A most bizarre philosophy of education called “Discovery Learning,” based partly on the educational ideas of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Dewey, led to The Silent Way Method of Second Language acquisition. It also enjoyed the support of psycho-babblists (psychologists) Piaget, Bruner, and Papert. Seymour Papert said,
“You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.”
Though it is a nice-sounding axiom, I am reminded of the countries of the world in which this philosophy of education does not reign supreme. The students in these countries overtake our kids in almost every academic subject. The word “they” in the above quote bothers me. Who does the “they” refer to? A bunch of kids who do not want to be in a classroom learning anything? Kids forced to be there because Mom and Dad say so? I know “Discovery Learning” all too well since I received my “secondary non-education” in one of these schools.
In response to what was considered as the “demonic” rote memory of...