David Albert

> Some of us have unschooled for a long time and we
> need to analyze where we've been and where we're going. The face of
> homeschooling has changed more than once in the last 20 years and the
> next 5
> are going to see it change yet again. Frankly, we now have some very
> clear
> insights that the rest of the culture should take a long hard look
> at......is they'll sit still long enough. <g>
>
> LisaKK

I couldn't agree more. It seems to me that one of the major lessons we
as homeschooling parents have to share (especially those of us who were
not homeschooled ourselves) is that we have seen modern "education"
unmasked for what it really is. And what I see is that modern schooling
is based on 3 (and only 3) great organizing principles, which all
children are required to operate on:

1. They are to learn a content not of their own choosing.
2. They are to learn it on a timetable not of their own making.
3. Education consists of the transference of information from the head
of an adult assigned to "teach" to their own brains.

It seems to me that everything else -- good teachers/bad teachers, good
schools/bad schools, strict discipline/loose discipline, old math/new
math, etc. etc. is but dross compared with theses three principles.
What I think has changed, however, is children may be finding fewer and
fewer opportunities in families and communities to live their lives
which are not organized around these principles. Hence, we see more
passivity and, occasionally, more violence among children -- just
different ways of expressing powerlessness -- which is the inevitable
result of the three organizing principles.

School systems know this, too, and the public mistrust that they are
breeding. The solution they offer is micromanagement, stricter
organization so that children cannot fail but operate with the three
principles in mind. It will fail -- but the cost in human creativity
is, and will continue to be, enormous.

Just my thoughts...

david albert

--
Anthony Manousos calls "And the Skylark Sings with Me: Adventures in
Homeschooling and Community-Based Education" "a joyous celebration of
the creative potential in every child." To read a sample chapter,
reviewers' comments, or the foreword, and for ordering info., visit my
website at http://www.skylarksings.com