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I have just come to know of the term unschooling lately and have went on to do some reading. I came across this research article. A summary of it is that despite some of the benefits of unschooling, there are challenges as well. One of these challenges is societal norms.
Reading about it reminded me of a project that I was involved in some time ago. Marks in exams were going to be abolished, exams reduced and focus was going to be shifted to learning and not merely evaluating. The difference is that a teacher would focus on helping a child making sense of what is being taught instead of the many exams conducted a year.
The program was going to be a revolutionary change to the education system, a paradigm-shift from exams to learning. However, one thing stood in the way. Societal norms. Within a few months of the programs' inception, loud calls came for it to be abolished because students were no longer judged based on exam results. To them, this was... weird and thus, not good.
Reading up on unschooling reminded me of the same issues that plagued the project. Any new innovation introduced will be scrutinized and seen negatively just because it is not in line with society's norms. The problem is, learning may not be in line with what society considers as 'normal'.
The 'Normal' Life Path
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There are many life paths that are considered as normal depending on where you're from. However, in my culture, the life path that is considered 'normal' consist of studying hard, going to a good university and getting a good job. A fairly standard life path. Such a path focuses on doing well in exams or some assessment that is used to gauge someone's learning ability.
However, there are some who will try to 'hack' this process either by cheating or focusing on the exams. This takes away the need to really learn as you can still do well just by memorizing. Sadly, this will produce a generation of students who are akin to drones. Skills such as problem solving and creativity may be completely killed off in a system like this. Instead, the focus is on a certificate that will help a child get to the next level, be it a good school or a good job.
This path however is detrimental to the child's development and in an economy where problem solving and creativity is priced above all, a certificate of excellence may become increasingly worthless in the future. Instead, students may be required to prove that they have the necessary skills instead of relying on a certificate to do that.
So Going Against The Norm is Good?
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Before we start burning all the school books and stop going for exams, this depends on many factors. It could be that a school may provide your child with an environment to socialize. Some may even send a child to a school to learn a particular language. For others, it could make sense financially as schools may open up opportunities for scholarships.
Whichever the reason may be, I think like every single education and schooling systems, there are challenges. While I am new to the concept of unschooling, I have taught in government schools, tutored international students and worked in a homeschool centre before. My opinion on this is as such...
The two most important people in a child's development consist of the teacher and the parents. Both have different roles, but they both have to ignore what society deems as right in exams. A child's results is never representative of a child's learning. In fact, it is a very unreliable tool. However, a child's exam results has the biggest psychological effect. It affects the parents, the teacher and the child.
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To paint a scenario, a child's bad exam results could spur a parent to strongly encourage the child to study harder. It may also cause a teacher to give more work to ensure the child masters the subject. IT could also cause the child to feel like a failure. All this creates an extremely stressful environment and switches the focus from learning to doing well. Thus, ignore the exam results. Instead, focus on the learning experience. Ignore the labelling and reassure the child that it is all a learning experience, not the end of the world.
I do the same with my students. Yes, my department will not be happy if my students don't do well. The focus is always on the results and never on their learning. However, I choose to work with the students instead. Tackling all their weaknesses and telling them that it is a journey. The content matters, but not as much as learning about solving problems and learning from failure.
Conclusion
The time where my child would enter school will come soon. It may be stressful, it may be difficult and I want to be the one that will reassure, encourage and help the child see learning as fun. Her results may not indicate so. However, I know that it is the journey, the process that matters.
Very interesting to read - since both my children are unschooled. The concept is fairly new, indeed, and, of course, people tend to have a negative opinion if you deviate from the norm. But, given time, society will change and the focus will shift from having a diploma to having knowledge of something, something you wanted to learn - on your own, online, private classes etc. Obviously, you won't be able to practice medicine without going to the university, but there are lots of other fields where formal education is no longer necessary.
I agree. As like what you said, people tend to stick to how the 'normal' society is. However, who define what is normal really? The system may have been there for a while, that doesnt mean is normal. I do believe there are more and more people seeing the traditional schooling system is 'dying' and not adding value to people's life, especially when you meet with teacher or school which likes to put the kids in a box.
There are so many important skill sets can be learn outside of school and will give much more value to have a more enriching life. :)
But there is always a problem with unschooling in a sense how to make the kids focus on their study without exams?
you are right @mmasim, that is one of the issues that they are still resolving. While some suggest doing away with exams, some form of assessment is needed to gauge the child's skills
IMHO, I don't believe having exam is the only way to focus. And I know lots of kids, exams just means stress to them rather than focus.
Every kids is special in their own way of learning. As adult, parents especially, it is important to identify what their kids interest is, or for some who isn't sure, perhaps parents can give them a few options of things to learn and see what they really enjoyed doing the most.
I also think it's a good idea to have a heart to heart chat with the kid (if possible) to understand what the kids have in their mind. Although I had met parents that kinda force the kids to like something, somtimes it works, sometimes it back fired. And especially kids now a days, they are born in a different 'era' if i may put it, and they have information easily accessible to them. Believe it or not, some kids know much more than adult do. It's a two way learning for both adult and kids.
When the kids found their interest, it's kinda a natural process they will focus on what they are good or enjoyed. Of cos, these are all case to case basis, but I do believe exposing them to something different and more enriching courses would be able to provide more for the kid's future, especially on soft skills, arts, EQ.
thats right! you can't teach cryptocurrency and steemit in school...yet....
That's true on the part where some fields do not require university. I think unschooling produces experts in a particular subject matter seeing that it focuses on one topic instead of the many different topics in conventional schooling.
However, I do wonder if there are modules or plans that help the parent or educator take into account all the subjects that will form some kind of career path for unschoolers
good post
Well said, thanks for this
I am severely passionate about any effort towards improving children andvtheir future. If the school has never uplauded you, I have just done now. I totally agree that although marks are important, they do not entirely prove learning capability for either children or adults. Please continue to make positive change. It begins that little yet it changes alot in the life of the blessed. Stay well
Thank you, hopefully more people will continue to call for change in the education system!
It's the mother-in-law principle. When I'm rich, my MIL would say I'm a crook. When I'm poor, my MIL would say I'm a bump. I rather be rich let her say whatever.
Note: not a real MIL.
Haha... good analogy by the way, I think at the end of the day, there is no one perfect system. You can plan or prepare but the mother in law will still have something to say.
My belief falls in between the research you made and traditional education system. Problem is that there has been significant changes to human evolution, from industrialisation to digital revolution. However, there has been little progress when it comes to our traditional education system. The valid point about non-exam based system is merit because everyone of us is built differently, some of us excel in arts while others excel in very different field. Current system emphasise way too much on academics and little on life skills.
yeah, and the system has not been able to keep up with the change..unlike apple and samsung where they have to put up a new product each year, they have to predict what the future is which can be a tall order..imagine predicting the future when fax machines were still in use..haha
I totally support this @alvinauh ... the way we were schooled does not benefit the future... facts and figures are at our fingertips- mugging is out. Recently Jack Ma had the same opinion too. I encourage my kids in sports and the arts, but it is not easy because the majority are still straight A’s skewed.... it’s finding the balance and trusting I am doing right by them ... your post is encouraging 😊
Thank you! sports and arts build character so its definitely useful for the children's development..Nothing against the straight A students if they understand what the have learnt but I disagree with just memorizing content