Ban rubbing out! Why one professor says erasers are ‘an instrument of the devil’

http://www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2015/may/27/ban-rubbing-out-professor-says-erasers-instrument-of-the-devil-guy-claxton

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Name: The eraser.

Age:

Appearance: Damning.

Eraser? Are you pretending to be American? It’s a rubber. A rubber. But some people think that’s a condom.

Only Americans. Enough with the cultural cringe. Assert yourself. OK, well, whatever – erasers, rubbers, or india rubbers, to give them their original name.

That’s slightly imperialist. There’s no pleasing you, is there? Whatever you call them, Guy Claxton wants them banned.

Who’s Guy Claxton? A cognitive scientist and visiting professor at King’s College London.

Why does he want them banned? Is it a health and safety issue? Are children gazing at them in bafflement and trying to use them as iPad props? Was he attacked by one as a child? He says the eraser “is an instrument of the devil because it perpetuates a culture of shame about error. It’s a way of lying to the world, which says, ‘I didn’t make a mistake. I got it right first time.’”

It erases the truth! And the opportunity and ability to reflect on and learn from the learning process itself! Exactly. According to Claxton, erasers should be banned and mistakes acknowledged as part of a wider move towards schools preparing students for real life and not just exams.

They do say failure is the best teacher. I always thought that was because they had met my teachers. They were a motley crew. No, it’s because setbacks and errors throw you back on your own resources and build character, which you need as you grow up and no one is there to shepherd you from multiple-choice question to multiple-choice question or from retake to retake.

I was prepared to mock the man who wanted to ban basic stationery items. But I acknowledge my mistake. Now that my ignorance of his motivation has been erased, I see him for what he truly is. Something between a valuable repository of sound common sense and a pedagogical visionary?

Precisely so, yes. Marvellous. What an unexpectedly positive note to end on! Let’s have more of these!

Do say: “You don’t need rubbers to bounce back from your mistakes!”

Don’t say: “Failure is not an option. Especially if by ‘rubbers’ you mean ‘condoms’.”