On 'An Interview with Matt Damon's Mom' by Tim Slekar.

• Author: Feilke, Joyce Murdock
• Position: From Our Website - Nancy Carlsson-Paige - Letter to the editor

I became a teacher and then a school counselor in the same era as Nancy. It was a time of inspired learning via project-based instruction that allowed children to develop higher level thinking skills.

Most children have a natural gift for scientific thinking because of their powerful curiosity and amazing imagination.

The current culture looks more like obedience training for dogs and circus animals than a healthy, holistic learning environment for children.

We no longer have inspired learning in a safe environment of "thrive," but fearful learning in a punitive, authoritarian environment of "survive." This causes more primitive thinking, rather than developing higher level thinking skills.

The school environment now uses a pedagogy like that of Germany during the decades leading up to WWII. It focuses only on performance and does not provide for children's...