> Sorry, still no evidence. When kids arrive in the first grade, their
> personality cores are crystallized, already.
Huh? What do you mean by personality cores? My impression, after
finishing an introductory psychology course, is that personality is very
flexible long past adolescence. There are of course some basic traits
that remain fairly constant (and might have a biological explanation)
such as introversion/extroversion or novelty seeking, but these traits
may be expressed and re-evaluated in a multitude of ways as personality
develops. In the first grade, much of the mind of the child is still
under development.
> While it is perfectly
> possible to ruin the love of learning by atrocious paedagogics, how can
> one reform a learning-avoider?
By finding out why the avoider avoids learning (lack of interest, social
pressure, resistance to authority, the use of wrong sensory modalities in
teaching etc.) and circumventing or removing the hinder. The most
important thing is to learn what triggers the enthusiasm of the student -
whatever that may be - and then link it to learning.
> Potential there might well be (but how much?)
> -- but what to do if there's no will? How to negate unfavourable
> influences coming from outside the school?
This is not just a schooling problem, but a global problem. How to handle
a world where most people don't want to change themselves?
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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