The Book of Learning and Forgetting

"I have an elderly friend who lives along in English, filling his days watching news and sports on television and reading more news and sports coverage, with a lot of celebrity gossip, in his newspapers... He ... regales me with moe gossip about the British roya. famly and anyone should reasonably be subjected to.... At times I fnatasize that I will resort to the offical theory of learning to stem this flood of unwanted information about the private lives of the royal family. (p. 30) I imagine telling my friend he should work harder to learn. I'll ask him to pay greater attention to news about the royal family in future and to take extensive notes. To help his learning I'll send him frequent tests. I'll also keep a record of his scores and let him know if he is keeping up or falling behind. I'll share these scores with his friends so they can encourage him. I'll tell him he shouldn't have any great diffciulty with the tests because 80 percent of people his age score very high on them. To motivate him, I might even suggest that the amount of his pension could depend on how well he does." (p. 31) (Smith, Frank. The Book of Learning and Forgetting. Teachers College Press, 1998)
Hey I think I might have taken that class! (This book was recommended by one of the participants in the Elluminate session with Sir Ken Robinson the other evening. Recording available here http://www.learncentral.org/event/60493/Sir+Ken+Robinson