Child-centred learning is turning out school-leavers without the skills for life

Mr Gove, said Mr French, is not only an elitist but an ignoramus when it comes to Rosetta Stone Languages all the research and wonderful advances that have been made in everything from neuroscience and learning methods to modern forms of student-centred learning.When it comes to education, the past is our future Child-centred learning is turning out school-leavers without the skills for life, says Charles Moore. Two experiences this week link in my mind. The first was in a BBC studio, where I was in a broadcast debate with an atheist. It was appalling, he said, that religious believers revered a book that was written 2,000 years ago. The second was a letter in a rival newspaper. The author, one Carl French, was incensed by the suggestion of Michael Gove, the shadow childrens secretary, that schools should make pupils learn poems, and the sequence of the kings and queens of England, by heart. Mr Gove, said Mr French, is not only an elitist but an ignoramus when it comes to all the research and wonderful advances that have been made in everything from neuroscience and learning methods to modern forms of student-centred learning. Doesn’t he realise that activities such as learning the kings and queens of England is [sic] the type of turn-off to most children that got us into such a mess ? He concluded that A nation Rosetta Stone V3 whose children are expected to live in the past has no future. To both the atheist and the letter-writer, it is axiomatic that the past is a place to shun. I suspect this doctrine is widely shared, and that it helps explain why Britain is now so badly governed. This week, Policy Exchange, the think-tank which I chair, published what it calls a manifesto for whoever wins the general election, entitled The Renewal of Government. The book gives telling detail, right across government, of what isn’t working. Let education stand as the example. Between 1999-2000 and 2007-08, state spending per school pupil per year rose from 3,360 to 5,620. Yet the CBI reports that its members are increasingly compelled to seek recruits abroad because school-leavers are so poorly educated. Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, which employs 40,000 workers under the age of 19, says that the company has to teach recruits basic literacy and numeracy itself. During this period of the greatest state spending ever, more and more pupils 59,071 in 2006 took Media Studies GCSE, a subject that literally everyone I have ever met in the media thinks is worthless. At the same time, the number of those studying modern languages at GCSE fell from 547,189 in 2003 to 382,228 in 2008. Only 46 per cent of English state schools now enter a pupil for Biology, Physics or Chemistry GCSE. The others favour the combined science GCSE, which has multiple choice questions such as Why is wireless technology useful?. The correct answer to tick is No wiring is required. What Mr French, in his cross letter, called student-centred learning (more often called child-centred learning) dumbs Rosetta Stone Arabic down what is learnt. This is symbolised by the fact that Labour has changed the name of the Department for Education to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Education in its own right is no longer considered a public good. Instead, its all about kids. It might sound a good idea to centre learning on the student/child, since he will learn more if his attention is engaged. But it has the effect of distorting the subject. If you think of a skill which people take seriously driving a car, playing the piano, performing brain surgery Rosetta Stone no one thinks that you can acquire this solely by feeling good about it, understanding why it is as it is, and so on.