The fundamental principle of Comenius is that, “we learn by doing.” A victim of the schools of his time, he thus describes them: “They are the terror of boys, and the slaughter-houses of mind—-places where a hatred of literature and books is contracted, where ten or more years are spent in learning what might be acquired in one, where what ought to be poured in gently, is violently forced in, and beaten in, where what ought to be put clearly and perspicuously is presented in a confused and intricate way, as if it were a collection of puzzles—-places where minds are fed on words.”A friend was telling me of the experience of the military in WWII. Many of the new recruits were illiterate, but were quickly trained to read in a matter of weeks, illustrating the truth of Comenius' observation.
I am working on my presentation for the ISACS conference on Thursday and Friday.
Make, fix and create...
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