Holding us back

School holds us back.

There are many, many things wrong with schools, as they currently exist, that fail to do what we claim to want from the, but are, as the kids are saying, not a bug but a design feature.

Schools are supposed to teach us to stay in line, keep quiet and obey authority.  That students leave with less creativity and independence are features not bugs.

This relates, in it's way to Schools Are Good for Showing Off, Not for Learning by Peter Gray.  In that article, Dr. Gray discusses the flaws in both positive and negative reinforcement as teaching tools.

Today, I overheard someone discussing the book report her son had coming up.  He had, she said, selected a 400 page book to read and write on.  She was relieved that the teacher had managed to talk him out of this challenge and down to something easier.

I can think of no better example of what's intrinsically wrong with traditional schools.  In a school in which learning and improving oneself is the goal, overreaching can only be seen as a good thing, you're working the muscles.  It's only when the real goal is timed and graded that this could be an issue.

Believe me, I'm punctual.  I believe in punctuality.  I even suspect serial lack of punctuality is borderline sociopathic, although I admit that's probably an overreaction based on personal issues.  And, yes, I'm already broken by the system, something I definitely intend to address another day, which affects my punctuality.

I don't think our school system genuinely teaches that skill or any reason why it's important, aside from as an act of continued obedience, though.  I suspect that, in many ways, that makes it counter-productive in teaching it as a valuable skill and a courtesy to bestow upon those around you.

I think a child could benefit themselves, in knowledge, confidence and understanding the world, much more in challenging themselves to read the longer book than they gain reading a shorter one that they're more likely to be able to regurgitate some reasonably useless information back in order to achieve a competitive grade.

Yes, I thought all of these things all through school.  After my final breaking point, which was after school by a couple of years, because I was just that obstinate, I stopped thinking about it very much at all, except on rare occasions when someone would say something so outrageously pro-school that I'd go into an outraged rant, usually internally, but occasionally it would leak out.

Now that I'm raising a child and facing that future, I have to say I'm back to being a raw nerve.

At a work gathering at Rae's job, another guest described the work load at the kindergarten class she works in, and how little recess they got and how much homework they were given even at that young age.  I seethed.

I ranted at my poor spouse later about it and they said, "She just works there, it's not like she can do anything about it."

And I said, "Yes, I'm sure she's the nicest guard at the Concentration Camp".

(Yes, I took the conversation to Godwin's Law territory that quickly.)

Now, I'd probably go for the less ambitious School is a prison! argument, which would sound mildly less dramatic.

However I phrase my response, I can only imagine Friedrich Fröbel rolling in his grave.

We respond to our students struggling more and more to learn from our schools by exacerbating all of the things that are causing the problem in the first place, and get, as one could only expect, receiving worse results, at least by the arbitrary standards we set. See Educational Reform by Daniel Greenberg.

And while it's undoubtedly more complicated on some levels, I think that it speaks volumes that school, as well as parents, knee-jerk to preferring a better grade, and perhaps a more timely assignment, to something that would be more likely to stretch this growing boy's horizons and exercise his mind.

You can say what you want.  I've "evolved" to hesitantly moving toward accepting a "school" type environment in my last post, Thoughts on school, but I was always a little open to something along those lines.

I'm not budging from there, though.  There's no way I'm sending my child to a public school.  Not even a consideration.

Thoughts on school

Rae and I are looking at Clearview Sudbury School for Conan.

It's kind of a big step in thinking for me, because I had been very resistant to any kind of school. I wrote School and socialization at my other blog, before I started this one.

In that post, I wrote, "My experiences at the private Seattle Country Day School and the The Evergreen School feel as constricting, personally and intellectually, as the ones I had at the public Olympic View Junior High and Mariner High School."

And here I should note, as I neglected to in the earlier post, that not only were the first two private schools, they were intended, to one degree or another, to be provide an alternative teaching method. Something I think the result of which was little different, if at all, than the result of the traditional methods.

So, my position hasn't changed. In fact, I've been reading the Freedom to Learn blog by Peter Gray, and looking forward to reading his book, Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life, soon. This has, if anything, cemented my position that School is a prison!

As Rae and I spend more time trying to parent in our own way, we find it's increasingly difficult to do.

I realize that input and company from other children, as well as other adults, is an important part of life.

There are, as it happens, plenty of groups, but both of us have one trouble or another keeping up on that.  There are regular meet-ups and finding times and places, having to deal with other parents who might be several degrees opposed to us on one issue or another, which creates those awkward moments that are hard to get through with new acquaintances, especially ones who you're ostensibly around because of your common ground... and for a loud introvert like me, any block in developing a relationship, grows quickly into something difficult to tolerate at all. That's a failing, I know. At least somewhat.

I like their philosophy. You can read some further details regarding the original Sudbury School at Children Educate Themselves IV: Lessons from Sudbury Valley if you're interested.  It sounds like it fits with the needs I had as a child, that went woefully unfulfilled, as well as the needs I'm planning to fill for Conan.

If this turns out for him, like my schooling turned out for me, I'll turn back in a heartbeat.

But I have a very good feeling.

School is a prison!