"Radical changes in schools needed’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 20

"Radical changes in schools needed’

Do ue really need schools —and il ue do. what should they be doing with our children?

It is important to rcmem-’ her. tn any discussion of our. school system, that it is. after ail, only a human invention which has never been very good at serving the purpose for which it was created. There are some recent educational writers who have come to the conclusion that our schools probably do more harm than they do good. They destroy children’s natural curiosity and initiative. They reward conformity and subservience to authority. These writers point to the fact that many of our social, political and industrial leaders have been very successful without succeeding at school, or without much formal schooling at all. So why should we not remove ail

This article was written for "The Press” by Professor Graham Nuthall, professor of education at the University of Cantenury. Professor Nuthall who is active in research on teaching and the psychology of learning and memorv in children is a member of the Hillmorton High School Board of Governors the Free Kindergarten Association Board of Studies, the NewZealand Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association.

schools, or reduce formal schooling to a bare minimum, and spend our money on more important social services? The only way to answer this question is to decide what we think should happen to children during the’ years of their growing up, and then decide what kind of schools, if any, we need to do the job we want done. SURVIVAL In our kind of complex, sophisticated society, we cannot avoid the responsibility of helping children to learn the skills and wisdom they need to survive, and live reasonablv satisfving • lives. In the past this has meant preparing them to become witling and able workers in the jobs that have been available to them. Schools have become places where children got the chance to get on in the world. And getting on in the world meant getting a better job. But the world has changed. The problem of production are less import-1 ant than the problems of consumption. The quality of a person’s life depends less on how much he earns, it now depends more on how he spends the money he earns and how he exercises his right to decide how the big spenders, government' and industry, should spend their money. If we are to help children survive as free individuals' and gain satisfaction from their lives, we must see to it j that our schools concern themselves first and foremost with the real problems ’ of living in our technological. consumption-ori-ented society. COMMON PROBLEMS Perhaps the most importar- is the problem of remaining an independent thinking individual in the face of a massive increase tn, the power and scope of the advertising media Our values and expectations are being shaped by television and commercial radio in ways which we do not

'understand and cannot begin .to cope with. There is a multi-million doilar industry concerned with shaping our needs, controlling our spending and nfluencing our political fut- ' ure. If the schools cannot arm individuals with the knowledge and skills they' need to resist this propaganda. then who can? A second related problem is the loss of control that we have over our social and economic affairs. Most of usi no longer understand the workings of our inflationary economic situation and suffer in ignorance the social chaos that is being created by the wage-price spiral. Most of us live in rapidly expanding cities which are creating social and personal problems that we have never seen before and do not know' 1 how to prevent. Overcrowding and loneliness, violence and alienation are the facts of life in the cities we continue to create. It would be easy to go on listing problems which we know are very real and dominate the lives of most iof the people in our society! most of the time. Surely if we want to prepare our; children for survival in our ! 'society, we should prepare them to cope with these ■ problems? “SUBJECTS” TAUGHT But we don’t. We continue to make most children and young people spend hours in schools and universities which are designed to teach “subjects” and prepare for examinations. Individual teachers do their best to make their “subjects” attractive and relevant, but they have never been trained and often understand less about the problems facing a young person in contemporary society than the pupils themselves. The most highly-paid secondary teachers are graduates in the traditional disciplines who spent most of their period of training in courses taught by highly specialised university lecturers. With the best will in

the world and the utmost concern for their pupils, they can do little to alter a system which was designed to fulfill the needs of a : society which no longer exists. In my view, the only justifiable reason for maintaining an expensive school system is that it should prepare' pupils directly for the major; problems and’ decisions they: will face in adult life. We can no longer afford the luxury of maintaining irrelevant academic standards. The schools must take as their central and most important task the provision of courses and experiences that deal with the important personal, social and political issues. Such a change is difficult to imagine. It will involve much greater community participation in schooling, with community leaders working in schools alongside teachers, and pupils spending more time outside the ‘school participating in a , wider range of industrial and social activities. It will involve a radical' 'change in teacher training to; produce teachers who are 1 sensitive to the life: experiences of their pupils! and their pupils’ parents,; and can develop appropriate courses quite different from; the traditional academic sub-, jects. Unless such changes are made in schools, I can see no good reason for continuing to spend so much of our money and resources on maintaining the existing system