every child in this world, so let’s not do this anymore.
John Hassall, Johass
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