Not Yet a Learning Society – October 10, 2004
One of the principles behind most of the writing
and speaking I’ve done about education over the past 30 years is that
education is not something one produces in someone else; rather, it is
something one does for oneself. Real learning is that which we have
gained for ourselves, based on our own interests, motivations and
timetables. Now, that’s not news to adult educators, who regularly
toss around terms like “lifelong learning”, “learning
organization” and “learning society”. In the adult education
world, it is assumed that learners will set their own agendas, study
independently and think creatively.
The contrast between that and the way we treat
younger learners is striking...and a bit puzzling. A good example of
what I’m talking about is the recent study authored by academics at
two Toronto post-secondary institutions that called for less learning
autonomy and more “program experience” for young children (see September 2, 2004
blog archive).
This
is the very sort of academic who, years later, has to put more programs
in place to help all those teenagers with “program experience”
recover from it and learn once again how to be autonomous learners in
order to thrive at the post-secondary level! How much sense does that
make?
People are hard-wired to be autonomous learners
from birth. Developmental psychologist Robert White says we are born
with an “urge toward competence” – the need to have an impact on
our surroundings, to control the world in which we live. We do not just
sit and wait for the world to come to us. We try actively to interpret
it, to make sense of it. Of course, this drive to discover means we are
constantly learning...and experiencing the pride that comes with having
gained that mastery.
So then why is so hard for people – academics,
non-academics and even many home-educating parents – to trust children
to learn without interference? It has, I think, to do with what the
British writer Roland Meighan in his article in the upcoming issue of Life
Learning calls
“adult chauvinism”. The way our society looks at education involves
power, control and the arrogance that makes us think we always know what
is best for those younger than ourselves. Until we societally adopt the
principle that childhood is not a rehearsal for personhood and lose our
coercive attitude toward children – especially but not solely in terms
of how they learn – we will not be able to call ourselves a learning
society.
Posted: 2004/10/10 1:31 PM
