"Children are required to be in school, where their freedom is greatly restricted, far more than most adults would tolerate in their workplaces. In recent decades we’ve been compelling them to spend ever more time in this kind of setting, and there’s strong evidence that this is causing psychological damage to many of them. And as scientists have investigated how children naturally learn, they’ve realized that kids do so most deeply and fully, and with greatest enthusiasm, in conditions that are almost opposite to those of school….
Most people assume that the basic design of today’s schools emerged from scientific evidence about how children learn. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Schools as we know them today are a product of history, not research.
….
Research has shown that people of all ages learn best when they are self-motivated, pursuing answers to questions that reflect their personal interests and achieving goals that they’ve set for themselves. Under such conditions, learning is usually joyful.
The evidence for all of this is obvious to anyone who’s watched a child grow from infancy to school age. Through their own efforts, children figure out how to walk, run, jump, and climb. They learn from scratch their native language, and with that, they learn to assert their will, argue, amuse, annoy, befriend, charm, and ask questions.
….
They do all of this before anyone, in any systematic way, tries to teach them anything.
This amazing drive and capacity to learn does not turn itself off when children reach five or six. But we turn it off with our coercive system of schooling.”
Thank
thing anyone under 30 knows
I had a chance at an educational environment like that, but my mom thought it sounded like I’d be “playing all day” and took me out of it.
I’m still bitter about that almost twenty years later.
This is among one of the many reasons (including severe lasting psychological damage) that Heather and I have agreed to homeschool our children. You are free to say whatever you want in opposition to homeschool. Just be aware that I am also free to say “fuck you, asshole.”
My economy teacher always said that school is basically a factory to make all kids think the same and believe that all answers can be found in a book somewhere.
He’s kind of right in that the independent thinkers, the ones who ask questions and point out whenever the teachers are wrong are the ones who are the ‘trouble students’
people learn in different ways. I got sent to ISS on several occasions for drawing when we were supposed to take notes because I 'wasn’t paying attention’ despite the fact that I was top of the same class.
My freshman algebra teacher refused to accept the book was wrong on one question despite the fact that it clearly was (it didn’t take the negative into account) and she also faiked me because I 'cheated’ despite sitting alone, with nobody around me in the back, all because I do math faster in my head and am less likely to make a mistake because when I write it down, i get confused.
Hell, my econ teacher even wrote a book on how fucked up the education system is. un amerikan edookashun