Mejor aburrido que imbécil

El trabajo de pensar
(Clarín, 14.04.06)
Para los maestros británicos, las clases aburridas son una "preparación para la vida"
Esa fue la conclusión de un congreso de maestros realizado en Londres: que los niños están sobreestimulados y que es positivo que se sientan incómodos en la escuela. “Quien está aburrido se ve obligado a pensar y a desarrollar su fantasía”, dijo una profesora de matemáticas que fue aplaudida por sus colegas.
Los maestros –reunidos en la conferencia anual de la Asociación de Maestros del Reino Unido– coincidieron en que, por la televisión, las computadoras y los videojuegos, los niños están expuestos a demasiados estímulos, y que por eso las clases en la escuela significan un “buen cambio”. Así lo informa en su edición de hoy el diario inglés The Independent.
Barry Williams, maestro del Hertford Regional College en Cambridgeshire, señaló que cuando sus alumnos le dicen que uno de ellos está mirando por la ventana, él se pregunta: “¿No se dan cuenta del estado avanzado del budismo zen que les he enseñado en mis clases?”. Y agregó, confiado: “Estoy formando adultos que podrán formar parte de las discusiones políticas”. [mala traducción: en realidad dijo que está formando adultos que serán capaces de mirar las transmisiones de los partidos políticos]
(Fuente: DPA)


Boring lessons 'are preparation for life'
By Oliver Duff
(The Independent, 14 April 2006)

Pupils needed to get used to the idea that life wasn't a constant "Disney ride", said delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference yesterday. "I don't have the energy to do all-singing all-dancing lessons every day, five-days-a-week, each term," supply maths teacher Zoe Fail explained, to loud cheers. "Children are not bored enough. They are over stimulated. Being bored encourages thinking skills and imaginative play."
Barry Williams, a lecturer at Hertford Regional College in Cambridgeshire, said that those who believed his teaching style was dull "just don't understand the nuances and subtleties of my lessons".
"When they say to me: 'Mr Williams, that girl is looking out of the window staring at a tree,' I say: 'Do they not recognise the advanced stages of Zen Buddhism which I have brought into my lessons?' I am in fact producing adults who will be able to watch party political broadcasts."
Teacher after teacher said that they believed their students to be incapable of handling the mundane aspects of everyday life beyond the television screen or interactive whiteboard.
Antoinette Lavelle, from Cottesmore St Mary's RC Primary School in Hove, said: "In some lessons the skills you are practising might be boring, but are very important in the development of knowledge, such as learning times tables or long division."
Teachers say children need more boring lessons to help them deal with the world beyond the classroom door.
Pupils needed to get used to the idea that life wasn't a constant "Disney ride", said delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference yesterday. "I don't have the energy to do all-singing all-dancing lessons every day, five-days-a-week, each term," supply maths teacher Zoe Fail explained, to loud cheers. "Children are not bored enough. They are over stimulated. Being bored encourages thinking skills and imaginative play."
Barry Williams, a lecturer at Hertford Regional College in Cambridgeshire, said that those who believed his teaching style was dull "just don't understand the nuances and subtleties of my lessons
"When they say to me: 'Mr Williams, that girl is looking out of the window staring at a tree,' I say: 'Do they not recognise the advanced stages of Zen Buddhism which I have brought into my lessons?' I am in fact producing adults who will be able to watch party political broadcasts."
Teacher after teacher said that they believed their students to be incapable of handling the mundane aspects of everyday life beyond the television screen or interactive whiteboard.
Antoinette Lavelle, from Cottesmore St Mary's RC Primary School in Hove, said: "In some lessons the skills you are practising might be boring, but are very important in the development of knowledge, such as learning times tables or long division."