Just when You Thought it was Safe...

Just when you thought it was safe to send your children back to school, we have a new "national education expert".

"Drop A to E grades for the sake of the kids" says today's halfwit (The West, 15 Aug 09, page 7). Geoff Masters is said to be the chief executive for the Australian Council for Educational Research. Chief drongo could be more apt.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

WA has been suffering -- is still suffering -- from outcomes based learning. Every student is evaluated according to their potential. If you're really, really stupid then you can get an A for effort. Meaning, you're doing as well as could be expected, for such a stupid student.

What is the purpose of a school? Is it to provide some sort of education? Or is it to make students feel good about themselves. I'd like to think that education is somehow related to a school's objectives.

Let's just pretend that a school provides an education. How do we measure a student's success at gaining a school education? Let's measure how much they have learnt!

Here's the real problem

People like Geoff Masters have a serious problem. They believe that what you know is the only measure of success: if you do not learn then you are a failure. They compensate for this in-built bias. "How can I tell this student that they have failed to learn? That they are an absolute failure because they are unable to learn! How can I tell this student that -- in my opinion -- they are a useless burden on society because they cannot memorise facts as well as I can?"

Geoff Masters is a softie. He believes that his ability to learn makes him a better person than the people who are too stupid to learn. But he won't tell them that... He would rather lie. "I'm not going to tell you how stupid you are," he says. "That way, you can go through life believing that you are really just as good as me. But somehow you missed out on the overpaid sinecure that I have gained through my own... well... ability to learn..."

Geoff Masters -- and his fellow "education experts" -- appear to believe that the ability to learn is the only measure of success. Anyone who cannot learn is a failure. And they don't want to upset these failures by pointing out what to them -- the self-proclaimed experts -- is obvious.

There is more to life than passing exams

Isn't it great, that some people are able to pass exams?! Look at me: I have several university degrees. Does that make me better than you? I doubt it!

There are great sports players with less brain than brawn. (And some with more.) There are plumbers who do work that I would not even attempt. There are electricians who do work that I could not comprehend. There are teachers -- with less university qualifications than me -- who are willing to teach in schools... enough said.

Being a great human being is more than being able to learn at school. Sure, education is valuable. Essential, even... according to me. But lack of education does not make a lesser human being.

Persistent low grades may make a student lose learning motivation. So what! Perhaps they are not suited to learning. Perhaps there is something better that they can do!

I do believe that education is worthwhile. But people have different capacities for learning. If we refuse to accept this -- we refuse to tell the student whether they are learning or not -- then we are downgrading their other potential.

We pretend that all students are equally capable. This reinforces the idea that a school education is the only measure of success. With our worry that academic inability is bad, we reinforce the view that academic ability is the only measure of success.

Educational "experts" -- wake up! Allow students to know how they are doing at school. And allow them to feel good about whatever other abilities they may have.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com