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Cedric Cullingford: Children are being taught to stifle their natural curiosity
ANYONE suddenly finding themselves transported back to the 1860s would immediately notice many differences in the way people lived and dressed and in terms of transport, industry and communication.
But there would be one institution that would be instantly familiar. The schools, with teachers drilling large classes in the three "Rs", have hardly changed at all.
It is odd to think that in a time of globalisation, mass transport, and communication systems, and the inexorable rise of the computer, the education system remains unaffected.
It should be remembered that young children have a strong desire to learn. Yet, in our present system and in spite of the changes to society, this is not encouraged. Instead, they are given what they most
resent; learning is replaced by being taught.
The National Curriculum, with the implacable domination of fact, the countless testing, and the compartmentalisation into skills and subjects, runs counter to all that children need.
It replaces open curiosity and exploration with closed answers that the pupils learn by rote. Whereas the children want to know why people behave as they do, and want to understand society and their place in it, and how they conduct themselves, all this is ignored and replaced by mechanical skills.
The contrast between children's learning and their being taught is demonstrated by the debate about the teaching of reading. The emphasis is on synthetic phonics, on the mechanics of reading and not on the purpose of reading, the pleasure of stories. The literacy hours are as dry as dust, and even Harry Potter cannot mitigate that.
The question of reading draws attention to one of the greatest dilemmas of the education system. Reading is emphasised as a skill in school when the formal curriculum is introduced. There is even a tendency for parents to be told to leave the teaching of reading to the school. At least they are not told to leave the learning of language until then.
By the time that a child enters school the vital period of education has already taken place. Attitudes to reading, to themselves and others and the motivation to learn are already formed.
Successive governments instinctively realise this, but do little about it. Instead, they divert attention by blaming universities for not taking more deprived students or blaming single parents.
Since the first three or four years are so vital, parents, all parents, should receive all the help possible. With the breakdown of communities and families, there has to be a concerted effort to respond to young children's desire to learn and understand. If we got that right, and supported them from the start, the rest of the education system would not be such a failure even in its own terms.
The early years are vital not only because that is when children learn the most crucial things but because that is when they demonstrate clearly both the desire and the means of learning, of exploring
their world.
Long before the institution of school, they should be far more encouraged. It is a puzzle why governments do not pay attention to evidence.
When children go to school, they enter a large, anonymous institution in which they feel insignificant. What they actually learn is mostly about society and how it operates, through observation of the hierarchies of power, including the inspectors and the teachers' fear of them and the behaviour of their peers. The curriculum seems to have little purpose; those things most vital to them are ignored.
The greatest frustration with the education system is the refusal of those in authority to learn.
There is a lot of evidence that has been repeated time and again. The views expressed here come from research based on what pupils clearly report. The problem goes far deeper than any one government; it
is based on the misconception of education.
Despite all, pupils are resilient and many survive the tribulations of the system, although if we wonder about the lack of values, the breakdown of good conduct, of tolerance and understanding in society, we need look no further than the system that seems to bring out the worst in people.
Despite all, teachers also do the best job they can in impossible circumstances. They do so despite the policies of "naming and blaming" , league tables, special measures and all the apparatus of blame.
Most observers who know schools will say things are getting worse, as if, when the system so obviously does not succeed, it is important to try to squeeze even more out of it for fear of doing a "U-turn" rather than admitting something needs changing. The problem is deeper. If we want to improve the world, we need to listen to evidence.
Children love to learn but resent being taught. The education system as it stands denies real learning and instead imposes resentment.
Professor Cedric Cullingford is from Huddersfield University's School of Education and Professional Development. He is author of How Pupils Cope with School, which is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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