Recent New York Times article reports on a teaching system in which elementary-school children are put into large classrooms with 60 kids and 4 teachers. The focus is supposedly on collaboration and free learning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/education/11class.html?pagewanted=1
It sounds miserable - mostly because it would be extremely loud, but there could be other reasons, too. It seems like people were trying to suggest this method might be universally useful. No way! I guess I don't remember being a kid much (and I was homeschooled) but I think I would far prefer silence and independent study to this chaos. Anybody who finds loud, people-filled places stressful, distracting or painful would not thrive, or likely even survive, in such an environment - so I suspect this method would be terrible for most people on the autism spectrum. At least the article admits that some kids had to leave the classroom so it's not good for everybody, although it's a shame that those kids had to suffer before leaving.
What do others think of this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/education/11class.html?pagewanted=1
It sounds miserable - mostly because it would be extremely loud, but there could be other reasons, too. It seems like people were trying to suggest this method might be universally useful. No way! I guess I don't remember being a kid much (and I was homeschooled) but I think I would far prefer silence and independent study to this chaos. Anybody who finds loud, people-filled places stressful, distracting or painful would not thrive, or likely even survive, in such an environment - so I suspect this method would be terrible for most people on the autism spectrum. At least the article admits that some kids had to leave the classroom so it's not good for everybody, although it's a shame that those kids had to suffer before leaving.
What do others think of this?