Adrian sums up an interesting idea raised in the symposium:
“You’re in Year 7. The Year 7 says the maths curriculum is x, English y, and so on. But most students are variable in their abilities and where they are up to. That 13 year old actually gets on better with 11 year olds. That 13 year old finds English easy (and so is bored), but the maths very hard, and so struggles and feels, well, incompetent. Ideally, this student isn’t a ‘Year 7′ student. They should be doing an english student with people at level whatever (higher than Year 7) and maths with people at level x, which is probably lower than the Year 7 average. But school’s can’t do this. At the end of they year you will find yourself in Year 8, with a new English and maths curriculum. You might still find English unchallenging, and end up even further behind in maths. The structure of the system just can’t accommodate how we actually learn, it’s designed around 4 classes of Year 7, 8, 9, etc, most progressing through, with no ability to let those doing really well in Maths do more, or even teach those struggling, and same for English and other subjects. It is, basically, a single speed system. Yet we all know that we learn different things at different speeds.”
(http://www.mediafactory.org.au/networkedmedia/2014/08/19/schools-and-factories/)
In the above exert from a post on the networked media blog, Adrian explains how schools are based on the system used in the industrial era and in factories.
I find this idea interesting. Everyone takes the current schooling system for granted. School is something we do. Everyone does it and no one questions it. However Adrian makes a good point; schools can’t, or at least don’t, cater for the inherent differences in each individual’s learning capacities.
But perhaps this is not such an issue, maybe this is the reason we have tutors and accelerated learning programs. I think about my experience in primary school, specifically with the subject maths. In my earlier years, say grade prep to three, I struggled with maths. I found the subject difficult and confusing and I struggled to keep up with the class. So I got a tutor. I got extra help outside of school time. This help was one on one and catered specifically to my abilities. Gradually my performance in maths improved and I began to match the level of my peers. By grades five and six I had excelled to the point of being put in the accelerated maths program at school which allowed students who found maths somewhat simple, to work on more complex material.
While my teachers at school did not have the recourses to cater for each individual student’s abilities, they were able to teach a group of student’s to the level that the average student of the age group should be at. In doing so, the students that were behind could recognise this, and get extra help outside of the classroom. The student’s that excelled could also be more challenged in a special, accelerated learning program.
Despite the fact that the current schooling system may not be ideal, it functions well enough to allow students to learn sufficiently. Limited recourses make catering to every individual child almost impossible, however the system that is in place does allow students to thrive as a whole.
Just as Churchill said of democracy, I will say of the current schooling system: it is the worst schooling system, except for all the others.
