As it was succinctly put in a recent article by an educator named Erin Murphy in the Wharton School’s online journal, the Beacon, the earliest forms of teaching and learning were essentially a case of “monkey see, monkey do.” In preliterate hunter-gatherer societies, parents taught their children the basic survival skills by practicing them themselves and, whenever possible, inserting an element of play into the process. This form of teaching was simply an extension of the way other animals also taught their young. Lion cubs, for example, learn to hunt by mimicking the stalking postures and
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