ABSTRACT
For some time I have reached the conclusion that teachers are far too autocratic in their approach to children’s learning. There are a lot of myths around about tailoring the curriculum to the children’s needs, about respecting children as individuals and about helping children to realize their potential. There is not much evidence to suggest that is what is actually happening. Grandiose claims are made but the reality pans out as something quite different. Tailoring the curriculum to the children’s needs produces neat sets of difficulty graded worksheets; respecting children as individuals just means being even more aware that there are thirty plus of them in your class, and helping the children realize their potential means ‘stretching’ them with more of the same but with added tension. A lot of that is said tongue in cheek but it serves to make the point that rarely are the children themselves involved in the planning of their learning. Letting children take charge of their own learning is yet another myth that is bandied about. Children are rarely given that opportunity because the consequences mean letting go of the comfortable props that surround the orthodox teaching-learning situation.
