I make most of the claims I do based on study, and some on an internal sense of right and wrong. For example, I've actually studied upon learning methods and their effectiveness.
Anyone who teaches is in the culture of education, just like anyone who goes to the Roman Catholic church is in the culture of Catholicism. Like any other culture, people participate in different ways, to different degrees. I'm reading my fourth book on educational techniques in the last four years. Care to guess how many of them positively mention rote learning and the factory model you rail against?
You apparently would see the content of my replies as evidence of your positions, regardless of their content. That's just the kind of thinker you seem to be. No matter what the evidence is, it supports you.
Corruption is bad. A lack of any standard is often worse, in no small part because the corruption persists, but we rename it "fraud".
I have no doubt you find concepts plastic to your purposes. Some people have standards for their concepts.
Of course there is even internal backlash against the prevalent norms in education. It wouldn't make a book worth reading if there were no improvements that could be held forth. Which is exactly my basic thesis.
In education, there are "good" and "bad" teachers. Again, it is plastic in the hands of whoever is making the judgment. You have to be very very bad before nearly everyone will make that judgment, or very very good in order to stand out in the students mind and cause them to think it remarkable.
The saving grace in even government-run schools in tyrannical, propagandistic countries, is that people are still people, and some humanity persists. . . . despite every intention on the part of authority to wipe it out. A good example would be China over the past sixty years. Wanna know how many people look back to the little red book of Chairman Mao for instruction? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. Not even an absolute top-down government can really stand it, for very long.
No matter what you teach, or how you teach it, you are establishing a reference point in the memory and experience of the people involved, which teacher and students alike will likely try to improve upon somehow.
Yah, I know people who have probably read those same books you read, and pride themselves on applying the masterful techniques. . . . . with sometimes rather poor skills of evaluating how they are doing, really. It is just amazing, astounding to see the plasticity in other people's minds, and the apparent gaps between self-appraisals and the opinions of others. I even know a few passionate advocates of human liberty who for whatever reason just look to me like absolute tyrants.
Some can do OK as long as the students are smiling and in general acting appreciative of the wonderful stuff being taught, you could almost think there is a real human bond, a lasting guru/master//accolyte/servant relation and that the students when they are in their fifties will be practically idolizing the teacher still. But as wonderful as it all seems, sometimes even such a beloved teacher cracks when someone responds in some impudent way, and all that niceness is just out the window. "You're an Idiot" the teacher rants.
Wonderful.
IMO, a more sensible teacher will just a priori accept that the people in his/her classroom are on an extended tour. They have been themselves for a long time, and will go on being themselves long after. The only things they will choose to keep from your offerings are the ones they choose to. Whether that comes to a large slice of the pie, or merely a crumb, you offered them what you have, and they made their choice. Shouldn't particularly bother you if other people don't think what you do.
OK, same should hold true for me and my little rants in here.
