Teaching Children to Learn: In-Service Without Plastic Clackers

Abstract

Introduction:  When a practicing teacher (maybe one day I will have practiced enough to get it right) opens a book at random and sees that Chapter 5 is called "Cognitive Mapping," and then skims the book and sees lots of little diagrams and flow charts, he (indulge me in my archaic use of 'he' as gender-neutral) often suffers a post-traumatic stress syndrome flashback to his most recent in-service session: returns to green painted cinder block walls, flickering fluorescent lights, acrid coffee served in cups made of solidified chemical foam, sugar-coated doughnuts, brightly colored, but ergonomically incorrect plastic chairs, and a tedious presentation complete with plastic toy clackers to reign-in the wandering attention of teachers-by chirping twits with brand-new master's degrees (from Lath-and-Plaster University, with a Tradition of Academic Excellence since 1965) and a photo-copied, copyrighted, foot-noted, homogenized, multi-culturally endorsed, spiral-bound program to peddle that will solve all the educational problems in Christendom, Deweydom, and, depending on the school's orientation, perhaps St. John Chrysostom as well.