Education - Intellectual Agency

SCHOOL as an INTELLECTUAL AGENCY the American education system has evolved tremendously since the days of the proverbial "one-room schoolhouse." Modern educational theorists have long suggested that (1) there is a profound difference between memorizing and learning, and (2) the purpose of education is as much to allow students to discover their personal interests and areas of greatest aptitude as much as to learn subject matter. Naturally, the primary function of early education is to teach basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, but beyond that stage, educators have begun to recognize the importance of broadening academic curricula, methods, and materials to benefit individuals whose greatest aptitude lies outside the narrow focus of many traditional educational approaches.

Researchers like Howard Gardner of the Harvard School of Education have demonstrated the benefits of the whole learning concept that addresses at least six other types of human intelligence besides linguistic and mathematical skills. Likewise, numerous studies of the relative effectiveness of different methods of instruction have documented significant benefits of emphasizing active, hands-on lessons instead of passive lecture-based lessons (Huber & Moore, 2001). Apart from increasing subject matter retention, active learning promotes intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and confidence, in effect, teaching students how to reason and think for themselves.

Unfortunately, current indications suggest strongly that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is retarding progress in the direction of better education, precisely because it emphasizes rote memorization and drilling in two or three subjects at the relative exclusion of other academic subjects and to the establishment of an effective learning environment for students (Sonnenblick, 2008). That is because the most essential function of modern education is to teach thinking.

References

Huber, R.A., Moore, C.J. (2001). "A Model for Extending Hands-on Science to Be Inquiry Based." School Science and Mathematics, 101(1), 32. Sonnenblick, J. (2008). "Killing Me Softly: No Child Left Behind" School Library Journal, May 1, 2008, Retrieved January 7, 2009, at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555540.html