Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools in England (and professional buffoon), has delivered some jaw-dropping pronouncements in his time, but this one takes the biscuit -
"Our current pre-occupation with happiness and well-being is stupid and is likely to lead to further under-achievement because real learning involves challenge, difficulty and unhappiness."
Unhappiness is part and parcel of the learning experience, he says.
"I don't want kids to be desperately miserable but we don't want them to be complacent and self-satisfied all the time."
What a fabulous point, Chris. A miserable childhood is a small price to pay for not turning out like you.
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Tweet of the Day (nay, of the century) comes from former MSP Andrew Wilson :
"Congratulations to @iainmartin1 on your 40th. You have the body of a 39 year old and the politics of a 139 year old..... Many happy returns."
I'm not a teacher, but I have taught (one of the traditionally less popular subjects: French).
ReplyDeleteI found that over the 4 years that I did that that the way to fire enthusiasm for the subject, including past tenses of subjunctive moods, was to make it all as much fun as it could possibly be.
Without any measure of success, I am trying, with my psychologist's hat on, to imagine a good learning environment that centred around the learners being miserable.