What's the point of teachers?

I mean, I know teachers are needed to keep children moving around the building we call a 'school'. Actually, I can even buy the idea that we are needed within that building to answer questions or, at least, to set students in the right direction to answer their own questions, or, even more at least, to show them some of the skills of finding stuff out and making sense of it. So I suppose what I really mean is, 'What's the point of lessons?'

Here's why I'm questioning it all. I've recently come to the end of a two-year A level course, 'teaching' students about psychology. Only, something interesting happened in the run-up to the exams. The students started to do something they called 'revising.' Nothing new about that, except that what they really meant was 'learning' and as far as I could tell this was more-or-less learning from scratch, as if we hadn't really done any real 'learning' for the previous year or two.

This strikes a chord because I've noticed, in previous years, my own inclination to race through a syllabus in order to 'cover' it as quickly as possible and get into 'revision lessons'. What!? Maybe I was kidding myself! Maybe what I really meant was that I wanted to cover the syllabus quickly in order to get on to the 'learning lessons.' That is, spend MOST OF THE YEAR getting something out of the way before I could start getting into the business of learning!? Well if that's the case I really need to know what this 'covering' business is. This thing that's taking up most of the time.

Maybe it's this: it's a pointless exercise that we ('we' being teacher and students) go through for a number of reasons:

1. It's the way it's always been done (I have no idea if that's true by the way)
2. We all feel better, safe in the knowledge that we've covered everything we need to cover for the exam: we've 'got it covered'
3. You can do really satisfying things like write a lovely clear 'Scheme of Work' which sets out, at the start of the year, exactly how you are going to 'cover' everything you need to cover so that we've all got it covered.
4. It probably lends itself to the school set-up where you have a set timetable with a sequence of lessons
5. I can't think of anything else

Okay, so what's the alternative?

Well, I've seen the alternative in action because it's exactly what was happening when the students I mentioned earlier got into what they thought of as 'revision' mode. First off, they figured out all kinds of different ways of learning stuff that worked for them. Two of the boys started working together  writing flash cards and testing each other in such a good-humoured way that it was like watching an on-going Morecombe and Wise sketch (a reference they would probably be nonplussed by). One of the girls produced a beautifully presented artists sketch book with notes, cut-outs, images, etc. Another girl bombarded me with exam-style questions she'd answered, asking for feedback. Someone else produced a poster with every element of the Child Psychology topic on it, in the shape of a child (genius!) Someone else really took to my own favourite way of figuring stuff out which is to create a model (flowchart-like) of complex theories.

Yes, the 'lessons' I conducted when 'covering' the syllabus included some of these things but here's the difference: during the 'revision' mode the students were figuring out how they wanted to work and what areas they really needed to work on. I was just there to help.

Now then, what if we just got straight into these 'revision' lessons right from the start of the year? Even before there's anything to 'revise'? What would the problems be?

1. The students might not 'cover' everything. That's pathetic - give them a list.
2. The teacher doesn't get a chance to inspire and enthuse the students about their subject. I've just freed-up about 6 months of lesson time within which, rather than 'covering' stuff you can spend a bit of time explaining some of the elements of the subject that got you into it in the first place.
3. The teacher won't know at what level the students are working. You could talk to them? You could still set tests?

I can't really think of anything else. So that's it - I'm trying it from Sept and the 'Scheme of Work' is in the bin. Or maybe, what I'm looking for is 'Flipped Learning'?