Primal Learning

Educating the young is a fundamental and critical task of any society.  I’d say “it’s more important than ever,” but it’s not. Education has always been, and will always be, the essential task of youth and adulthood, both as teachers and learners.  Though changes in society may make certain skills and knowledge “more important than ever,” taking a moment to step outside of the common use of the word education—going to school—reminds us that what we’re really talking about is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and characteristics needed to survive/thrive in society. 

In the US, education is often thought of as matriculating through the school.  This is an error in thinking.  School is the means, education the end.  Nevertheless, the discourse on education generally centers on schools: standardized test scores, school performance, teacher evaluation and preparation, and funding.  Our focus on these, and the core ideas of aggregation and centralization that they are expressions of, are precisely the reason why the house is on fire.  Education is not about these.

At the core, teaching and learning are not products of the school system, or the proprietary skill of trained educators.  They are instincts.  People of all ages teach and learn constantly.  The bulk of all learning that has ever occurred has taken place between individuals or small, tightly knit groups.  To make the point, let’s imagine a preindustrial, hunter-gatherer or agrarian society.  Children learned in small groups led by their elders, people with whom they had a personal connection.  The skills taught were directly and obviously relevant—hunting for dinner, for example. I’ll refer to this as primal learning.

Realizing this began when we decided to home school.  As an “educator,” I didn’t doubt that we could pull it off.  What caught my attention was how families were able to homeschool their kids with little education or training, and they were generally very successful.  Eventually it became obvious.  By instinct, going 1-1 with kids automatically triggers many of the characteristics of primal learning: accurate understanding of the student’s abilities, lots of feedback, checking for understanding, the right pace, interest, persistence, emotional commitment, and greater relevance of the content.

Teaching and learning: how it usually happens.

As much should be obvious, but the fact that it’s not shows how deeply ingrained the concept of learning as “school” has become.  When we teach our children to tie their shoes there are no PowerPoints, no standardized exams, no grades, no certified shoe-tying instructors…none of it. Yet, nearly everybody learns this skill.  This is valid teaching and learning, as valid as anything generated by the school system.

How do schools compare with primal learning?  Typical class sizes of 20-30, knowledge that isn't directly relevant or at least doesn't appear to be relevant in the eyes of student, teachers unattached to the kids except though school, coercion, classroom management concerns, difficulty providing extensive feedback consistently, the need to produce defensible report card grades, and all the rest.  The typical classroom teacher and their students are fish out of water in this environment. 

Preparations to test about 300 students at once to comply with mandated PARCC testing

US Education has become a race to complication and aggregation (or perhaps it should be aggravation).  It is a vicious circle wherein students are dehumanized by the inherent nature of the system, and when problems arise, we often double down on the very things causing them or address symptoms rather than root causes. For example, an exam score focus causes schools to implement a culture of test prep. Students are disengaged, resulting in more problems, lower scores, more prep.

Parents and teachers can best serve their students by always beginning with the individual, how he/she would have learned without a school system, and how pedagogy and technology can be used to replicate primal learning conditions. By doing this we’ll address the fundamental issues in learning, not merely symptoms.