Two Types of Learning

This is my response in answer to the question,  "What do you think are the major deficiencies of the conventional education system?"

There are basically two types of learning: forced learning and self-directed learning.

Forced learning assumes that all children are capable of comprehending, memorizing, and successfully answering questions on tests based on specified abstract factual knowledge if they study hard enough. The educational polices and practices of the conventional school system are developed on the basis of this assumption.

Toward this end, billions of dollars are spent on education in this country, attempting to force all students to pass a prescribed set of factual tests so they can be “successful” in the job market and so the United States can “excel in international economic competition.”

The educators, politicians, and talk show hosts and reporters, who have participated in Education Nation discussions, as well as the architects of the current administration’s “Race to the Top” program, are all locked into this assumption about how children learn.

But the reality is that this view of learning is flawed. All children are not capable of successfully passing the conventional school’s abstract standardized tests. A small percentage of students are capable of this level of abstraction. These are the ones who do well on the standardized tests, the ones who get the As and the Bs. These are the ones who are endowed with this capacity at birth. 

For the majority of students, having been endowed with other gifts at birth, being forced to compete in this unjust system is experienced as torture and endless boredom. Their self-esteem is shattered. Their natural gifts are stifled, or destroyed all together. These are the ones who become dropouts, bullies, juvenile delinquents, drug addicts, gang members, and dangerous criminals. These are the ones who are overflowing our prisons.

These are the reasons I believe that conventional education is terribly flawed and needs to be changed. 

I would welcome any other perspectives on, or suggestions for improving, our conventional educational system.

Welcome to the Education vs. Learning Blog

In this first posting, I would like to sketch out my conceptual framework for discussing my view of the difference between education and learning. I believe that every child possesses a special, unique gift, or gifts, at birth. And every child has immense creativity, curiosity, and industriousness if its gifts have not been stifled or killed by experiences in their families or at school.

In discussing this framework, I will need to use a few terms and phrases such as “innate,” a word that refers to a child’s gifts at birth. I will also discuss “paradigms” (a scientific word meaning “world view”), and “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” motivation.

There are a few additional words we will need to use, but they will be introduced at the appropriate time in discussions.

My hope is that this blog will provide a forum for introduction and discussion of ideas that will further the development of a more humane system of learning. Children deserve much more than they are getting from our conventional educational system.

Again, welcome, and please feel free to add your comments or questions.