I’ve been reading about Roland Fryer, an economics professor at Harvard. He’s experimenting with programmes in US schools that pay kids to learn using a points system for high grades, good behaviour and so on. Inevitably, this has been condemned as bribery, but I can’t help wishing that I had been bribed. I’d have been up for it, that’s for sure.
I messed up my 11-plus and was sent to a secondary modern school where I was treated as a failure. I spent most of my time there knitting (dishcloths progressing to scarves), weaving (scarves again) and doing woodwork (I’m still a dab hand at dovetail joints). School bored me and I didn’t have any inspirational teachers until years later when, miraculously, I made it to the sixth form. My parents were distraught, but all their warnings about mucking up my life chances fell on deaf ears. I simply didn’t care.
I’m convinced that, if I’d been paid to learn, it would have motivated me to learn my times tables, spell those lists of tricky words and name capital cities on a map of the world. I might even have managed to learn a foreign language or to play the piano.
As it is, I finished up with a sad list of lessons learnt from my schooldays:
About the learning process
I learnt that learning was supposed to happen only when you were taught and that what you learnt mattered far more than how you learnt. I learnt that knowing lots of things, passing exams and getting qualifications was the most important life skill.
About teachers
I learnt that the purpose of producing work was to please teachers. Teachers always knew best and were infinitely wiser than I could ever be.
About how to behave
I learnt that expressing my opinions usually resulted in ridicule – and that it paid to be deferential to anyone in authority. I learnt that asking questions (especially “why?”) wasn’t a good idea. I learnt that mistakes were to be avoided and that unpleasant things happened if you were caught making them. I learnt that collaboration was cheating and that being competitive and excelling at sports was the easiest way to win approval.
About the learning environment
I learnt that an autocratic, hierarchical structure, with lots of imposed rules, was the only way to get things done. I learnt that I wasn’t to be trusted – hence the need for close supervision to ensure that I was where I should be and doing what I should be doing. I learnt that it was good for me to do things I didn’t want to do. I learnt that I was a flawed, inadequate person because I wasn’t sufficiently accomplished at things that teachers’ revered – eg, reading aloud in class or being quick at mental arithmetic.
What does your list look like and how might it have changed if you had been bribed?