A change in the air?
Sherry Franklin
As a former teacher of over twenty years in inner-city Cleveland, and now as an unschooling parent, this article got me so excited! Is anyone familiar with this school and what they are accomplishing? Could this be the beginning of a change in education in the U.S.?
Sherry
Sandra Dodd
I let that article through, about the alternative school experiment, because I'm being interviewed this morning about alternative schools and how much I don't like them being equated with unschooling.
So I thought I would come back later and make whatever points had come of the discussion. :-)
" Some have even copied elements of it, for example letting English students choose which books to read. "
This is not very progressive. Many teachers have been doing that since there were school libraries.
-=-The “White Paper” also notes that the project instills a “sense of ownership of their education has stayed with the students long after the program ended. Although some students have continued to struggle academically, feedback from parents has suggested that they are pursuing more interests outside of school than they were before The Independent Project.”-=-
If they had been home, they would have had a sense of ownership with NO academic struggle. At home they would have pursued ALL interests outside of school.
-=- “They know it involves more work [than taking regular classes] and that they have to push themselves to do it,”-=-
The big "have to."
They give them an option with built-in pressure to do MORE than they would have done in regular classes.
-=-They explored math, science, social science and literature topics that interested them, choosing one question each week, researching it, and presenting their findings to the group.-=-
So they were still on the curriculum, and they were given a longer leash, but they were still on a leash.
And the article talks about them going back to the regular classroom, and tactics (of the school's) to keep that from being so difficult.
-=- Could this be the beginning of a change in education in the U.S.?-=-
First, this discussion group is not about the U.S., but about natural learning in the world
But no, it's not the beginning of a change.
In the 1969/70 school year, a friend and I applied to run our own history class for one semester. We had a faculty advisor and the students took turns reporting on current events, and students debated, and researched. We had more options, but it was a history class. Our parameters were that—current events tied in with history.
That was part of a fairly widespread schoool-reform season in education—late 60's, early 70's. If that one didn't take (as backed by research as it was, as backed by university colleges of education as it was), a newer one isn't likely to jump up and change the world. But John Holt was one of those school reformers, and what we're doing as unschoolers is based on that research and "experimentation" and observation.
I think the article is damning of normal school. They let a caged dog out into the yard and let it make some choices, knowing it would be put back in the cage.
I don't think it will help people unschool, but it might be a contrast against which some individuals' concerns about unschooling could be seen more clearly.
Sandra
So I thought I would come back later and make whatever points had come of the discussion. :-)
" Some have even copied elements of it, for example letting English students choose which books to read. "
This is not very progressive. Many teachers have been doing that since there were school libraries.
-=-The “White Paper” also notes that the project instills a “sense of ownership of their education has stayed with the students long after the program ended. Although some students have continued to struggle academically, feedback from parents has suggested that they are pursuing more interests outside of school than they were before The Independent Project.”-=-
If they had been home, they would have had a sense of ownership with NO academic struggle. At home they would have pursued ALL interests outside of school.
-=- “They know it involves more work [than taking regular classes] and that they have to push themselves to do it,”-=-
The big "have to."
They give them an option with built-in pressure to do MORE than they would have done in regular classes.
-=-They explored math, science, social science and literature topics that interested them, choosing one question each week, researching it, and presenting their findings to the group.-=-
So they were still on the curriculum, and they were given a longer leash, but they were still on a leash.
And the article talks about them going back to the regular classroom, and tactics (of the school's) to keep that from being so difficult.
-=- Could this be the beginning of a change in education in the U.S.?-=-
First, this discussion group is not about the U.S., but about natural learning in the world
But no, it's not the beginning of a change.
In the 1969/70 school year, a friend and I applied to run our own history class for one semester. We had a faculty advisor and the students took turns reporting on current events, and students debated, and researched. We had more options, but it was a history class. Our parameters were that—current events tied in with history.
That was part of a fairly widespread schoool-reform season in education—late 60's, early 70's. If that one didn't take (as backed by research as it was, as backed by university colleges of education as it was), a newer one isn't likely to jump up and change the world. But John Holt was one of those school reformers, and what we're doing as unschoolers is based on that research and "experimentation" and observation.
I think the article is damning of normal school. They let a caged dog out into the yard and let it make some choices, knowing it would be put back in the cage.
I don't think it will help people unschool, but it might be a contrast against which some individuals' concerns about unschooling could be seen more clearly.
Sandra
chris ester
>>>>>>On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 11:47 AM, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
I let that article through, about the alternative school experiment, because I'm being interviewed this morning about alternative schools and how much I don't like them being equated with unschooling.<<<<<<
I am glad that you did let this article through because it helped me to think clearly about learning with and without boundaries and expectations, as well as about how living without school has helped my children be curious happy learning people who read what they want to read and answer the questions that they formulate in their own mind, not a list of questions at the end of the chapter.
>>>>>" Some have even copied elements of it, for example letting English students choose which books to read. "
This is not very progressive. Many teachers have been doing that since there were school libraries.<<<<<I was struck by this as well. I would imagine that there were criteria for those "freely chosen" books, such as genre, a list of approved books or authors. When I was in my senior year of high school we were allowed to choose an author to write a research paper on for English, as long as he or she was not American, had written at least full length novel and was born after 1900... so my friend couldn't use the author that he chose because he hadn't written a long enough book.We, the students, were also "chosen" for that class because we met some criteria of "specialness" and so the class and the paper were 'special', novel, an experiment, etc. That way everyone would know that the larger school system was not in jeopardy from any large scale change. So, I think the answer to the original poster's question is no, the US school system isn't going to make any major changes any time soon.Chris
Sherry Franklin
I hear you and I understand. I guess I feel very blessed to be able to have this kind of life with my children, and my hopes are for those kids who I used to teach. In the inner-city, school was a haven for a lot of the children I taught. Those kids will never have the option of unschooling. I wanted to hope that they might at least find a school that allowed them to learn more freely.
El lunes, 21 de julio de 2014, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> escribió:
Sherry
El lunes, 21 de julio de 2014, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> escribió:
I let that article through, about the alternative school experiment, because I'm being interviewed this morning about alternative schools and how much I don't like them being equated with unschooling.
So I thought I would come back later and make whatever points had come of the discussion. :-)
" Some have even copied elements of it, for example letting English students choose which books to read. "
This is not very progressive. Many teachers have been doing that since there were school libraries.
-=-The “White Paper” also notes that the project instills a “sense of ownership of their education has stayed with the students long after the program ended. Although some students have continued to struggle academically, feedback from parents has suggested that they are pursuing more interests outside of school than they were before The Independent Project.”-=-
If they had been home, they would have had a sense of ownership with NO academic struggle. At home they would have pursued ALL interests outside of school.
-=- “They know it involves more work [than taking regular classes] and that they have to push themselves to do it,”-=-
The big "have to."
They give them an option with built-in pressure to do MORE than they would have done in regular classes.
-=-They explored math, science, social science and literature topics that interested them, choosing one question each week, researching it, and presenting their findings to the group.-=-
So they were still on the curriculum, and they were given a longer leash, but they were still on a leash.
And the article talks about them going back to the regular classroom, and tactics (of the school's) to keep that from being so difficult.
-=- Could this be the beginning of a change in education in the U.S.?-=-
First, this discussion group is not about the U.S., but about natural learning in the world
But no, it's not the beginning of a change.
In the 1969/70 school year, a friend and I applied to run our own history class for one semester. We had a faculty advisor and the students took turns reporting on current events, and students debated, and researched. We had more options, but it was a history class. Our parameters were that—current events tied in with history.
That was part of a fairly widespread schoool-reform season in education—late 60's, early 70's. If that one didn't take (as backed by research as it was, as backed by university colleges of education as it was), a newer one isn't likely to jump up and change the world. But John Holt was one of those school reformers, and what we're doing as unschoolers is based on that research and "experimentation" and observation.
I think the article is damning of normal school. They let a caged dog out into the yard and let it make some choices, knowing it would be put back in the cage.
I don't think it will help people unschool, but it might be a contrast against which some individuals' concerns about unschooling could be seen more clearly.
Sandra
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