"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself."

-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life."

-- Source Unknown

Class sizes

Research has proven that large class sizes are detrimental to the education of children especially the very young.  In current schools teachers are expected to provide proper support and encouragement to as many as 30 pupils. As children get older the class size has less of an effect but it is still noticeable.

Totalitarian Education

Children are forced to learn what adults think they should learn. If someone forces you to do something is your natural response to say “thank you very much, I will now learn with enthusiasm?”. I believe the more something is forced upon someone the more they resent that person.

Rules in most schools are set by the teachers and as a result children do not take responsibility for them. Why not involve the children in the rule making process? Surely if you are involved in something then you are more likely to follow it.

Punished by Rewards

In our society we constant reward and punish people. However, in almost all cases we only concentrate on the behaviour. We do not consider the inherent reasons why someone does what they do. In other words we do not get to the root of a problem.

A strong commitment to telling the truth is a strong moral value but can you honestly expect a child to tell the truth when you punish them for doing so? If we know the truth about something then we can progress otherwise we live in ignorance and continue our misery.

Frequently we decide to reward a child for being good or getting great marks but do we ever consider the underlying implications of what this does? For instance, it has being shown that the more someone is rewarded for a particular behaviour the less likely they will continue that behaviour naturally.

Unflexible Learning

 

In most schools the teacher stands at the head of a class and dictates her knowledge to the class.  The children are expected to listen and regurgitate information. Everyone, adults and children alike learn most effectively by doing the learning themselves.

In current systems you have a timetable for all subjects. When the hour is up you are expected to stop what you are doing and proceed to the next class regardless of whether you are actually enjoying what you are doing. True learning has no structure; it is haphazard so why enforce timetables on children?

 

Bullying & Teacher Harrassment

 

Many current schools have a serious problems with regards to bullying and it is usually a problem that is to be swept under the carpet. Together with this we have teachers who feel powerless to exert authority and are being abused by children on an everyday basis. It seems our children today are less happy now then ever before.