Talking about education is always stinging, and more so when Catherine L'Ecuyer does, the researcher who warns of the dangers of screens and the tyranny of some parents who confuse needs with whims. On this occasion, it is immersed in the dissemination of a new teaching current that goes beyond the evaluation of grades.
QUESTION. Some teachers complain that they are using the kids as guinea pigs with so many educational experiments. Is that so?
ANSWER. Yes, although it depends on the school. Many times, due to the fever for innovation, we put ourselves in tow of fashions and lose the perspective of an education based on scientific evidence.
Q. How is this evidence measured?
A. It is true that not everything can be proven through science, but there are pedagogical methods that are discredited, such as early stimulation. And then there are others, such as the use of tablets in classrooms, which must meet two weights of the test. Where is the evidence that they have benefits for learning and that they have no harmful effects? In that sense I do think we are experimenting with children.
Q. Better to evaluate with grades or skills?
A. The mechanistic current, which is the idea that the letter enters with blood and that the child is a passive entity, the only thing that matters is the note. In the romantic-idealist current, learning is a consequence of the student's construction of his knowledge. There we resort to subjective concepts such as competences. But then there is the classical current, for which I advocate, in which what matters is the development of personality and the transmission of culture. Here not only the grade matters, but the understanding that is given throughout the process, from the preparation of the exam, its execution and correction.
P. In his latest book, 'Conversations with My Teacher', he dismantles the system of rewards and punishments. Is it a sin for Kings to bring coal?
A. This system fits into the mechanistic model, which understands the child as a black box, in which only what enters and leaves is interested, not their internal motivations. What happens when we encourage with rewards and threaten punishments? That the child's locus of control will be external and, therefore, will have the feeling that he has no responsibility for his actions and will tend to blame others. He will say, "I have been suspended," instead of "I have suspended."
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Q. What is the best age to deliver a mobile?
A. If we talk about a mobile without Internet, I could say that from 13 or 14 years old. Now, a smartphone can become a weapon of mass destruction. Nowadays these types of phones are given to children who are not prepared to use them. They can change even their character. I do not want to give any age because it depends on each family, but I think the best criterion to take into account is to wait as late as possible, because the best preparation for the online world is the offline world. That is, the more prepared they are, the better. This means having temperance, a sense of discretion, distinguishing the private from the public, and having the ability to control impulsivity and concentrate. We are talking about a maturity that is not acquired at 12 or 14 years old. What's more, there are people out of 40 who don't have it either.
P. You lead by example...
A. A smartphone is an excessively expensive device to give to minors. Why do we do it? What I am going to say is outrageous, but let them have it when they can pay it! And before the argument of "my son is going to be the weirdo, he is not going to relate", I always answer that you can call the mobile from a landline. I do not pretend to be any model, but this formula worked very well for us: when our eldest daughter turned 17, we gave her an old smartphone that is only used at home, we blocked applications except whatsapp and gave her access to the Internet only through WiFi. And we did the same with the second. They share the same device.
Q. What would you say to parents who put the tablet on the table to distract them?
A. I would encourage you to read about the implications of using screens at an early age. The American and Canadian pediatric associations have recommended for years that children under two years old do not use any screen, and that those from two to five years old spend less than an hour a day in front of them. It is not an educational council, but a public health council.
P. What spreads in the networks is a hypersexualization of the youngest. How is it dealt with?
A. We are losing the sense of intimacy and authenticity. There are children who have never seen reality, who have not even seen a chicken and think that the eggs come from Mercadona, or they are asked to draw a rabbit and paint Bugs Bunny. We think they are digital natives, but there is no evidence to show that they have learned better by having had more contact with technology. Moreover, there is evidence to the contrary. Being used to technological multitasking, they leave less room for reflection. So we have children without context who are cannon fodder for fake news.
Q. How do you evaluate a good school?
A. A good school is one that does not sell to fashions and incorporates methods supported by evidence. It is the one in which you read a lot, and classic works. It is the one in which the bathrooms are clean, not because there is a professional picking up or disembodying the pikes, but because the importance of knowing how to be and courtesy to others has been transmitted to the students. These are details that say a lot about education.
Q. Why are parental pressures on teachers increasing, according to the unions?
A. On the one hand, we have the phenomenon of the 'boy king', whose parents think that the son is always right and cannot be corrected. This is how a potential narcissist is created, and a society full of narcissists is an ungovernable society. On the other hand, we have schools in which opposing and incompatible visions coexist at the root, and until true educational freedom is achieved in private, concerted and public schools, these tensions that complicate teaching will continue to exist.
Q. Have parents become infantilized?
A. Parents obeyed their parents and now, somehow, they obey their children. In many cases, tyrant children are encouraged because basic needs are confused with whims.
Q. Do children command more than parents?
A. Children are crying out for limits. If we give them everything before they even want it, they will think that the world works their way. What about a 17-year-old who thinks girls have to behave the way he wants? And, if we add the factor of pornography consumption, we have violence against women and inability to understand the beauty of sexuality.
P. My father is one of those who regret that marbles are no longer played...
A. The digital world has erased the magical realm of traditional play, slower and in contact with nature... All children should go through that wonderful stage of childhood, do not cut them like bonsai.
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