This is a book discussion of Frank Smith's "The Book of Learning and Forgetting." High school teachers discussed the book and its application in our world. Quotes are highlighted & debate points surfaced as the book was discussed...site-specific to our school.

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2. Opening Comments…
• Each of the books we’ve read has had
the idea of learning in groups: tribes or
clubs
• Blaming the Prussians, psychiatrists,
factory moguls, & politicians for our
educational woes won’t change things…
change must come to each classroom
via an individual teacher who is
concerned that real learning is taking
place.

3. “You learn from the company
you keep” (9).

4. Learn From Experience
“Learning can be effortless, continual, permanent –
and also pleasant – though it won’t take place in
the absence of comprehension, interest, or
confidence” (43).
• “But clubs may often be the informal associations
that we belong to just by sharing an interest
and sense of community – the metaphorical
clubs of teachers, parents, students, book
readers, gardeners, joggers, or cyclists – all of
the different groups with which we identify
ourselves” (11).

5. Reading… d writing is the
e of reading an
“The prime valu ough which we
they provide thr
experience
and unobtrusiv ely learn…print
may constantly
is potent” (24). g, which offers
“There is great power in readin
imagination to
supreme oppo rtunities for the
work” (89). thing that make
s
the only
tt
– Kath y: Reading is no
s mart. It’s about
a good stude nt or makes you
se nse of it in your
re ad and making
T aking what you id e and outside th
e
life with experiences ins
classroom.

6. Memorization…
Memorization
-Charlie: Why should we memorize information that
can be referenced?
• Information “will be learned slowly and
doomed to rapid forgetting unless they are
quickly attached to a framework of
knowledge that we already possess” (37).
• 2 Methods of memorizing:
– rhythm & mnemonics.

7. Testing Addiction
“Students themselves have become so
addicted to tests – particularly the
students who expect to score well –
that they are reluctant to read or write
anything, in school or out, unless a
score or a grade will be attached.
Parents are so accustomed to tests
that results are the primary things they
are interested in at parent-teacher
conferences” (63).

8. Testing Alternatives
“Instead of looking at how well learners
perform certain tasks, usually
arbitrarily selected, the classic
approach would be to look at what
tasks the learners have opportunities
to engage in and the degree of their
interests and comprehension” (64).

9. DEBATE POINT: Colleges use ACT/SAT to
decide what students to accept.
 Are we doing our kids a disservice NOT
making them take tests?
DEBATE POINT: Learning & intelligence go
way beyond the test…
 like in Theology…things go beyond the
physical…it’s hard to get kids to
understand that because they are so
focused on the material…the test, the
score, the value, their value, etc.

10. Smith’s Answer to the Debate
“The solution is not for teachers and
students to do better in the
circumstances that are imposed on
them but for the circumstances in
which teaching and learning are
supposed to take place to be
changed” (69).

11. Computers are a tool…not
a replacement for a
teacher.
“They have information but
no insight; memory but no
judgment” (76).

12. How do you reach uninterested students…the
bored ones…the ones that my subject “isn’t
their thing?”
“The way people help learners to make
sense of things is by being flexible – by
helping them in other ways, by offering
alternatives, by finding collaborators
and by protecting them from confusion
and frustration….to be put into helpful
and non-threatening situations where
they can make sense of what is going
on. They grow by becoming members of
clubs, by finding new kinds of
experience, and by having the pressure
of having to learn taken off them” (78).

13. Teachers should not function
“as the instructor who
organizes the learning that
students are supposed to do
but as the guide who makes
what we would like student
to learn interesting,
comprehensible, and
accessible” (80).

14. Correction should be
“seen as collaboration”
not as a punishment.

15. “The way to hold something
into long-term memory is to
relate it to something you
already know” (88).

16. “The antidote [for the difficulties
that come with not understanding
something you are trying to
learn] for that malady is
reflection…” (88).

17. “The solution, once again, is that
learning takes place as a
consequence of collaboration.
Teachers should consider asking
their questions and pursuing
their inquiries in company with
other teachers, with parents, and
especially with their students”
(92).

18. “The teachers who burn out
are the ones who want to
control everything that goes
on in their classrooms” (95).

19. “The greatest enemy of
learning is passivity” (97).

20. Good teachers are “good
organizers, arranging
interesting experiences for
their students and
themselves, and protecting
those experiences from
officious interferences”
(101).

21. DEBATE POINT: What about
lesson deviations off the main
objective? Good? Bad?
Some teachers don’t deal well
with those “surprises.”
Deviate with a purpose!
We need to educate parents in
this new style of project-based
evaluation…no tests.

22. DEBATE POINT: How can we cover
it all?
Textbooks make is seem like you
have to cover it all…primary
sources are more authentic &
valuable.
Teacher as translator when
language gets difficult.
We need a well-rounded view of
history…we need to teach more
in the modern era.

23. DEBATE POINT: We need to find a
balance between project-based
grades & traditional grades like
quizzes, etc.
Feel pressure from parents to
produce grades.
Accountability issue for many
teachers.…because someone is
making us report grades.

24. DEBATE POINT: Our subjects are
too fragmented.
 Freshman year: Tech Apps & Speech;
Church History; Survey of Lit
genres/writing & novels
 Sophomore year: Old/New Testament;
American History; American Lit
 Junior year: European History; British Lit
 Senior year: Non-Western/World History;
World Lit

25. Photo Acknowledgements to Corbis
• 42-21598180 • 42-20743285
• 42-22226089 • 42-22242238
• 42-18914256 • 42-19783489
• 42-17571546 • 42-15483428
• 42-16156357 • 42-16803103
• 42-16156143 • AADW001366
• 42-21389185 • 0-0740490
• 42-16545044 • 42-21821935
• 42-15522555 • 42-15968494
• 42-18343812