Master and Apprentice Reuniting Thinking with Doing John Abbott 2004 DRAFT MANUSCRIPT NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION Dedication To my three sons, Peter, David and Tom, and others of their generation, as they seek to build a more respon- sible, more sensitive and more self-sustaining world. Tell me, and I forget Show me, and I remember Let me do, and I understand After Confucius, China, 5th century BC The National Curriculum sets the standards… all schools set targets and measure their performance. They can easily access best practice information. They have increasing opportunities for professional development. They are held to account through inspections and published performance tables. Department of Education and Employment Schools building on Success: raising standards, promoting diversity, achieving results. London 2001 “(Apprenticeship) was a system of education and job training by which important practical informa- tion was passed from one generation to the next; it was a mechanism by which youths could model themselves on socially approved adults… it provided safe passage from childhood to adulthood in psycho- logical, social and economic ways.” The Craft Apprentice W.J. Rorabaugh, 1988 Acknowledgements Firstly, and most importantly, I owe a great debt of wards, I owe a massive debt to the creative genius gratitude to my wife, Anne, who has good-natured- of Terry Ryan, the Initiative’s senior researcher, to ly tolerated my preoccupation with this writing Mary Robinson my secretary at the time, and to the over the past three years, and endured much dis- staff at Rothschild Venture Capital in Connecticut ruption to our home at the same time. Without her Avenue for the use of their offices. To Paul Cappon this book could never have been written. Alongside in Canada as Director General of the Council of I must thank my sons; Peter for his careful review Educational Ministers, and also to Ted Marchese of of various books and general editorial assistance, the American Association for Higher Education; to David for further reviews and his work on the sup- Charles Bray, the President of the Johnson Foun- portive website, and Tom for constantly reminding dation of Wisconsin; to Stephanie Pace-Marshall me that life is about more than writing books! To of Illinois, Dee Dickinson of Seattle, Ash Hartwell, my trustees, especially David Peake, Tom Griffin Geoffrey and Renate Caine of California and Bob and Chris Wysock-Wright, whose enthusiasm for Sylwester of Oregon - my absolute gratitude for the book, and constant encouragement have reas- your help in so many ways. To Professor Dick Wil- sured me even in the most difficult times. Special liams of Seattle, who just happened to be around at thanks are due to my personal assistant, Doreen several of the most important parts of this story; to Smith, who with maternal pride has seen so many Wiktor Kulerski, who did so much to rid Poland of drafts pass through her computer; to Janet Lawley, the communist rulers and taught us in the Initia- a Fellow of the Initiative, for much helpful advice tive so much about the art of being ‘responsible and assistance, and to Anna South, whose edito- subversives’; to Dee Hock the founder of the Visa rial support has been magnificent: from her I have Corporation whose life story helped us make sense learnt the value of a thesaurus, and the magic of of complexity theory; to Ken Tolo, a senior adviser reconstructing sentences so that the words really to the US Secretary of Education who taught me so sing. much about the niceties of the American politi- So many have helped with comments on the cal process, and finally to Luis Alberto Machado, various drafts that I fear there will inevitably be former minister for the Development of National names I have omitted, though their comments Intelligence in Venezuela, Aklilu Habte, formerly were always taken most seriously; Tom Healy, chancellor of the Haile Selassie University in Helen Drennen, Paul Fisher, Terry Ryan, Katie Ethiopia, Waddi Haddat, former deputy president Jones, Glynn Scott, Bob Wolfson, Roger Nunn, of the Lebanon and Aharon Abiran, the director of Richard Smythe, Neil Richards, Sister Theresa the Centre for Futurist Studies at the University MacCormick, Kevin Hawkins, Keith Hildrew, John of Negev in Israel. Finally to Sally Goerner who Quinn, Tim Baddeley, David Stein, Richard Foun- helped me to understand the history of scientific tain, Nick Bruner, David Rosa, Lee Gibson, Daniel thought. Wright, David Cracknell, Ann Oppenheimer, In the past four years I have been privileged to Jacquie Hughes, Sylvia Macnamara, Kier Bloomer, work extensively with hundred of headteachers Frank Newhoffer, Johannes Slabbert, Sue Eagle on various training programmes over a number and Nigel Coren. of days in England, Ireland and Canada, while I Going back over the time in which I have been have addressed more than two hundred and fifty responsible for Education 2000 and The 21st conferences of teachers and others across England, Century Learning Initiative there are so many oth- Wales, Scotland and Ireland. To all those I have ers whose energy and commitment to these ideas worked with in Canada, the United States, Co- actually created the story which this book tells. Ray lumbia, right across Europe and the Middle East; Dalton, Andrew Egerton-Smith, Sidney Melman, in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Namibia and South Richard Dix-Pincott, Lawrie Edwards-Major, Tina Africa; in Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taylor, David Little, Brian Corby, Keith Joseph, Australia. I hope this book, while having a specifi- Brian Richardson, John Banham and the head- cally English focus, will remind all of them of the teachers of the schools of Letchworth, Leeds, Ips- lively discussions that we had under different skies wich, Loughborough, Calderdale, Bury, Tring and and in different climates – but always about the Swindon, with whom I worked for up to ten years. same thing… empowering young people to become In Washington as well as for the two years after- for ever better than ourselves. Previous Publications The Earth’s Changing Surface, 1975 with Michael Bradshaw and Anthony Gelsthorpe The Iranians: How they Live and Work, 1977 Learning Makes Sense, 1994 The Child is Father of the Man: How Humans Learn and Why, 1999 The Unfinished Revolution: Learning, Human Behav- iour, Community and Political Paradox, 2000 with Terry Ryan Contents Preface “Master and Apprentice; Reuniting Thinking with Doing.” i Introduction Starting points iv Chapter One A Week in Venice 1 Part One The Distant Past 14 Chapter Two Telling Stories about Creation 16 Chapter Three Telling Stories about Rocks and People 26 Part Two Our Recent Past 35 Chapter Four The World we have come from 39 Chapter Five From apprenticeship to the playing fields of Eton, and the Crystal Palace 49 Chapter Six The Age of Reform 60 Chapter Seven The Growth of Empire 70 Chapter Eight American “thinkers”, and English Social Confusion 81 Chapter Nine 1944 and the Birth of a New Order 95 Part Three The Here and Now 105 Chapter Ten The Child is Father of the Man 107 Chapter Eleven Learning to be one of the players 120 Chapter Twelve On my own with a Vision 133 Chapter Thirteen Discussions in the Great Hall 141 Chapter Fourteen High Politics and Responsible Subversives 153 Chapter Fifteen Face to Face with the Stone Age 164 Chapter Sixteen The Inner workings of the Brain 176 Part Four Our Possible Futures 189 Chapter Seventeen Pilgrim or Customer? 190 Chapter Eighteen Honouring Adolescence 202 Chapter Nineteen Into the Dark, to see the brilliance of the Stars 213 Postcript Heirs to a mighty inheritance 227 i Preface It’s strange the comments we remember from long experience was a poor teacher1. He claimed that a ago. student could learn more from books in a single In my case it was the sergeant major shouting month than he could from twenty months of learn- at us young cadets as we struggled to understand ing on the job. the finer points of map reading. “If you don’t know This tension between matters of the mind and where you’ve come from and you’ve no idea where those of the hand continues to distract the Eng- you need to be then, lads, you’re well and truly lish as we struggle to find an appropriate balance lost.” To a soldier who had fought across North Af- for everything we believe should be involved in rica and up the length of Italy, not knowing where education. It’s my belief that Roger Ascham set up you were meant you were in Big Trouble. Not a false antithesis. Successful individuals, as with being able to describe your present position meant successful societies, need to be both thoughtful no one could rescue you. and practical. They need to dream big dreams, That’s a good metaphor for this book. If we but to have their feet well grounded in reality. In don’t understand where our ideas about education the currency of education there are many issues have come from, and we’re not sure of the kind of to consider; as with a coin there are frequently society we should be trying to build, then we are two sides to each issue and often these represent literally and metaphorically lost. Be we parents, contradictions – ‘heads you win, tails I lose’. Educa- politicians, students or teachers, if we can’t locate tion is full of such apparent contradictions. The list where we are, we go off aimlessly wandering in is long; thinking and doing, formal instruction and circles, unable to connect with those who might be informal experience, the classroom and the world able to help us.