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Okay, I read that book Teach like a pirate. I respect anyone who goes out of their way to write an ed book, good on ya. But I cannot express in more fervent terms how completely and catastrophically wrong their analysis of how to improve education is.
The problem isn't how enthusiastic, caring, fun, or tech-driven schools are. Most do a good job of that. The problem is completely failing to understand the most basic science around how people learn. We can't "engage" our way out of educational failure.
We've been told the reason for failure is that somehow school doesn't fit the generation X (or whatever moniker) brain. Yet the truth is, their brains are like ours, and our ancestors and our ancestors' ancestors.
...our pedagogy doesn't fit with generation X's brain. But that's because we have been misunderstanding that brain by thinking the most fundamentally important evolutionary process that has taken thousands of years to evolve can shift in a generation.
So actually, the kids are alright! The problem isn't that we need to do something fundamentally different, it's that we have been trying so hard to be transformative and different we have forgotten what has always been true.
So yes, teach like a teacher. No need to be a pirate. Be yourself, love your subject, and explain it well.
