As I have just graduated and received what some call a diploma signifying completion of a “higher” education I would like to put down some of my thoughts on the subject. As some of you have tried or considered homeschooling I write some of this specifically to you.
I have a pretty typical love-hate relationship with school that I believe most of you can relate to. I love the social aspects, I love the discovery, and I love the feeling when I finally figure something out that is terribly difficult even if I can’t brag to anyone about it. Unfortunately to get there I have to deal with the daily busy-work homework, droning teachers, over-pressured schedules, and a lot of topics that I could care less about. Really, is it worth it? Couldn’t there possibly be a better way? There has to be options out there to the regular public education system…we are a consumer society and need options for everything, yet even homeschooling is schooling and elective courses are still courses. The option presented in the attached website may not be the best alternative, but it does give a pretty interesting case study that should be looked at.
This is where you stop and read the linked write up (http://tinyurl.com/cs2gyg)
Here are the issues I see with this:
He makes the comment that “You develop deep peer relationships around areas of common interest, (using the unschooling program) once you're allowed to explore and discover what those areas of interest are. And the Internet and online gaming allow you to make those relationships anywhere in the world, to draw on the brightest experts on the planet, and to communicate powerfully with like-minded, curious people of every age, culture and ideology.”
Is that what we really want? Is that good education? I would submit that a large part of education and learning is true, real, face to face communication with individuals of all different backgrounds. Why do you think colleges hold diversity in students as such a high classification when judging applicants? My stake president a month ago is quoted to say “Facebook and texting are not the Lords way (of communicating, building relationships, or dating,) Face to face communication is what the Lord wants.”
My theory is that people only get weirder as they get older and it is mostly due to their narrow focus. Children’s minds are so diverse. With age comes a narrowing of scope and the narrower the scope the weirder they are. Look at some of the physicists dad works with. Look at most of the students in the engineering building, the music department, accounting, business, or English classrooms. Narrow minded people become stereotypically weird. They are “those” people. The only way to avoid this is to diversify your knowledge and continue to learn many new things.
I do not want to just shoot down his ideas though. I think he may be on a very good track here. We do need some sort of change. We should be more excited about our schooling. Students should want to learn and should be taught in subjects they will be excited for. This leads to my next issue.
I have discussed the issue of public schooling with a number of my roommates. We talk about public schooling as a student factory, driving production of students and bringing the average education up. The issue is then that everyone is at the average and few excel. The suggestion given in the attached essay is the same given by my roommates (one of them actually sent this to me) which are to teach what students are interested in learning and ignore the things they are bored of. The idea is that when a student wants to learn how to build a rocket the teacher will explain that there is lots of hard math involved and that they need to get started now in order to understand it. In the mean time lets learn about art, English, and tell stories from history which have such a small learning curve that we can dive in to them right now. OK, so I am exaggerating a little, but this is how I see it actually happening. Students will only learn easy things. The hard math and sciences will be lost.
I learned a lot in the public education system. I learned more than just to read and write well. I learned the math and the science right alongside good people skills and, in college, religion. These “extra” subjects helped round me out and make me (hopefully) less of a stereotypical dry boring engineer. I won’t say it was perfect, there are plenty of problems with it, but it has worked for me. I might even say it has worked well for me. Thanks, mom and dad for giving me this opportunity to become a more contributing member of society.
Dear family,
May I suggest the following rules for essay-writing????
1- One hour time limit. (5-minutes definitely fits under this time limit)
2- No guilt about not writing
3- When possible, hit the “reply to all” button when replying to an essay
Open for suggestions or additions….
Love, Holly
Link: Mifferules
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6 comments:
Dan,
Great subject! This is actually a subject that I have looked into quite a bit. (just ask Shirley!) I am actually sold on unschooling, but it is more than just saying, "okay kids, do whatever you want." If you want a good book on the subject, I would suggest A Thomas Jefferson Education.
I think the most important part of it, in the case of the essay you referenced, was that the author had a group of friends that he met with every day that were all intelligent and interested in learning. They would get together and discuss the things they were learning. This encourages them to learn about the things that are discussed, and expand into other areas that they need to know to understand the topic.
A good example of what kids can learn if they are encourage to learn what they are interested in is called Rocket Boys. I don't remember the author off the top of my head. Admittedly, the boys written about in that book focused on building rockets, but they definitely didn't just learn the easy stuff. The author (it is an autobiography) went on to be one of the scientists at NASA.
From what I have seen, the most important ingredient for 'unschooling' to work is to have a group to discuss things with. This is how Thomas Jefferson learned, and is how Benjamin Franklin describes his education. They found intelligent people and talked with them regularly about everything. For school age kids, probably the most effective would be for the parents to have a love of learning themselves, and talk about whatever they are learning about at the dinner table.
So why don't Shirley and I do this, you ask? Because neither of us really have that love of learning yet. We're trying, but it's hard to get. I also have no idea how to actually discuss things I learn in a casual conversation, especially with young kids.
Anyway, I am writing this after bed time, so I don't know how coherent it was. Maybe I'll actually write an official essay on this, if I can ever find any time to write!
Jared
Dan,
I liked reading this. I think it's important to look at all the options available for schooling because there isn't any one program that will fill the needs of all the kids. I love hearing about the other systems. It's a mark of a well-written piece when it makes people think and inspires conversations. Jon and I have enjoyed talking about this. Luckily, we're both on the same page with our opinions. You have a gift of choosing topics that inspire conversation; it's one of your best qualities, this ability to chat and talk and communicate. I hope you realize that and nurture it. I believe it will serve you well thru both your education and your life. Thanks for sharing. --Megan
I thought it is an interesting idea how this subject all just goes around in circles over and over again. I'm pretty sure I agree with both of you. I know that you both have different sides of the argument, but if you think about it, how do you think school was started in the first place? It was and organized group of individuals who would get together to discuss their topics of interest. Eventually, there just became so many of these individuals, that the group had to become even more organized, with maybe even a discussion leader. Maybe that's the problem with our school system. It needs more discussion leaders instead of teachers.
-Andrew
Actually public schools orginated to educate those who could not afford a private tutor.
-Shirley
So would the guy in your essay have chosen to learn his multiplication tables in the third grade?
A few years before I moved back to be on the faculty at USU the physics department had gone through some of this same thinking. The result was that students were able to choose their complete course of study. Now, every physicist knows what drudgery chemistry is (or was at that time) – all memorization and not a lot of analytic logic. As a result, when I got there the graduate students that I had to work with didn’t know chemistry. As much as I disliked the topic, most of the research that I have done has required an understanding of chemistry. I had know way of knowing that when I was required to take chemistry as an undergraduate.
As to the influence of motivational (or un-motivational) teachers in secondary education, I remember my biology teacher because he was my football coach. I remember my chemistry teacher because he got on us for making rotten-egg gas instead of doing our experiment. I don’t remember my physics teacher at all. If I am curious about the world and have an aptitude for learning, it is the fault of my parents and of things that happened outside of school, but I couldn’t have taken advantage of it without the foundation that I was required to get in school. Every few years the educators re-discover the new-agey ideas of learning whatever you want whenever, and it always leads to the same result – kids who can’t spell, do math, or tackle the hard topics.
Dad
Fascinating topic, Dan.
My opinion. . . unschooling is very exciting to read about and to consider, but I have yet to personally see an example of it actually working the way it’s supposed to work. And, like Dad, I’ve personally seen several examples of it backfiring and NOT working. It seems that short-term freedom may be gained, but long-term freedom is lost.
It is a pity – and a problem - that more people don’t take their formal education more seriously, that there are so many poor teachers, that many people don’t learn except when forced, but I don’t think the blame goes to the formal schooling system.
Just my two-cents.
Love, Holly
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