In a series of posts Becoming George, Is experimentation ethical? and Creativity without purpose? Experimentation without control?, Doug Johnson of Blue Skunk Blog put on the devil advocate's hat and ask:
Why should we treat our children's intellectual health any differently than we do our children's physical health?
I have no answer to his question. I would only ask this.
Should we keep our children in a sterilized bubble so that they would never catch any deadly germs?
When our children are physically sick and they are treated, we expect the health professionals to follow best practice. When our children have intellectual or mental illness, we also expect the responding professionals to treat our children following best practice.
As for teachers who are helping our children to grow and to become independent, I don't want to see my children's teachers just to follow what they have been doing for the past 20 years and forget that my children are going to face a world very different from mine. I want my children to be challenged, inspired, take risks and manage success and failure. I want my children to enjoy learning, have fun and foe during the process. I like them to be exposed to germs so that they can build their immune system.
My previous two posts are also part of my response to Doug's challenging question. See Demotion and Creativity and Teaching
21st century learning
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