Educated, confident, creative people are dangerous to the status quo, dangerous to a centralized economy, dangerous to a centralized system of command and control. Those in power don’t want you educated. They want you schooled.
Truer words were never spoken or written. These were taken from a recent blog post by Dave Pollard. The quote was excerpted from 101 Reasons Why I'm an Unschooler. The post, and I'm sure the book, present some very good reasons why so-called modern schooling is designed to produce drones and wage slaves and not thinkers.
The authors own experience with 'independent study' is illuminating. By removing the shackles of schooling he got a better education than he ever could from even the best teacher. The educational model that we follow, with teachers teaching a standardized curriculum to a mass of students, was begun in the 17th century and has changed little since then. This form of schooling does violence to students as smart students are held back, slow students become frustrated by their lack of ability in 'required subjects' and average students become envious of how easy it is for the smart students to succeed.
The unspoken truth is that modern education was never designed to produce thinkers, it was designed to produce conformity and obedience. Thus the emphasis on management over education. Teachers are taught how to control and instruct and students are taught how to behave and learn correctly. If you go all the way back to schooling's origins in Martin Luther's Prussia and Calvin's Geneva it had the same purpose, social control through access to correct learning.
When I think of the IB's Learner Profile and the skills it suggests, I wonder how many of them will really be learned through the use of a standardized curriculum. How can a student be an independent risk taker when 80% of their grade is going to come from three hours of standardized exams.
What both authors suggest is the basis for a Libertarian approach to education and was the foundation of the home-schooling movement.
It is not up to teachers or school administrators to figure out what you should be or do. It’s not up to the State, it’s not up to your guidance counselors. It’s not up to your parents. What you do with your life ought to be up to you. What you learn ought to be up to you. How you navigate the world and create your place in it ought to be your decision. Your life belongs to you. School does its best to disabuse you of this notion. Unschooling celebrates it. Unschooling puts the responsibility for creating a satisfying life squarely where it belongs: in the hands of the one living it.
A truly revolutionary call. When you make your choices about courses and colleges what criteria are you using? Do you look at the school's ranking or do you focus on how that school can develop you as a person? Which is more important to you? I see social media as helping with this unschooling approach. When I look at the uses of Twitter, online courses, Second Life or others it does help to break students out of the traditional school mold.
Think about these questions when you consider your own plans after high school. After you have your diploma, what will come next?
Truer words were never spoken or written. These were taken from a recent blog post by Dave Pollard. The quote was excerpted from 101 Reasons Why I'm an Unschooler. The post, and I'm sure the book, present some very good reasons why so-called modern schooling is designed to produce drones and wage slaves and not thinkers.
The authors own experience with 'independent study' is illuminating. By removing the shackles of schooling he got a better education than he ever could from even the best teacher. The educational model that we follow, with teachers teaching a standardized curriculum to a mass of students, was begun in the 17th century and has changed little since then. This form of schooling does violence to students as smart students are held back, slow students become frustrated by their lack of ability in 'required subjects' and average students become envious of how easy it is for the smart students to succeed.
The unspoken truth is that modern education was never designed to produce thinkers, it was designed to produce conformity and obedience. Thus the emphasis on management over education. Teachers are taught how to control and instruct and students are taught how to behave and learn correctly. If you go all the way back to schooling's origins in Martin Luther's Prussia and Calvin's Geneva it had the same purpose, social control through access to correct learning.
When I think of the IB's Learner Profile and the skills it suggests, I wonder how many of them will really be learned through the use of a standardized curriculum. How can a student be an independent risk taker when 80% of their grade is going to come from three hours of standardized exams.
What both authors suggest is the basis for a Libertarian approach to education and was the foundation of the home-schooling movement.
It is not up to teachers or school administrators to figure out what you should be or do. It’s not up to the State, it’s not up to your guidance counselors. It’s not up to your parents. What you do with your life ought to be up to you. What you learn ought to be up to you. How you navigate the world and create your place in it ought to be your decision. Your life belongs to you. School does its best to disabuse you of this notion. Unschooling celebrates it. Unschooling puts the responsibility for creating a satisfying life squarely where it belongs: in the hands of the one living it.
A truly revolutionary call. When you make your choices about courses and colleges what criteria are you using? Do you look at the school's ranking or do you focus on how that school can develop you as a person? Which is more important to you? I see social media as helping with this unschooling approach. When I look at the uses of Twitter, online courses, Second Life or others it does help to break students out of the traditional school mold.
Think about these questions when you consider your own plans after high school. After you have your diploma, what will come next?
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