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UK prof says it's time to pitch erasers from classrooms so kids can learn from mistakes

Erasers are an ‘instrument of the devil’ and should be banned from classrooms, according to education expert Guy Claxton

CBC --- Erasers may look benign, but a cognitive scientist in the UK says beware what's inside your child's pencil case.

Guy Claxton, a visiting professor at King's College, London told British newspapers that "erasers are the instrument of the devil," this week. 

Claxton says we do need to rub out the idea that kids aren't allowed to make mistakes.

"The problem with erasers is, if you're not careful, they perpetuate an idea that to be successful you have to get things right the first time. And the eraser says if you didn't get it right the first time, rub it out and pretend that you did. So, the written record looks like you're smarter than you are."

He says the idea that work needs to be perfect is damaging to kids in the long run.

"It's as if we're training children to be little performers rather than little improvers, and in the long run that doesn't stand them in good stead. The international research is very clear that attitudes like persistence in the face of difficulty, curiosity, and imagination count for more in life than the grades that students get."

 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
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