To answer the question, we need to define what we mean by progressive education. Steve Nelson writes in First Do No Harm that, “A fundamental concept of progressive education is the idea of children being agents or architects of their own learning.” For me, this is the fundamental concept. Children negotiate with the teacher over what, when and how to study, learning to take and justify decisions independently. Using this definition, progressive education in the state sector has been extinguished.
Continue reading “Is progressive education dead in state schools?”Category: Independent schools
A time of reaction (in state schools)
A study of PISA 2012 data found that “state school pupils report more traditional teaching than in private schools.” This should come as little surprise. The elite do not pay for their children to be treated like those in the local state school who are herded into large classes and taught by rote. Not for them the dependency and passivity of the children of the poor; no, they want their own children to be independent and curious. And for this, they pay private and international schools for critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. In a time of limited budgets, traditionalists not only justify this division, but also make a virtue of it.
Continue reading “A time of reaction (in state schools)”
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