Author contemplates education
School systems can fail to promote a spirit of inquiry, book argues
The Curiosity of School is a sweeping indictment of every aspect of schooling, from primary schools to university, offering cunningly crafted insights and an alternative vision that is, in the end, unfortunately flawed. Zander Sherman defines education as learning that flows from our natural desire to know. It has “no external purpose because it is purpose. It’s a good unto itself.” For him, the schools of today do not provide “education,” because their curriculum reflects purposes extrinsic to the student, repressing inquisitiveness and robbing learning of enjoyment.
For Sherman, to understand how “schooling” and “education” became separated, one has to delve into the history of schools, all the way back to a model created by Prussia in the early 19th century. In this model, the state established a curriculum based on its own interests and imposed it on everyone. The success of the Prussian model in rebuilding the army and strengthening the economy led intellectuals like Egerton Ryerson ( 1803- 1882) from Canada and Horace Mann ( 1796- 1859) from the United States to import it into their own countries.
Schools have gone through many curriculum reforms since then, but according to Sherman, one thing has not changed: the inclination to use schooling to achieve state- defined outcomes and thereby severely restrict students’ ability to find and pursue their own interests. Today, he says, our governments’ approaches to education are uniformly influenced by the desire to produce people who can contribute to a technology- and- sciencebased economy. Accordingly, the government creates curriculum that favours technology and science to the detriment of the arts and humanities, verifies proficiency in these disciplines through government exams, and encourages research in these disciplines.
For Sherman, these government initiatives are unlikely to succeed. He says that a study of leading scientists today would show that the vast majority have serious interest in the arts and the humanities, and that these disciplines significantly influence the way they conduct their research.
In addition, all great discoveries come from inquiring minds and the emphasis on testing and covering curriculum does not promote inquiry. The problem of government imposed goals affects private schools just as much as public ones, he says, because the two systems generally operate with the same educational goals and values.
And it goes without saying that from a social policy standpoint, it is unacceptable that “public schools are reducing phys- ed programs to save money, while Upper Canada College has its own Olympic- and NHL- sized skating rinks.” Higher education fares no better.
Sherman’s chapter on universities ends with this pronouncement: “Public, non- profit universities no longer exist. Between universities’ lending of labs to corporations, stacking of boardrooms with CEOs, and treatment of their only resource — education — as a consumable product, it’s no wonder students consider the whole thing, in the words of Christopher J. Lucas, ‘ required irrelevance.’ ”
To turn things around, Sherman suggests that we look at Finland for inspiration. There, education at all levels, including university, is free. In his view, this makes clear that knowledge contributes to the public good and is not a commodity to be purchased for private benefit.
Government policies are sufficiently flexible to allow schools leeway in deciding what to teach and, most important, teachers — who all have graduate degrees — control the curriculum without externally imposed exams. As Sherman — correctly, I believe — argues, the top- down way that governments have organized schooling discourages the type of innovative teaching that can inspire students. It relates to teachers as “education dispensers, rather than artists or craftspeople who have a unique personality and skills honed by years of hard work.”
Sherman, a freelance writer and editor who lives in Ontario, writes well. He has a good sense of humour and an impressive ability to hold the reader’s attention by stringing together tidbits of information into a story that helps him make his point. The Curiosity of School covers most of the central issues and developments affecting schools, and critiques many influential movements and thinkers in education. Although Sherman’s treatment of many of these is lacking, the reader will get a good general sense of what is happening in the field.
But the book has its problems, as well. His treatment of Sudbury Valley and Summerhill schools misrepresents these institutions significantly. Sherman mistakenly assumes that religious schooling must curtail a student’s curiosity and will impart a conservative morality. He seems unaware of such important educational theorists as Michael Apple and Howard Gardner, whose work would support a number of his arguments, and fails to see areas in which his ideas dovetail with those of thinkers he attacks, like John Dewey. Most significantly, Sherman brings to the discussion an elitist conception of education in which reading Wuthering Heights is more commendable than reading Harry Potter, mastering Latin and Greek is a must, and everyone can be a polymath. Is his curriculum likely to capture the imagination of all of our children? In the end, Sherman is no less inclined to impose his will on others than the education reformers he criticizes.