Learning Learning/Parable 2
Parable 2
One Pencil Per Classroom
Imagine that writing has just been invented in Foobar, a country that has managed to develop a highly sophisticated culture of poetry, philosophy and science using entirely oral means of expression. It occurs to imaginative educators that the new technology of pencils, paper and printing could have a beneficial effect on the schools of the country. Many suggestions are made. The most radical is to provide all teachers and children with pencils, paper and books and suspend regular classes for six months while everyone learns the new art of reading and writing. The more cautious plans propose starting slowly and seeing how "pencil-learning" works on a small scale before doing anything really drastic. In the end, Foobarian politicians being what they are, a cautious plan is announced with radical fanfare: Within four years a pencil and a pad of paper will be placed in every single classroom of the country so that every child, rich or poor, will have access to the new knowledge technology. Meantime the educational psychologists stand by to measure the impact of pencils on learning.
Moral: Never forget that we're marketing $200 Pencils to the desperately poor, and calling it charity.
See also: One Blackboard Per Classroom for a more realistic view of 3rd world education needs and budget shortfalls, One Genius Per Classroom for the dangers of overestimating the value of an approach based on the successes of pilot programs run by highly involved, motivated, and talented researchers, Don't Bother Teaching Arithmetic To Children In Scrap-Tin Slums, Since Everyone Can Always Just Use A Calculator, and When The Fool Pokes His Finger At Child's Eye, The Sage Bites It.
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