ABSTRACT
For schools the arbitrariness of knowledge remains, in general, a speculation for the hereafter - in universities perhaps. The emphatic logic of school concerns the induction of pupils into the certainties of the curriculum. And those certainties are further intensified by a rigorous examinations system whose syllabuses emphasise the enclosures of knowledge represented by subject divisions. Information in such a world, despite the lip-service paid to ‘research’ in schools via so-called ‘discovery learning’ or ‘project work’ or ‘child-centred education’ is rarely in -formation. It is ossified. It’s a jigsaw. And one where it is advisable to begin with the straight edges. This representation of knowledge distorts the image of a learning disturbance which must have been around since people began teaching each other. Briefly, it concerns the conflicting desires which are at the roots of our active mental grappling with the world. The conflict revolves around order and chaos, growth and entrophy, accuracy and approximation. The conundrum of order and chaos, despite being ontologically central to scientific study and a basic tensile ingredient of subjects with a strong philosophic component such as are found in the Humanities and Social Sciences, nevertheless has not made any great mark upon the curriculum of schools.
