Listen and Follow

We could spend an entire school year with our students and do nothing more than gather information. What would we have at the end of it? Pages and pages of … not much.

However, we owe our students more than a year of information gathering. Our students need to interact with it, expand it, shrink it, fact-check it, evaluate it, analyse it, synthesise it, discard it, keep it, and learn from it.

Eighteenth-century soldiers were notorious for not following orders.

‘Take your men and charge into that valley!’ commands the general.

‘You mean the valley defended on both sides by cannons?’ asks the sergeant. ‘I don’t think so … sir.’

Military strategists decided to instil discipline from a young age. An education system where children were taught drilled to listen and follow was born.

Fast forward to the 21st century. We’re more enlightened. We have more information at our fingertips. You’ve probably already heard this:

Your phone carries your life, the history of the world, every song ever written and more photos than granny’s shelves full of albums.

Students need to ask questions, in addition to listening and following. But without stimulating information, they won’t ask questions. Listening and following will take a hit as well. Gathering information is the beginning of a beautiful journey.