PierreAntoine Ullmo

Tag: children participation

  • Education is a special need

     

    The teacher as a lighthouse
    The teacher as a lighthouse

    I just came back from spending a few days with Yaacov Hecht  and had the chance to get inspired by his vision and energy. In his book, Democratic Education: A Beginning of a Story, he described himself as “dyslectic and dysgraphic with average academic capabilities”. He writes: “When I began first grade, it became evident to me that I could not learn to read and write”.

    How can he be a leading visionary in education if he doesn’t read or write adequately?  It is maybe – surely? – that he transformed his “special needs” into “special skills”.

    (more…)

  • Children will revolt

    - Please teacher what did I learned today - That's a peculiar - They will ask me when I get home
    Boy – “Please, teacher, what did I learn today?”
    Teacher – “That’s a peculiar question”
    Boy – “They will ask me when I get home”

    While preparing a contribution on the future of Open Education, I discovered a dialogue between Seymour Papert and Paulo Freire that took place at the end of the 1980’s.

    Papert mentioned in his conversation with Freire a cartoon from the Punch Magazine that gives much to think about the  importance of learning vs. teaching. Papert links it to what he understands school is about, i.e.  “learning by being told” or better said “by being taught” as opposed to  “learning by exploring”. According to him, “many children are destroyed by that, strangled”. 20 years later we keep arguing upon the ways for creativity to enter the classroom. (more…)