Learning is better than teaching

Learning is better than teaching because it is more intense: the more that is taught, the less can be learned. (This method should not be applied to pure areas of knowledge.)

and

as pupils and teachers we must learn together, with and from each other, as pupils and teachers (in competition, which elevates), otherwise education is both a thankless task and bad business.

from: TEACHING FORM THROUGH PRACTICE

Published in Josef Albers at The MetropolitanMuseum of Art: An Exhibition of his Paintings and Prints, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, p.1.

Josef Albers

Last week I went to the Albers and Moholy-Nagy exhibition at Tate Modern with our A Level artists. The exhibition, which I thought might come across as dated and stuck in a particular period style, contained some very fresh and interesting work. This work on aluminium was by László Moholy-Nagy and had a very powerful sense of movement. What doesn't show in this reproduction is that some of the circles are holes in the aluminium and the grey created by shadow on the wall behind.

László Moholy-Nagy: Construction AL6 1933/4, Oil on aluminium, 600 x 500 mm.,
IVAM, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Generalitat Valenciana

I was also stuck by Albers writing on art education and in particular the issue of how we teach. The quotes above , which were written on the wall in large type, come from Albers writing on his concerns on how knowledge is communicated to the student by the teacher. He clearly wants the teacher to respect the learners individual personality and interests

the inductive educational method propagated here seeks [...] to pass on to the learner the knowledge required for his choice of profession [...] that most closely reflect his requirements.

The message is that we must value the ideas of the student and support their interests. in the school context being "child centered". Free or Structured?