3.c.14 – School has still an educational role?
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School has still an educational role?
By the studies on the training of employees, it has been found that teaching to adults is not exactly the same thing to teach children; there are significant psychological differences, profoundly influencing the ability to learn and then some methods work better with adults, while others with children.
It is strange to note that in ancient times, for example in philosophical schools of the Greek-Roman world, teaching to adults was quite common and it was done in a different way than teaching to children; it seems that in this field they were more advanced compared to almost all educational institutions of the twentieth century, structured according to the typical model of teaching to children. Teaching to adults is an art fallen into disuse since the Middle Ages and, like many other cultural traditions, was not recovered anymore, however, it has been tried to rebuild it from scratch on scientific basis and today, although rare, there are new models of teaching, alternative to the traditional.
One of the most important achievements is to have understood that the methods of learning of an individual varies with the degree of maturity and then even teaching methods should do the same for obtaining the maximum effectiveness. Children must therefore be followed in their development in school, that will gradually pass from a primary school approach to that of a training for adults.
This change certainly involves also the role of the teacher, who has always been important, but now must be enhanced even more, both because it is become more complicated and difficult, having to change strategies depending on the type of students, and because its importance to society has increased: who more than teachers must be updated to prepare young people to a world in perpetual change? The value of a service must be approved by the customer, that is, by the students and, in the case of children, by the family that must educate the children to the value of knowledge, starting by the respect they must have for the teacher; this figure should be, after their parents, the most important educational landmark and, just like their parents, must follow the students in their development by helping them to become more mature and independent, until they are adult students and, within the limits of their possibilities, producers of new knowledge. The school must maintain its educational role even more than its instructive feature because education will also continue for adults, while for preparing a new generation to follow a path of permanent training, it is required from the start an education based on the value of knowledge, research, innovation and continuous updating.
ROYAL BOX
TIM BERNERS-LEE 
