The Book of Learning and Forgetting

Frank Smith (Author)

9780807737507

Paperback / softback, published 2 April 1998

144 pages, Illustrations
22.7 x 15.3 x 1 cm, 0.214 kg

In this thought-provoking book, Frank Smith explains how schools and educational authorities systematically obstruct the powerful inherent learning abilities of children, creating handicaps that often persist through life. The author contrasts a false and fabricated ""official theory"" that learning is work (used to justify the external control of teachers and students through excessive regulation and massive testing) with a correct but officially suppressed ""classic view"" that learning is a social process that can occur naturally and continually through collaborative activities. This book should be of interest in a time whan national authorities continue to blame teachers and students for alleged failures in education. It should help teachers and parents to combat sterile attitudes toward teaching and learning and help them to prevent current practices from doing further harm.

A Tale of Two Visions
A Question of Identity
The Immensity of Children's Learning
Joining the Literacy Club
Learning through Life (plus some typical objections)
Undermining Traditional Wisdom
Fabricating A Theory of Learning
Entry of the Testers
More Fallout from War
The Official Theory Goes on-line (plus some more objections)
Liberating Our Own Learning
Liberating Schools and Education (plus some final objections).