The title of the Facebook page I co-administer says it all, really - MISEDUCATION NATION...
I think I'm kinda done with the "save public education" bit...
It's not enough to 'save" public education if all it does is continue to programme our children and perpetuate our oligarchical state...
For me, "how" we educate our children and "what" we educate them about has to change...
Today I've come to the conclusion (many months in the gestating) that my focus now, has to be on working with others to provide more really 'alternative' education models within the public system beginning with some of the premises of unschooling etc...
It's time for learning in the real world, within the community, instead of our children being sequestered away in artificial environments, being treated like widgets in a manufacturing process...
It's time for all our children to be given the resources and opportunities to develop their own unique talents and interests...
It's time for them to be given the space, time, resources and support to learn what they want to learn, at whatever pace and to whatever depth they choose...
A week or so ago, I came up with a new mantra for raising/educating our most precious resource - our children:
OUR KIDS - HAPPY, HEALTHY AND (W)HOLE
NOW IT'S TIME TO MAKE THAT REAL
PS: do you really think we are doing a good thing by our children/students, programming them just to be more cogs in the machine?
It's a complicated world and it's changing every day. "Mastering" skills in isolation is like learning to sail a boat without going out on the water.
Can you stretch your mind and beliefs just a little, and imagine what a completely personalised, child-centred education might look like?
What if we cut the military budget by half and gave each child an Individual Education Plan, based on their strengths and interests? Children with special needs get them; aren't all children unique and special, so shouldn't all children have an IEP?
What if we down-scaled education so that there would no longer be 'classes'? Instead, there would be a vertical curriculum of hundreds of 'subjects' that each child could choose from, could take as long or as short a time to progress through and could go as deep or as shallow as he/she wanted?
What if we "de-normed" education and just gave each child recognition for skills/mastery developed?
What if we took a leaf out of nature's book and brought our children back into the wilds of the world and our society, instead of sequestering/corralling them away in isolated compounds, away from how the world really is/works?
What if they worked in interest groups or individually; what if they were mentored/apprenticed to teachers/members of the community or older students, while they themselves mentored their juniors?
What if we allowed them to "play" their way through their childhoods and into adulthood?
What if we introduced them to all sorts of different aspects of being human/life, rather than just what the corporations think will make them good workers and consumers?
What if we "taught" the academic basics through art and music and drama - do you know how much math is in art and music, for example?
What if we taught pattern instead of specifics?
What if we left them outdoors for weeks on end, learning biology etc through exploration, observation and interaction with the natural world (or what's left of it)?
What if we told them they had all their lives to learn and they didnt have to reach a certain artificial "standard" by a certain age?
What if we brought the elders back into our communities and they taught our children - just by their interaction - how to live a healthy, loving, full life?
My child is not here to serve the system - the system is here to serve him.
It's time education (and all of our world really) was turned around to fit that reality...
Posts
Unfortunately, the system they are creating to replace our current public education system is going to be more of the same but with a profit margin for some. The messages they are going to force into our kids are those that are meant to control them and further enslave us into a society where everyone is in lockstep and no one has the courage to speak up for themselves. Education won't be 'de-normed' because these current trends and initiatives are nothing more than Government sponsored corporate takeovers. The system is worth more in its parts than its whole! Sad that the 'money people' driving all this reform don't really care about the kids.
ReplyDeleteEducation was never really about the kids.... I've got some of Jefferson's writing about his thoughts on what education should look like, and am going to post them in the next couple of days...
ReplyDeleteThanks Sahila! I'm with you and appreciate you keeping folks on their toes. I hesitate to comment on a certain FB page about "alternative learning centers" because the conversation has turned to more of the same (rules, tests, playing into the hands of investors, advertising, etc.). Yikes! Funny how it is so difficult for people to truly deschool themselves. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHey there - thanks for your support and encouragement... I'm not sure how much more stamina I've got left to devote to this...
ReplyDeleteI posted the following today:
"I am perfectly OK with kids taking as long as they need to "get" something and acquire mastery; why then does it frustrate me so much that so many adults are taking so long to recognise and understand some really basic facts about the society/system we live in? It's not rocket science! And their slowness/obtuseness/deliberate ignorance hurts the planet, other species and our children the most..."
to which someone replied:
"Pattern displacement is like what used to be called 'future shock.' But not exactly the same. Future shock is so sudden, it cannot be denied. Pattern displacement is a gradual process where one's world is incrementally transformed and the events along the way are easily subject to denial. Once the new pattern becomes so complete, then it is future shock, which can manifest itself in overt acts of destruction once the thin integument of denial is gone. Widespread insurrections are often the result of completed pattern displacement no longer containable by psychological denial, imo..."
One can only hope that we get to the insurrection part soon, because I really want to use my energy to build something new... not nag at people to wake up and see what is right in front of their noses!
Thanks for your speedy reply! What I have found over there is a few dominating the conversation with a lot of mumbo jumbo of this type. It loses people who practically know, as you say, "what is right in front of their noses". I really get tired of the overanalysis of what is actually quite simple...
ReplyDeleteVULGARITY ALERT!
ReplyDeletewhere I come from, it used to be called:
"wank, wank, money in the bank"...
Yahhhhh! :)It really makes me angry when people purport to be "all about the kids" but then get back into creating another system whereby they stand to profit (exploitation and rule making). Maybe I am off here, but I'm guess that's why you posted "Variations on a Theme-Gold" over there...
ReplyDeleteOh and creating seemingly "golden" things which are really only poo:)
ReplyDeleteVariations on a Theme - Gold is about what is really"gold" and good in nature, versus what we humans create, and the misery we put others through to create our follies, which are no good to anyone really...
ReplyDeleteWe appear to have lost our minds (we cant eat gold - in nature its a worthless mineral), in search of status symbols while ignoring the plight of most of the planet...
And I see many parallels in what is happening in education... its all folly, elitist and damaging...
I don't think anyone over at the FB page will get it (or care to):)
ReplyDelete