> From: Alan Kay <[email protected]> > Also, I have given an account in several places of some of the wonderful > teaching approaches of first grade teacher Julia Nishijima (when she was at > the LA Open Magnet School). These include setting up an environment in which > children construct and really do discover 1st and 2nd order growth laws as > arithmetic progressions. Most of her (and Mary Laycocke's) stuff was done > before computers (and doesn't need computers) but can later be enhanced by > computers. > > The biggest limitation by far here is not the knowledge of how to do this > stuff, but the fact that most elementary school teachers have essentially no > sense of math, and very few of these really want to learn anything about math. > > Cheers, > > Alan
This approach works well in an idealized situation, one with an extremely well-trained teacher and supportive school administration. The vast majority of classrooms in developing countries-and developed ones-won't have these advantages in the short-term or long-term. We need strategies that don't depend on an exceptional educator leading the classroom. -- Bryan W. Berry Technology Director OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
