Paris stages ‘festival of errors’ to teach French schoolchildren how to think.
- French schools accused of stifling mental creativity
- Science workshops boost accidental inventions
Late in the 19th century, while investigating chicken cholera, Louis Pasteur infected some birds with bacteria that he confidently believed would kill them. He was wrong: not only did the chickens survive; they were completely immune. Pasteur had made a mistake. But in doing so he had also found a vaccine.
Fast forward to the 21st century and France, the country that gave the world the father of modern medicine, – as well as some of the greatest scientists and thinkers of history – is no longer quite so ready to see the benefits of getting things wrong, according to a growing number of intellectuals and education specialists.
They claim the French school system is leaving children bereft of creativity, flexibility of thought and – crucially – confidence in their own mental abilities.
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