 As well as specific academic, physical and artistic
abilities.
Fortunately, all aspects can be blended to reinforce
each other.
11. A threefold purpose for study
Studying should generally
also have a threefold purpose:
1. To learn skills and knowledge about the specific
subjects - and how you can do that faster, better, easier.
2. To develop general conceptual skills - how you
can learn to apply the same or related concepts in other areas.
3. To develop personal skills and attitudes that can
also easily be used in everything you do.
12. Just where should we teach?
In the history of the world,
classroom schooling is very new. And the time has come to ask if it is the best and if it
should remain the main learning forum.
We see schools being changed into community resource
centres for lifelong learning - and probably health and parent education centres as
well. To use them for under 200 days a year for only a few hours a day is a tremendous
waste of valuable assets, and amounts to less than 15 percent of total time. And to use
them largely for one-sided lectures is largely to waste even that 15 percent. In later
chapters we will explore the likely mix of future "schools". But for now
it's vital to restress that most of us learn best by doing and participating through
all our senses. It's also amazing what emerges when entire communities rethink their
learning needs and start to redesign their schools around those needs.
13. Keep the mind open, the
communication clear
We also make a strong plea to
everyone involved in education, learning and schooling: to keep an open mind, and to
communicate the results of breakthrough-research factually, honestly and clearly.
Millions of children's futures have been ruined by
widespread educational theories since proven to be wrong.
Hitler and Mussolini closed down Montessori's
brilliant preschools in Germany and Italy. But almost equal harm was done by her academic
detractors in America, led by Professor William Kilpatrick who "felt that the teacher
should be in total control of the students".14
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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