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The word failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable objective and it is often viewed as the

opposite of success. When it comes to children failing in school, it is difficult to pinpoint one reason. In this essay, I will go over three authors who identify causes for failure and offer some possible solutions. John Holt, in his book How Schools Fail analyses the

ways in which schools foster bad strategies, raise childrens fears and produce learning which usually fails to meet the real needs of children. That is why,
according to Holt, students learn what they meet daily outside schools. The results: children are bored because the things they are given and told to do at schools are so trivial, dull and make narrow demands on their intelligences; they are confused because most of everything they hear at school makes little or no sense at all, it often contradicts other things they have been told, and hardly has any relation to what they really know; and they are afraid of failing, disappointing or displeasing the many anxious adults around them. Holt claims that students under pressure will deny their intelligence, not only to frustrate their teachers, but also because they have other and more important uses for their time and intelligences. Children resist learning, and use only a small part of their attention, energy and intelligence. He argues that this will become a habit and children will sooner

start thinking that they are stupid. But how do they manage to pass their final exams? Well, according to Holt, students use strategies to avoid failure. They learn how to read teachers reaction and what they expect from them. They learn how to bluff, cheat and they pretend to know and understand what they really dont. Rather than learning the content of a lesson, children learn how to perfom, or how to survive by deflecting the teachers questions with the least possible amount of embarrassment. There is a vast difference between what children really know, and what they only appear to know, which Holt calls real learning and apparent learning. Traditional schools dont develop in children their best human qualities. Instead of real thinkers, they want good test takers. John Holt concludes basically by saying that schools and teachers are doing far more harm than good because they are making more and more children miss using their potential. Having considered Holts ideas, it is also reasonable to look at Frank Smiths view. Smith believes that education has failed because it has backed the wrong horse. By following the experimental psychology, which is the kind of psychology that behaviourism draws on, schools have left no room for meaningful learning. Behaviourism is a learning theory based on reiforcement, repetition and fragmentation, which encourage children to learn parts by memory. Smith argues that antropology would have made a better choice for a foundation discipline for education. He believes that educators should use ethnography in educational researches because, according to ethnographers,

people move within social values and to understand the behaviour, values and meanings of any given individual (or group), we must take into account their cultural context. Frank Smith also states that, if teachers want students to learn how to read and write, for example, they should focus on making these activities interesting for them. He explains how schools obstruct childrens innate learning abilities, creating handicaps that often persist through life. The author contrasts the false idea that learning is work, used to justify the external control of teachers and students through excessive regulation and massive testing, with the correct idea that learning is a social process that can occur naturally and continually through collaborative activities. There is also, however, a further point of view to consider. David Perkins, who has a more positive view about failure, believes in an educational reform and talks about a Smart School. He argues that the problem is that we are not putting to work everything we know and that students are learning and teachers are teaching in the same way they did thirty years ago. He states that, with all the changes happening in socety, schools today need to be informed, energetic and thoughtful, therefore Smart. He focuses particularly on the role of thoughtfulness in the teaching/learning process, which he believes is the key to genuine learning that serves students well. Perkins argues that there are two types of learning: generative learning, which is meaningful and connected to previous knowledge, and fragile learning, which includes missing kowledge, inert knowledge,

naive knowledge and ritual knowledge. According to Perkins, Inert Knowledge only allows students to remember information when tested and does not give them the ability to apply it outside of the classroom. Nave Knowledge is based on ones personal belief system (including religious, racial, and ethnic stereotypes), that is encultured in us and that remains even after considerable instruction to provide better theories. Ritual knowledge, closely aligned with naive knowledge, is ones intuitive understanding of the world that remains despite instruction to the contrary. Despite the problems, Perkins argues that there is room for change and bets on the Smart Schools, which job is to foster generative learners. It is important that all the school community, including teachers, students and parents, are involved in creatiting knowledge generating and problemsolving activities.
Each of these theoretical positions make an important contribution to our understanding of failure. These three

authors have lead me to think about my former schooling and current teaching in a way I had never thought about it before. Even though they have different ways of dealing with failure, Frank Smith and David Perkins not only point out frailities in the educational system, as Holt does, but they also offer possible solutions. However, it is not an easy job. As a very clever teacher mine told me once, there is much more to changes than the words used to describe those changes. As educators we should bet on meaningful learning, which will only be achieve if we take

into account students previous learning. By taking risks and trying new methods of learning, students learn more in class. They learn not through memorizing but understanding. They learn not through taking tests and answering questions, but by searching, asking and answering questions themselves.

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