Kerre Woodham: Whatever happened to trying an idea first to see if it works?

Every generation thinks they can do something newer and better, starting with sex and going through to politics and how to manage the planet and, you know, everything. We all think we know better than the previous generation.

But seriously, when the Ministry of Education started banging on about bringing back modern learning environments, I rolled my eyes and thought they don’t work. I've seen these before, they simply don't work. They might work for a couple of kids, but not for the majority. Factory farming children isn't a great way to teach, that's why schools went back to educating children in classrooms.

Oh no, say the modern ideologues, no, no, no, no, no.

Let's put 90 children together in one room and there can be self-taught learning and the more capable children in one area can coach children and bring them up to speed and gain lessons from one another and teachers will be able to work cooperatively. It didn’t work back then, doesn't work now.

And that has been backed up by a report from the New Zealand Initiative’s Senior fellow Doctor Michael Johnson.

Can we please get all political parties to promise from henceforth, that when they're bringing in a bold new idea, they try it out first and then they evaluate it, they see if it works.

And if the answer is no, you scrap the idea. Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to see a result. If it works great, keep going. Keep putting money into it. If it doesn't, scrap it.

Like scrapping the modern learning environments.

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