This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: Education by doing nothing
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
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Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general.
The idea, which I am amusing myself coming up with justifications for, is learning-by-experience, helping kids learn by letting them just watch and listen.� Instead of explaining how to count 1 to 10 or the multiplication table, just let them watch numbers being counted or multiplied, leaving them to discover the rules by themselves.
The sad fact is, a lot of schools are trying out this theory now, and have been doing so for the last decade or two. Ever wandered into a store when the registers weren't working and watched the employees be utterly baffled when trying to calculate taxes or change? That's the result of this and similar theories. My daughter is now in 5th grade, and the only reason she knows how to do basic computation is that we (my wife and I) have spent a lot of time drilling her - they simply didn't do that in the early grades. Not important you say? Kids can use calculators, you say? Next time the electronics go on the fritz at the store, or the next time the clerk makes a data entry error that's not in your favor, remember that.
If you want kids to learn higher math, they have to have basic computation down. If they can't do simple arithmetic, then basic algebra is going to be very, very painful. If that's painful, calculus will be impossible. It's all built on a foundation of basic computation skills. Go ahead and let your child "learn by observation". Just don't be surprised when you find out that they haven't learned anything.
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