This is Part 3 of a multipart series. If you'd like, go ahead and click the links to read Part 1 and Part 2. In this part of the series, I'll address the most common reason people give for their support of compulsory schooling.
If we didn't compel children to go to school, our society would be flooded with uneducated people.
This is the remark I've heard most often when debating the topic of compulsory schooling. And at a cursory glance, it appears to be the strongest argument for leaving education of children in the hands of a government monopoly. People aren't in favor of public schools because they enjoy seeing children be separated from their families. They don't support public schools because they think children ought to have their lives controlled down to the minutest detail. And it's not because they believe children are inferior to adults, and therefore don't deserve to have rights.
No, people support compulsory schooling out of a noble desire to ensure that each and every child gets the same opportunity for education, and a corollary belief that universal free (and compulsory) childhood education leads to a more intelligent, prosperous society.
Before we get into my refutation of this claim, let's take a moment to look at the current situation. I don't know much about education in countries besides my own, but here in the United States, we have had compulsory schooling for almost a century, and yet, our society is flooded with uneducated people.
It's true that most school children do learn the bare minimum in school--such as reading, writing, and basic arithmetic--that will make it possible for them to get at least a minimum wage job once they graduate. But simply knowing how to read and write and do basic math is not the same as being educated.
Too many adult products of public schools lack the thinking and learning skills that would enable them to succeed in life. They can fill out forms, but they can't write a letter. They can follow written instructions, but they don't read books. They can perform addition and subtraction and multiplication in their heads, but they have no idea how to budget. They can parrot a bite-sized political opinion from CNN or Fox News, maybe even paraphrase it, but they are unable to formulate a consistent, cohesive defense of the position. They can use computers, but they don't know how to differentiate a fact based article from a fake or satirical one on the Internet. (They literally have to be told by the major news media which articles are true and which are fake...and of course, they trust the news media implicitly even though each network has clear and ever-present biases. Maybe this comes as a result of being spoon-fed information and conclusions by school teachers during their most formative years?)
There are even many college graduates who fit the above description. Students slog through elementary and high school, constantly discouraged from asking questions or forming an independent thought. By all official standards they are perfectly well educated and ready to go onto university. They passed the SAT! They got a decent GPA! But by the time they enter college, their inquisitiveness is pretty much broken, the enormous human learning capacity reduced to a mechanical output device. Input pre-packaged information, receive pre-packaged response.
What percentage of American society is made up of these people who can read but not think? No one knows for sure, and it would be a difficult, if not impossible task to find out. Self-reporting would be an inefficient method of discovery, since people nearly always believe they are much more intelligent than they actually are. Call me a pessimist, but based on my observations of people in real life and on the Internet, I'd put the figure at about 30-40% and growing by the year. Or maybe that's an optimistic view of things, depending on how far gone you think society already is.
The point is, we've already tried compulsory schooling as a way of extending the benefits of education to the whole of society at every social and economic strata, and it's not working. It does not work regardless of how much extortion money we throw at the problem. It does not work regardless of the curricula being used, or how we draw school district lines, or how well-equipped the science lab is, or whether funding is available for arts and athletics, or whether each student has a school-issued laptop.
Why doesn't it work?
Because people who have no choices cease to grow.
We are cultivating the human equivalent of bonsai trees. Sever each sprouting branch, administer the exact required amount of sunlight and water, trim each leaf until the tree takes on the exact shape you wish for it to have. And the tree stops growing. It has been stunted by micromanagement.
Here's a truth that is perhaps difficult to swallow: Schools, in general, do not positively change outcomes for children. A child's chances of becoming a thinking adult are, to a very large extent, dependent upon whether or not she is raised by thinking parents. But put a child of thinking parents into a curiosity stifling, creatively stunted environment like a public school, and her chances of growing into a thinking adult begin to diminish. For the child of non-thinking parents, it's almost a guarantee that, after 12 years in public school, her synapses will never fire on a level beyond rote memorization and the regurgitation of facts and opinions.
There are outliers, of course--children of non-thinking parents who break the mold, who keep their curiosity and passion for discovery intact and who turn out to be intelligent adults. But this happens despite compulsory schooling, and not because of it. Somewhere along the way, these individuals likely learned some kind of coping mechanism to carry them through the traumatic school experience. Maybe it was glomming onto a favorite teacher. Maybe it was daydreaming. Maybe it was basketball. Maybe it was skipping school, neglecting homework, and only showing up to pass the tests.
So what would improve educational outcomes for children, both those from thinking and non-thinking families? Freedom. Choice.
Bottom line: there is no possible education system that would rule out 100% of poor outcomes. So instead of attempting to achieve the impossible, it should be our goal to make educational opportunities more abundant and varied. To increase the probability that each family can find and access the type of education that works for them and their children, whether that's a small community school, an online school, a once-a-week tutor, an outdoor school with no textbooks, an apprenticeship, or some other amazing thing that no one has thought up yet, that never will be thought up until the educational service market is freed. This is not achievable under a monopolistic system like the one we have, and it is not possible if schooling remains compulsory.
If you're hungry, the market provides you an uncountable plethora of options to fill your belly. You can cook a healthy dinner at home, or you can heat up a freezer pizza. You can grow food in your back yard or buy it from the corporate grocery store, the local co-op, or the farmer's market. You can go out to eat at a fancy restaurant, a fast food place, a taco stand, or a cafe. And within each of these options are a multitude of sub-options. You can choose a different option for each meal! All of that choice, and that's just for a relatively inconsequential decision--a single meal is not likely to impact your entire future. So if you choose wrong, you have near-infinite opportunities to make a better choice in the future. No one forces you to eat. The government doesn't provide you with a predetermined set of three choices for each meal. You'd think, according to the logic used by compulsory school advocates, that all this choice would result in a hunger pandemic. But surprisingly few people go hungry in a free market food system. For those who are most vulnerable in society, there are soup kitchens and food pantries and other philanthropic solutions, just as there would be charitable schooling options for the poorest in a free market education system.
In the absence of the public schooling monopoly, would there still be uneducated people? Undoubtedly, yes. But I and my many fellow freedom advocates believe that the impact of maleducation would be dramatically lessened by the increase in choice. Remember those bonsai trees? Compulsory schooling produces uneducated adults by design. Public schools were never meant to produce an educated populace. They were meant to produce factory workers, capable of running machines, filling out forms, and following orders, but not prone to too much independent thought or questioning of authority.
With the advent of the Internet, true education is now more accessible and more affordable than ever. If ever there was valid reasoning behind forcing children into industrial schools, it has since expired. In the west, we literally have a whole world of information at our fingertips, and even the poorest can afford access to it. But we can't expect future generations to take advantage of this gift if we stick them in compulsory schools that kill their learning potential.
I'm not sure if I'll be posting a Part 4 to this series. It depends on what you have to say in the comments section. So let me know if there are any aspects to this topic that you think I've missed, or should explore more thoroughly.
I love you, Steemit!
Hi! I'm Leslie Starr O'Hara, but my friends call me Starr. I live in the mountains of North Carolina and I am a FULL TIME WRITER who doesn't wait for the muse to show up before getting to work! I write humor, essays, and fiction here on Steemit and elsewhere.
Great piece!! I honestly think all this testing and structure needs to be taken away. Power needs to be given back to the teachers to actually teach and not having to worry about getting the kids to pass some standardized tests. They need to let kids be able to explore their minds and creativity and express their thoughts and ideas. Our current system is hindering its students and pretty much setting them up for failure.
I fully agree to this and couldn't have said it better. I don't get why children so young have to be forced into such regimented structure let alone the testing they put them through. These tests are even responsible for funneling them based on how they performed...it's like the system is completely setting up kids to fail and not even seeing most children's' potential let alone taking any semblance of care in their own interests. I'm currently beginning to homeschool more my 5 year old instead of putting her into public school Kindergarten, after all I have learned so far this is the best I can do by her and I hope it serves us to keep doing it. There is only one type of school I had learned about that was child driven learning and unfortunately they are no where near me geographically and for some reason never "caught on" enough to be available widely in the U.S. Not saying it is perfect but it was the only one that was in the spirit of what I was seeking.
Totally agree. At that age kids should be pushed to explore their interests. Because at some point in time they will have to decide what they would like to do in life, only they're not going to know. I remember how much pressure there was nearing the end of high school and during to know what you wanted to do and where you wanted to go to school. And I honestly was so overwhelmed. I liked so many different things and never really got to to explore them so it was extremely difficult having to pick something. But if I was given that time to explore my possibilities I would have been better off. If a teacher sees a child doodling they should empower them not call it a disturbance and tell them to pay attention. They could be stifling the next Picaso or Van Gogh for all they know. I'm not close to having kids yet but it's something I'm already thinking about. I'm leaning towards charter schools at the moment, they seem like an alternative education system and focus more on the children and having them well rounded. Not just turning them into a computing zombie.
As always star absolute pleasure to read your work I always enjoy reading it always provokes a certain sense of thought in my mind....
Thank you kindly, good sir.
@lesliestarrohara, interesting read.
My family and I choose to homeschool. It is not for everyone, but it addresses most of our concerns with compulsory schooling.
My wife and I are able to customize our children's education to grow their strengths and dreams, as well as help improve the the gaps in their knowledge and skills.
I firmly believe that parents should be the primary educators of their children, regardless of how a child is education (public, private, home). We can not relinquish that responsibility you someone else.
Good for you for taking your children's education into your own hands. We also homeschool. It's not always easy, but I get validation every day that we are making the right choice.
It's crazy watching her interact with other homeschooled kids, versus seeing her with her public school friends. The homeschooled kids are almost invariably kind, confident, conscientious, and excited about learning. The public school kids are almost always catty, anxious, and bored.
The purpose of schools is to turn children into good citizens.
Learn to sit still and be quiet, listen, follow orders, fulfill predetermined tasks, learn that life is an endless sequence of events on which you have no influence. Learn to focus your mind on a pleasant future, the hours after school, the weekend, school holidays, like later, when you are in a job you don´t like.
School is to prepare for the life, government and the ruling class want people to live as adults.
Fortunately it doesn´t always work as intended.
My parents for example were taught in school that Germans are the master race and while they certainly enjoyed the social aspects of the Hitler Youth, the comradeship, the torch marches, violin classes etc., they didn´t turn into Nazis and I guess that´s because their parents where no Nazis , and were able to counterbalance the state indoctrination with different views at home.
Thank you @lesliestarrohara
I also liken the schooling system to growing mushrooms, keep them in the dark and feed them shit!!!! :l
I prefer your version though :)
I agree with you, it is a monopoly, and it's Indoctrination at it's finest! The public school system dumbs down the students, and takes away their imagination.
And the current curriculum of common core is crazy. How many ways to confuse a child is there? 1+1 still = 2 , why do they need a flow chart and diagrams for that?
The public school system is a slave factory. Since the government got involved in the 1850's things have progressively gown down hill. Politics and Education are not a good mix.
I am very glad that, in the United States at least, homeschooling is gaining popularity as a valid method of educating children. The homeschool population in my state has more than tripled in the last decade, and I don't think the growth is going to slow down any time soon!
Just curious but how does homeschooling works in the US? I guess you still have an obligated curriculum to follow so you can't get rid of some ridiculous subjects?
Depending on the state you live in, you might have to follow a state approved curriculum. In my state, homeschooling families have relative freedom about what to teach, but there is a certain amount of surveillance that goes on so that even though there are no strict guidelines, if you get reported by some nosy neighbor or indignant school district employee, it's possible you can be penalized for not having your curriculum up to the standard of public schools. I've also heard of parents getting in trouble for offering too few hours of instruction per week...the state wanted them to do 6 hours a day, 5 days a week just like public schools. This is ridiculous since most of a student's time in public school is eaten up with getting ready for class, packing up to leave, walking from class to class, listening to instructions, waiting for classmates to settle down, etc. It takes far less time to learn the same material in a homeschool environment.
Thanks for an enlightening topic, I especially liked the comparison of prison to public school in your series. Informative and well written, keep it up!
I still worry for the children of neglectful parents, and the many children who are in the care of non-family members (or worse, corporations).
Could you imagine what would happen to the children who are homed in centers that could just as easily be funded by a corporation as by the State? Without State controlled compulsory education, these thousands of children could become equivalent to their tens of thousands of adult counterparts in corporatized prisons churning out free labor and still being denied a useful education.
Without some standard of regulation, I feel we would be taking a step backwards in education.
I agree that we need to change the way we educate children, and that you are offering well thought alternatives. Unfortunately we can't enforce compulsory education for the children with no parents or bad parents alongside voluntary programs for those with parents who have their child's best interests at heart.
I'm not seeing why a voluntary education system would provide any worse outcomes for these children, on the whole, than does the compulsory system. The fact is, children of neglectful parents generally suffer and do not generally reach a high level of success in school or in life, regardless of whether they are churned through some conformity camp for 12 years. That these children of neglectful parents exist is no reason to limit the prospects of children whose parents are present, attentive, and involved parents.
Ditto for those children doomed to live in government care facilities or foster homes. The failure rates for these programs are staggering. I don't see why free market solutions would be any worse--at least there would be a greater number of options. Perhaps some of the options would be bad, but I believe it's only reasonable to assume that a greater number would be good. The corporatized prisons you mention are a perfect example of what happens in a monopoly. Don't make the common mistake of thinking that because these prisons are run by for-profit corporations that they are part of the free market. They would not exist in a free market. There'd be no one to pay them per inmate.
That's the thing about monopolies--if they produce a shitty product or service, there's no way out for anyone. A free market might have shitty products or services, but they also invariably have good products and services, and people have a choice which to use, or to use none. Therefore, fewer people will fall victim to them than in a monopoly situation.
Another important question to consider is whether education can be "given", or if it must be pursued. I believe it must be pursued. You can stand in the front of a classroom and teach all year, but if your student has no motivation to learn, he will not learn. Perhaps you can cram the very baseline minimum knowledge into him in an inefficient way; bring him up to a third grade reading level, make sure he knows how to count. But beyond that, learning requires curiosity and freedom of thought. If the student does not have or practice these attributes, then he will not become educated. And the problem is that compulsory schools, far from nurturing these attributes in children, extinguish them through control and regimentation. Even a child of neglectful parents can pursue an education--in a world of unlimited choices, what is to stop him?
While children are naturally curious, I think that at a bare minimum we need to plant the seed of scientific method for un-schooling to be successful.
While free-market schooling (and a free market all together) would solve many problems, oligopolic capitalist systems have all but destroyed the free market by creating huge financial barriers to entry in nearly every market. Pure competition only works in an environment that truly favors a free market.
There is no "we".
Only those industries which are heavily regulated, I think.
Powerful companies create regulation so that they can dominate or control an industry.
The "we" I refer to is society as a whole. If you do not wish to be included in that "we" that's fine.
I am not saying your opinion is wrong. I am saying there are obstacles that I don't believe you are considering, and that without looking at the factual opposition to your proposal you weaken your overall argument.
Curiosity alone will not lead to education. Children, and adults must have some guidance in seeking, and inventing, solutions to problems. Academically, the best thing I ever learned was;
This is the basis of Scientific Method. This method encourages critical thinking, free speech, questioning authority, developing ideas, and learning from our peers. If society made this the foundation of education it would be a stronger system.
But just because an industry is heavily dominated by a small number of corporations does not mean that there are no other choices. There are very few places I can think of where you don't have other options for your groceries besides going to SuperCorpMart. I don't see this as oligarchic, and it's certainly not monopolistic, like the current public school system.
In the context of education, a free market system might develop into a similar situation as the grocery retail industry, where a few major players dominate a large market share. But think about what that means. The biggest grocery chains presumably got to be the biggest grocery chains because they offer what the consumers want--in this case good product selection, low prices, pleasant customer experience, and close proximity to their homes. And yet, still, if a person does not want to shop at SuperCorpMart for their groceries, there are other options almost everywhere. There are mom and pop groceries, health food stores, farmers markets, online grocery ordering services, food pantries, and you always have the option of growing your own food. I'm not seeing how it would be a bad thing if the education market looked like the grocery retail market.
What country do you live in? In the United States, cellular service is heavily regulated by the FCC.
Agreed. This is one reason why I'm an anarchist. If there was no vehicle for market compulsion, this would be near impossible to achieve.
I understand that you're referring to society as a whole. My point by saying "there is no we" is to show that, in most cases, and in all economically concerned cases, there is no such thing as "what is best for all of us." You have your opinion--that children should be taught using the scientific method as a foundation. Other people might think that it is best for them to learn an arts-centered curriculum. Others might value bilingual education above all else, and others might consider religious education as the most important foundation. There is no "we" because we don't all want the same things, and trying to convince all of society that your idea is best is going to be a never-ending pissing match. That's why the only thing that can be best for "we" is to let each individual make the choice for themselves.
Ditto!!!
I would like to see more diversity in human thought! I don't think there should be a 'bare minimum' in dogma, doctrine, nor ideology in such a massive number of people... It creates for a very boring society, a monoculture if you will :) Every good ecologist knows that monocultures are deadly for the environment!
I believe that this is actually the main function of compulsory education. Conformity to authority and to 'learn' how to be bored (as that is what is in store for many of the graduates of said system for the vast majority of their lives). I think it is phenomenal at this. I was in the U.S. military for 6 years and the boot camp process of 'breaking down and building up' is modelled near identically in nature to our educational systems. They are meant to create obedience, not educated citizens. Just offering another angle towards the massive issues surrounding our indoctrination camps :)
I'm loving reading and getting into all your thoughts (that sounded a bit creepy...) Haha!
Admirable post, definitely the kind i like. I notice a lot of similar minds on Steemit, beautiful family. I am freefighter, anarchist and all of that but i must say that my children go to school. Too much to start about it in a comment, i will make a nice post about it tomorrow, you will have to follow me for 1 day to know the why, sorry about that :-)
Anyway, upvoted and following, love from India
Okay, you convinced me! I look forward to reading your post tomorrow.
With this post as inspiration, curious to hear your thoughts :-)
https://steemit.com/family/@bubke/children-on-the-road-a-personal-story-of-the-power-of-intentions-and-the-beauty-of-the-path-laid-out-in-front-of-you
Like you I am much in favor of education and believe that home based education is a great alternativ.
The most common argument I hear against homeschooling is that it requires one parent to be home and therefor not work (at least not fulltime). Not working means not contributing to society and also not paying taxes.It also means having a smaller income than a household with two working parents.
These are arguments that I often hear from people not understanding our choise to homeschool our children.
I often hear the same objections. I think I'll do a post addressing them in the future.
You say this as if it's a bad thing? Sounds like an added benefit to me :)
When people use it as an argument against homeschooling it is deffinitely considered a very bad thing. You might see it as a benefit but not many people in Sweden will so it is very difficult to turn their argument around.
Hmmm You're right. It doesn't make a good argument unless they agree to listen to it be fully explained...
When our society produces the qualitative outputs as it does (increased mental disorders, increases health disorders, increase in working hours, decrease in environmental health, etc) it makes a fairly easy case against the continuation and support of said society. I don't believe there is a single quality of life metric our society at large produces that is favourable against a simple alternative society (that would be entirely in favour of families spending as much time together as they'd like, this would include our natural inclination to teach and be with our own children) the simple idea of having both parents spend the majority of their waking hours not with their children and not together; but at 'work', in my mind is patently absurd. Any system that produces these situations is not creating much "benefit". So, I believe that not supporting such a system would actually be in everyone's best interest.
Raising my children to be capable of living-in and creating a new society is, in my mind (and heart), the only argument I would ever need to support my decision to raise my own children.
Good article Starr!
Our family has come to similar conclusions and we are doing something about it by taking responsibility for our own education. I'm glad that you are writing about this. As more people join Steemit, they will be entering a strong culture of freedom and responsibility.
Thanks, @matthewdavid! Good for you for owning your family's educational pursuits. It's so gratifying to see the many people realizing that there is something they can do to escape the horrors of compulsory schooling.
Excellent precis on compulsory, and public education generally. I barely survived public school (srsly) and homeschooled my sons as a single father working full time.
I have never regretted one moment of the time it took to teach them that learning was fun.
I had to break the law every day I did it, but not one of my employers ever said one negative word about it. Every one of them paid my kids to learn all day long.
The people of America are fully aware of the ways that public school, particularly elementary and middle school, harm the ability of children to learn.
Thanks!
That reminds me of this dude--also a single dad--I used to know who homeschooled his two sons from second grade through high school. He pulled them out of first grade because he'd noticed their loss of interest in learning. He was a self-employed carpenter and his kids helped him with carpentry and operating the family business. And when I met the three of them, they were attending massage therapy school together as a family. That was before I had my daughter, but meeting them was profoundly impactful on my later decision to homeschool as a young mother living below the poverty line. I thought, if that carpenter dude could do it, so can I.
Most inspiring thing I've read in a long time.
Thanks for this great article! Even before the Internet age, I found I learnt more from my local library whete I could learn about whatever subject I wanted than what was taught at school. But yes, internet definitely makes it easier. With my own son going through his 'why' phase - answers are only a search away, and I'm learning a ton in the process of answering all his whys!
Have to agree with your sentiments. Education is the most important thing for our youth and has a lot to do with their future. I do think though that there are basics that are hugely important, one of which is reading lots. A lot of my teachers were useless and were just doing a job, not particularly caring about the outcomes. I don't know about the USA, but in general I don't think we pay teachers enough and therefore we get what we pay for.
Compulsory education is Required if we're going to maintain our society!
But, that's just it! I don't want to maintain our society. A society that is engaging in an ever increasing reduction in life and joy throughout the world.
I would say that the more one progresses in our education system the further entrenched and conditioned they become.
In the book Disciplined Minds by physicist Jeff Schmidt "He shows that professional work is inherently political, and that professionals are hired to subordinate their own vision and maintain strict 'ideological discipline.' Schmidt details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker and to pursue one's own social vision in today's corporate society."
So, although graduates and post-doctorates and the like may be outwardly 'intelligent' and have ingested a great deal of information. The ideological control over their thoughts and actions direct and dictate the action of this information.
Absolutely yes!! Love this analogy, thank you :)
Yes, but why would our society do such a thing? This would undoubtedly produce a generation not keen to maintain our current society... Which is why I believe, as obvious as a solution this is, it hasn't been implemented yet. It just isn't in the best interest of our dominant society.
Thank you for writing this piece and starting the conversation here! I would have a question for you. Correct me if I'm mistaken. But, it seems that you are advocating for a 'free market' school system where schools become privatized? Is that your final solution? If not, what solution do you propose?
Yes, I support a fully free market in education. This means that all education is voluntary and all schools are private. A lot of people will read that statement and think, "Oh no, only private schools--how will people afford to educate their kids?" People associate private schools with expensive tuition bills because, in our un-free market education system, private schools are very expensive to operate. The cost trickles down to the consumer, of course, which is why even "affordable" private schools are expensive from the standpoint of the lower middle class and the poor.
But think of all the barriers to entry the current state-monopolized education system places on private school options. Their facilities must meet state standards--many of which are silly or unnecessary. Their curricula must be on par with the curricula of the public schools--which is pretty subpar and leaves little room for innovation. In many places, their administrators and teachers must have certain degrees. They must provide an amount of instruction that is usually equivalent to 1,000 hours per year--which all of us in the homeschooling community know is way more than necessary for most students. And they are constantly being hit with more rules and regulations to comply with.
In addition to their regulatory burden, it's important to acknowledge the impact of supply and demand on private schooling. Because the state has created a situation in which K-12 education is compulsory and "free" (we know it's not free, but a lot of people don't make the connection that they're actually paying for it dearly in taxes), the supply of private education options is artificially low. Of course this means that until the demand increases, prices will remain relatively high. If the artificially "free" option were removed from the market, supply of private choices would increase, and market competition would cause aggregate prices to drop significantly. Of course, there would still be private shools with astronomical tuition rates to serve wealthy populations, but there would also emerge affordable options for people at any economic level, in addition to alternative options like homeschooling and apprenticeships. There might also be schools that are funded in a similar way to public schools, but on a smaller scale. Like if you and your neighbors got together and opened a community school, using funds from neighborhood membership fees. Such solutions would not run counter to a free market education system, as long as your participation in the neighborhood covenant was voluntary and you could leave at any time.
It's interesting to look at India, which has a relatively free market education system, compared with most other countries. The solutions Indian entrepreneurs have come up with to serve the poorest families are many and varied. I might do a Steemit post about this at some future date.
Wow! Thank you so much for the detailed response :) It seems you and I share near-identical overall philosophy on the topic. With that said. Have you heard of the children of the forest school in Russia?
I'm in the voluntary semi-home-school, semi - collaborative-community run education systems paired with a exceedingly healthy dose of nature to help children speed up their thinking, develop their own models and critical thinking skills.
I've been introduced to a compelling idea lately concerning 'educating children'. One I would like to share with you and get your input on as well. To help shape my thoughts if you're interested in sharing them!
The idea is simply to not 'educate' children at all. That is to not offer up or force the vast majority of our ideas onto them, thus perpetrating dogma and faulty models. The idea is that the role of a parent or educator towards children is to have the main goal of increasing critical thought and facilitating the children's own development of thought.
So, a system like this would consist mainly of discussion and asking children questions and demonstrating methods to either prove themselves right or have them realize the flaws in their thinking. This way, not only are the children learning, but teachers (facilitators) would be able to learn a great deal from the children as well as some well believed dogma could be proven false. This model would also see a removal of age-based classes, and strict teacher-student relationship.
Before going on... Have you heard of this idea? What do you think of it?
I'm personally in agreement with you about the ideal education for children. Well for my children, and others whose parents are of like mind. My daughter is homeschooled with very limited curricula outside of books and maps and the internet. She has several opportunities each month for educational or social interaction with other homeschoolers as well as conventionally schooled children. And she spends one day a week in the forest with a group of homeschooled kids, swimming in streams, making tree forts, and generally getting dirty.
I have heard of the Russian forest school, though it's been a couple years since i read about it.
The method of raising children to be critical thinkers that you outline is pretty much in line with my philosophy, too, although I would still call it education. The word "educate" means to draw out. Not to cram in. What you're basically describing is teaching through the Socratic method, unless I've misunderstood.
Awesome!! I'm so happy to hear this :) Your children are so fortunate! The generation that will certainly evolve our paradigms!!
From my understanding and from what you told me it sounds nearly identical in function!
Wow! Thank you for that :) You instantly just shifted my perspective for that word :) I love it now!!
I'm just recently (maybe 2 years) beginning to come to these conclusions for the future of my child raising (I don't have any just yet). I am so happy that you are presently doing this and sharing information about it!! Thank you, for doing this, my future children will definitely appreciate it, from the further understanding and example you are giving!
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https://steemit.com/story/@kumar.malhotra/dear-all-stemians-help-me-i-really-need-it-seriously
Hi I read your post, I want to know more about your education system, I am a teacher you know, in our country compulsory education system have but students attend school at a particular time ,they can stay at home, choose any subject. We have also private school too, govt have no rules to play. So please if you give me details about your system, I can learn more, one of my friend markwhittam had also fled from Sweden due govt pressure. I want to know friend please provide me details.
In the United States it is legal to educate your children at home, but depending on what state you live in, it can be very difficult to accomplish. Some states have a lot of barriers that prevent families from homeschooling. We have private schools as well, but they must meet a lot of government regulations, so they usually end up looking identical to public schools in many ways.
I think in your particular state might not allowed homeschooling ,yes we should get our freedom to choose good or bad for our kids.what I say friend, take care of yourself and your family, good god bless you. Thanks for sharing ,wish you good luck and happiness.
Schools are not the same what they used to be a few decades back where children were taught everything else along with education but now the focus remains on being better than our counterparts and overachieving is the selfish motto behind getting education .
Kids can achieve so much more if we let them be and choose the fields of their interests :)
Please comment and upvote my post , why ? because i'll do the same
https://steemit.com/life/@ghyassine/follow-me-and-upvote-my-post-why-because-i-ll-do-the-same
I'd like to point out that your comment fulfills every requirement of the definition of spam.
Perhaps instead of begging for vote and follows, you might spend the time necessary to substantively comment relevantly to the post you are commenting.
If you did, I wouldn't be tempted to flag you as a spammer, but might instead consider your agile mind and good heart, and wonder why I hadn't followed you long ago.
Think about it.