Spoon Feeding
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
(1 Corinthians 13:11)
Dear Students, Parents and Carers
All parents will remember the spoon feeding stage with toddlers, trying to encourage them to eat, and eat at a reasonable pace, without spreading the food everywhere. Academic spoon feeding is analogous to this and is controversial. Some parents of independent schools argue that, as they are paying high fees, it is incumbent on teachers to provide the academic nutrition their children need. One wonders, however, whether this approach is in the best interests of the students. A Victorian study, admittedly not recent, demonstrated that while independent schools were very successful in the entry race into universities, their students often floundered once they reached university. This appeared to be because they had been dependent learners, soaking up what teachers had provided, without developing skills of information access and processing, and critical thinking necessary to thrive at tertiary level.
In an increasingly gig economy, it appears essential to equip young people with skills of critical and creative thinking, such that they can be nimble and agile, entrepreneurial and, in some cases, able to create their own jobs and nourish their own careers. Indeed, skills of lifelong learning will be highly prized, as the pundits in this area suggest that young people currently at school will work in eighteen jobs across six careers during their working lives.
In recent years, the HSC examinations have reflected an increasing disdain on the part of NESA (New South Wales Education Standards Authority) for simple regurgitation of information, where in Humanities subjects students memorise an answer and convey it in the exam room irrespective of the question. Increasingly, NESA want HSC candidates to be thinkers who can interpret their knowledge and apply it to an unseen scenario, as depicted by the examination questions. Education is, after all, much more than memorisation, especially in the digital world where content can be called up at a moment’s notice on the internet.
Students may well push back against teachers who require them to do the actual thinking. Thinking can be difficult! Some students are, in any case, not ready for abstraction. Part of the bane of my teaching life over decades has been my wish to impart the wonders of the ancient world to fresh faced Year 7 students, whose mindset has been on what colour pen they must use, how wide the margins should be and whether the date should be at the top left or right-hand side of the page, matters of little real concern to me! Happily, they do grow in sophistication over time.
The above remarks should not be seen as a denigration of content. We do need to teach those things which civilisation and society have seen as important over a long period of time. In any case, skills are not taught in a vacuum. The best mix, in my view, will integrate content, skills and attitudes. The teacher, as the adult in the room, will certainly not abrogate the authority of the role of pedagogical leader and, similarly, will not be a sole performer. He or she will require the students to undertake the actual work, often with careful scaffolding, and gain skill thereby.
We will require not just knowledge, but understanding so that the knowledge can be applied. As the Apostle Paul wrote so long ago, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” (1 Corinthians 13:11). We want our young men to grow to maturity in every way, including cognitively, so that they are equipped for effectively navigating the tertiary sphere and life itself.
Shore Community
Part of community building at Shore occurs in the fellowship of parents around the sidelines of Saturday sports. The interactions of friendship in this setting are best fuelled by good coffee and something nice to eat. Our Shore Parents’ Association (SPA) opens canteens at North Sydney and Northbridge every Saturday, which rely on parents volunteering. Both venues really need more volunteers who can occasionally give as little as an hour on a Saturday.
Those who can assist are requested to sign up via the link on the Shore website on the ‘Senior School Sporting Fixtures’ page – see www.bit.ly/seniorfixtures or contact Mrs Gaby Hunter, SPA Canteen Coordinator, at spacanteen@shore.nsw.edu.au.
Dr J Collier
Headmaster