Or that, at least, is the title of the latest article by one of my favorite educational writers, Alfie Kohn. This is how he characterizes the mindset that blames issues in education not on the high-level policymakers with their increasingly-restrictive regulations and mind-numbing educational practices, but on the people who are trapped in the morass those things create. Countering one pundit's theory that the problem in education is student's lack of motivation, Kohn quotes Frederick Herzberg, a critic of traditional workplace management, who says “Idleness, indifference, and irresponsibility are healthy responses to absurd work.”
You can read the article on Kohn's website at:http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/damnkids.htm
Speaking of, making teachers responsible isn't appropriate either, since they can control very little. It's like making individual doctors responsible for health care atrocities.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what Kohn says in the article--that is only after running out of steam about blaming the teachers do critics turn to blaming the students.
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