Daniel Greenberg (Sudbury Valley
School) in his book “Free at last” (BOOK) describes teaching entire 6
years mathematics in only 20 contact hours to a group of boys and
girls, age 9-12.
They had only one rule: to be on time, 11:00 A.M.
sharp, twice a week, for a half an hour. If anyone was five minutes late, class
was cancelled. If it happened twice, no more teaching.
In 20 contact hours, every single one of the
kids knew the material of 6 years math. No slackers. No failures. No one
“left back.” No “math anxiety.” No boredom, frustration, embarrassment. No
shame or humiliation. No competition, achievement, failure, or success. No
prizes.
Traditional teacher's reply was -
"Everybody knows, that the subject matter itself isn't all that hard.
What's hard - is beating it into the heads of youngsters who hate every step.
The only way we have a ghost of a chance is to hammer away at the stuff bit by
bit everyday for years. Even then it does not work."
So, why it takes so long in schools? Probably because only 75 minutes per day go into actual
instruction of ALL new material. The rest? - It's moving from class-to-class,
settling in, getting up, bureaucratic work, lunch, assignments collection and
distribution; dealing with “behavior problems”; classroom organization, etc.
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| 3 thirds of Pizza - is ONE whole Pizza |