High Cognitive Minds

I guess this post can serve both as a comment to previous education posts, as well as a new thread.

I find that the biggest problem with education is the amount of authority given to the teachers with respect to the student in terms of learning.

Firstly, the main motivation given to students for studying are grades, not interest in studying - and the overall concept that is taught is people who do stuff set for them gain success. Not a surprise then that main drivers in people's career become money and status- rather than contribution to society and self. Moreover seeing a teacher as a high authority is damaging to students who are more intelligent than their teachers.

I have taught kids in various parts of the world - from the richest countries to third world countries, and I have a very unique teaching method. I don't follow the standard ones. I let students lead the class and distinguish students who are interested in learning and what they are insterested in. Then I give those students as much feedback and material as they ask and as is within my possibilities, which is not only quantitatively, but most importantly qualitatively different from the regular material I give to the rest of the students, who are happy with just that. If I see that the material matches the interest of a student I let them work on special projects, let them explore their own questions and instead of grading them for matching a certain number of criteria, I grade them for pursuing further their interests.

In other words I don't act as an authority of knowledge, but rather as a guide to it. Students decide what they want to do and how they want to do it and I help them through that.

So far I got positive results with this method. I realize that once you give freedom to students to pursue what thy like, their insterests in various subjects raises substantially, and they work without the incentive of grades.

This method however is not accepted in most institutions, and inspite of the very high evaluations I got from students and parents, I have been discouraged by the education system to pursue such a method.

Basically the problem is that the role of the teacher itself has become very far from its original scope: that of a guide.

Even if teachers were given the go ahead to teach the way you do, and had the time and energy for it, I wonder how many would be capable of it. It's a sad fact that the majority of teachers come from the lower third of their college graduating classes, which means that they don't have the intellectual resources to do anything but follow the textbook.

That creates an even greater gap between the teacher and the gifted student who may actually be fairly knowledgeable about a subject or who wants more information. A knowledgeable teacher could do a better job of inspiring and encouraging even the average students to accomplish more.

I always found the smarter the teacher the more I learned, that was what I watched out for in a new teacher, whether she/he seemed sharp. I also responded well to assignments where I was told to come up with my own response, basically the kind of teaching Valentina has been doing.

I sighed when I read these posts because I immediately thought, you need gifted people to teach gifted people. The next thought that sprang to mind was the internet should be a useful tool for any teacher in terms of allowing students explore further out from the textbook. But who is going to tell them to teach in that way? Who will change the curriculum, who would see the value?

Lead by doing? I wonder how much it would cost to start up a school for the gifted, and Valentina - how'd you feel about working in Ireland? (chuckle). You see my point though, it may not be possible to effect a change without offering some evidence of how it works and how useful it could be.

Lou, when I had the energy but no money, I often thought about starting a school. Now that I have neither, but do have the internet, I can see the possibilities, but doubt that I could carry it out myself. Out of twelve years of schooling, I remember only one outstanding teacher. That's pretty pitiful.