But I think here in this chapter Smith was struggling to come up with some magic fix, or some profound way to solve all the problems of today's schools, even though in the back of the book he clearly states that this is not only an impossible task, but unreasonable to charge. I just want to know why he believes that things can't and won't change, if people change, one by one, within these communities. It only has to matter for a few to make a difference. In this chapter Smith has many ideas about how to liberate schools from the official theory of learning. Teachers should not expect change to be easy.
People learn all the time.
He believes teachers shouldn't expect people outside to improve their working conditions and that they must change the world a little bit at a time. He also believes in honesty, such as telling students when an activity is just being used to keep them busy and telling students that tests are just to keep bureaucrats who are obsessed with numbers pacified. Smith realizes what others do not about reading. Anyone who is reading, is learning more about reading, and anyone who is absorbed in mathematics, history, gardening, or deep sea diving is learning more about those subjects and activities. So we can obviously see that the reading is valuable.