MASKED THE PLAY

What ought to guide us as we consider the schools in relation to large purposes? Very little of what I offer will be new, but possibly in the restating there will be some renewed basis for reflection and action in intellectual and moral rather than technical terms.
What we know most about children and young people is that they are always learning. That is their nature. As they touch the earth, observe the culture that surrounds them, listen to stories, and speak, they are achieving a personal relationship with the world, gaining what Jean Piaget calls a balance between changing the world and changing themselves.
If we kept such a view about children and young people constantly before us, we wouldn’t be so quick to assume clinical approaches to education, approaches so full of labels. We would put our energy into seeking our students’ strengths and not their deficits. Failing to begin with the natural strengths and energy of children and young people as our starting point is to limit the possibilities, to ensure an education with too little power. To paraphrase John Dewey, do we fit the child to the school or make the school fit the 0 child? It might be interesting to engage that question fully again and see where we are. I believe that schools almost everywhere have come to overshadow the child.

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