Today the word pedagogy describes the art and science of teaching.
I like it's Latin origin: children, to lead.
It puts an inescapable responsibility on the parent (like me) and on the teachers to lead
as in:
not talk down to;
not talk at;
to be an active practitioner of what is taught (otherwise, why teach it?).
Is it really honoring a child's intelligence if you merely see yourself as someone who enters data- like a computer programmer entering code? Is this the true essence of teaching? Are children mere automatons?
My feeling is that teachers can only show you to something-- can demonstrate it in some way by good example, but that the onus was always on the student to actually do the learning: first by thinking and contemplating, and then by doing it. This would never need to be forced anymore than you'd force the rosebuds in your garden to bloom by peeling them back like a banana!
The basis of one-size-fits-all compulsory education is not about this soulful kind of legitimate, genuine honor-filled learning because it doesn't respect children's uniqueness and individuality. Instead it brusquely categorizes and force-fits them into predetermined slots.
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