Michael Chenchard’s Reviews > How Children Fail > Status Update

...She was silent for
a minute or two, perhaps remembering her own generally unhappy
schooling. Then she said thoughtfully, "You know, kids really like to learn;
we just don't like being pushed around.
this just breaks my heart

When Anna was in the
sixth grade, the year after she was in my class, I mentioned this idea to her.
After describing very sketchily how such a school might be run, and what
the children might do, I said, "Tell me, what do you think of it? Do you
think it would work? Do you think the kids would learn anything?" She said,
with utmost conviction, "Oh yes, it would be wonderful!" ...

We always find out,
too late, that we don't have the experts we need, that in the past we studied
the wrong things; but this is bound to remain so.

our education system was, and very probably is, fucked.

"For heaven's sake, stay out of
the classroom until you have got over some of your fear of the world. Do
something else first. Travel, live in different places, do different kinds of
work, have some interesting experiences, get to know and like yourselves a
little better, get that seated expression off your faces! Or your teaching will
be a disaster.

...
at something, as they once grasped at everything, with all their minds and
senses; they forget how to deal positively and aggressively with life and
experience, to think and say, "I see it! I get it! I can do it!"

4/22/1960 CRAZY

That reminds me. In a number of first-grade classes I have seen tacked up
on the wall a notice saying, "When two vowels go out walking, the first one
does the talking." Very nice. A little further inspection shows that in that
sentence there are two pairs of vowels, both of which violate the rule. Now
what are children expected to make of this?

The answer to that question was not hard to find. What the schools wanted
was good test takers. Nothing else was anywhere near as important.
I remember an old chief machinist on an obsolete training submarine in
Key West saying bitterly about his worn-out engines, which he had spent
many hours polishing up for an official inspection, "They shine, don't they?
Who the hell cares if they don't work?"

5/3/1959