Textbook learning best method for education
I suggest that we do not need that and the related “special needs teachers” cure to preclude and cure those ills - they are yet further examples of the wasteful throwing of billions of euro of our public and private money at a problem.
The solution, I suggest, is the abandonment of the policy reflected in these recent words of a primary teacher: “Let’s get away from a textbook-orientated programme and use the children’s environment as a source for teaching.”
We need an intensification of textbook-orientated training from day one of primary schooling.
I am not a trained primary teacher but I have a thorough understanding of the dynamics of textbook learning.
I would have no trouble in training children to succeed in large classes, provided such training is given priority in schools.
Success would be great for children, parents and teachers at all levels. It would reduce Exchequer funding of education by billions of euro, and also reduce the need for expensive and time-consuming grinds to spoonfeed leaving certificate students who are poor book-learners.
Unfortunately, as far as I can see, no one in the lucrative “education” industry is open-minded enough to discuss this solution, which could be implemented immediately.
Joe Foyle
Sandford Road
Ranelagh
Dublin 6
