Sunday, November 30, 2008

JuJitsu for educators?

It's interesting from time to time to see what thoughtful non-educators (as opposed to the many non-thoughtful non-educators that fill the letters-to-the-editor section of a lot of daily newspapers) have to say about education.

This writer discovers a lot of Deweyan themes (not that he has, as far as I know, read Dewey) in his jujitsu classes:

http://anamazingmind.com/blog/2008/11/the-jiu-jitsu-theory-of-education/

Here's one quote:

Learning is an active process. You can not make someone learn. Sure, you can convince students to want to learn by threatening them with bad grades and extra work. ...Until you convince students to actually WANT to learn, you’re fighting a losing battle. And the quickest way to make someone NOT want to learn is to force them.


That could have been lifted from Democracy and Education.

There are a few things in the post that'll probably make you wince, but I'll let you find those for yourself.

No comments: