Dear Warren and Idit,
I’d like to add just two points to your thoughtful interchange. RE: Warren writes “what’s the harm in some of those old-fashioned basic skills, as long as they’re fun and are meaningful? Can’t you have your cake and eat it too?…..”
First, some of those so-called basic skills are harmful when they convey a wrong sense of what is basic knowledge… of what mathematics is all about. They are also harmful when they support parent and teacher anxieties aroused when individual children don’t achieve some set standard at some set age and especially when oppressive or deceptive measures are taken to force children into line. I agree with Warren as long as he takes seriously his language: “….As long as they are meaningful.” I’ll even pass on the fun part….. Much of what we do is not “fun” all the time. We do very boring things very willingly when we know they are part of a larger personally meaningful whole. But we must pay attention to the reference of the word ‘they’ in my quote from Warren. It must be the math… or whatever… that is meaningful and not merely the activity in which it is embedded.
Example: learning about solar energy by making a solar hot dog cooker is not hiding the fact that it is about solar energy. Solar energy is* about using solar energy and this is what they did in the hot dog project.
Secondly, making a crossword puzzle to focus on spelling is really great if the learner does it… That is to say if it is done honestly. Sounds to me like Warren and his kids did it together consciously and openly.
S. Papert