Interiority given/ Kepedalamanan diberi
15.13 The present state of affairs in many of our schools must not be regarded as an unavoidable consequence of the institutionalizing of learning. For learning as for many other activities, an institutional setting can offer many advantages, including continuity, the availability of shared resources too expensive for individuals alone, the attraction of funds from outside, specialization and the exchange of expertise, and the company of those with similar intersts. An institution for learning can be highly positive-sum for those who participate, and can help to actualize for the community as a whole the potential provided by human intelligence. Even as things are now, there are schools where pupils receive more good than harm.
So having identified some, at least, of the causes of the present predicament, the next step is clearly to explore possible alternatives. Given that learning is a natural activity, particularly vigorous in children but operative at all ages, it begins to seem obvious that, as Einstein said in the passage already quoted, 'It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.' What the learner most needs is opportunities for accelerated learning, as was emphasized in Section 14.2; and these an institution for learning is particularly well able to provide. At such an institution, teachers are but one kind of resources among others such as libraries, studios, workshops, laboratories, sport centres, depending on what is to be learnt. But the most important factor is freedom: freedom of the learner to choose what he wants to learn, and freely to seek the help of the institutions, including that of its teachers, to enable him to learn it quicker, better, or in some cases to learn it at all. This in my (Skemp's) view implies also freedom not to do so. Though many will disagree with the last, in the present model compulsion forces the teacher-learner relationship from type 2 to type 1, and is the root from which all the other problems stem. Wars are fought for freedom, and I believe this to be the underlying cause of most of the small 'guerilla wars' which go on in many schools today.
If this view is accepted, it is also reasonable for both the institution and its individual teachers to require of a learner that if he chooses to learn a particular topic, he follows a planned course of instruction, performs certain tasks, and fulfills certain other obligations in exchange for the right to receive their help. If he finds the benefits provided not to his liking, he must be free to withdraw: not necessarily unconditionally, but under conditions known in advance and accepted as part of the obligations.
Under such conditions, the relationship between a learner and a teacher is clearly that between student and mentor. Co-operation in learning is by its nature more difficult than one in which the operand is external, and is open to direct perception by both; as was explained in Section 14.3. It therefore needs the most favourable conditions possible if it is to succeed, and a mentor-student relationship offers hope of providing these. For the only person who has direct access to the operand is the student, since the operand is a delta-one system within himself. The only person who can directly set the learning goal is also the student. So what is required is a situation in which the student's delta-two system gets whatever help it needs to perform the function which ultimately only it can do: for it is only the student's own delta-two system which can act on his delta-one.
Once the learner comes to the teacher, everything else falls into place. The student wants the help offered by the mentor, and from what is offered he takes what he needs. That which he is not ready for and cannot immediately use, he should be free to leave on one side till he is ready for it. On the side of the mentor, his task is to teach, and encourage. It is not necessary for him to persuade or coerce. If a student is progressing well unaided, and he is not likely to fall into bad habits which will later be hard to change, the mentor may do well not to intervene: for there are times when the least teaching is the best teaching, and simply to know that help is available when needed is the best help.
The benefits of the foregoing relationship apply equally whether it is outside or within an institution. But under the right conditions, an institution can offer the additional advantages which have already been described, and these can apply to the mentors as well as to the students.
Such conditions may sound utopian; but they can and do exist in principle, since universities, colleges, polytechnics, academies of music, schools of art and design, are attended voluntarily by learners over the age of compulsory school attendance. For some students they exist also in reality. But to the extent that learners, and perhaps their teachers, also carry over attitudes and role conceptions from their long periods of compulsory schooling, the mentor-student relationship is distortingly construed in terms of earlier schooler-pupil relationship, and some of its benefits are lost. This is one of the reasons why a 'mature student', one who returns to college or university after a period during which he has had time to shed some of his conceptions about institutionalized learning, is often such a joy to teach.
Richard R. Skemp, Intelligence, Learning, and Action p. 279
In spite of the limited twin time in my log, I was ready to meet the Fouga. On the ground its low profile puts you eye to eye with the challenge. In the air, Grieshaber soon put me on the airplane's wavelength. Power changes and normal control inputs yield no surprises. Although the Fouga has no stall-warning system, the prestall buffet is unmistakable, and recovery from either normal or aggravated stalls is easy with or without power.
Aerobatics in the Fouga are a sheer delight. More than enough power and a large, sturdy V tail make even sloppy attempts at rolls acceptable. Forcibly wagging the tail creates only minor oscillations that damp out quickly. Inverted, the Fouga can fly for about 90 seconds. Hanging by the straps, I can manage about 15 seconds.
Article from Flying Magazine - May 1988, written by Mibuan Brenlove
Photographs of the Finnish Fouga Magister owned by Paul Grieshaber in flight provided by Caz Dalton
Fouga Magister N19FM (x-Finnish Air Force FM-31) owned by Paul Grieshaber
posted by Yang Benar at
6:13 pm
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