Mar
23
Deschooled
Filed Under Uncategorized
For some, it is love. For others, it is money. What’s the root of all evil? For me, it’s bureaucracy. Rules, regulations, power, and hierarchy. Although I understand that the aforementioned words refer to concepts that are necessary for large organizations to function properly, I can’t detach the negative associations I have of those words in educational contexts. This is where Illich and I see eye to eye. Although I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that our school system is flawed, and the reason is because we treat our schools like any other massive institution. We treat our students like we treat DMV customers. Therein lies the problem.
For an organization like DMV, I’d argue that a bureaucracy, although not the most pleasant of experiences, gets the job done. Sure, people complain about their lackluster service, their long lines, and mundane paperwork; however, we don’t expect anything more from a DMV experience anyways. Additionally, there is no competition; you can’t just go to Wal-Mart and register your car (that’s not to say that Wal-Mart would be any better considering they’re not any less bureaucratic, at least to their employees). When going to a public school, however, there’s a certain level of expectation that students have. That is, not to be overwhelmed by one-size-fits-all material, routine and tedious assignments that teach you nothing, and lessons that are catered around a systematic and ultimately flawed testing procedure (in Virginia, notoriously known as SOL tests). As far as competition goes, a few priviliged families have the option of sending their children to private schools or appointing a private instructor. A majority of children don’t have that privilige, and even if they do, who’s to say that private schools are any better than public schools (from a bureaucracy standpoint).
It’s always easy to point out a flaw in any system without contributing a solution. So here’s my imperfect (what is perfect?) solution: my view of the ideal educational system would be one in which all students go through Kindergarten-Middle School and skip High School and college. Why? Because children should be exposed to social encounters and experience some structure for the first few years of their life. After middle school, however, a child is old enough to learn on his or her own without the presence of an instructor, friends, rules, regulations, etc. But how, you may ask? We aren’t living in the nineteenth century anymore. We have computers!
With the presence of the internet, we are all living in a global village (as Mcluhan eloquently points out). Instead of learning from twenty or so classmates, and one instructor, why not learn from a student who is ten years older living all the way in China? Or instead of being instructed by one teacher for a whole year, why not get multiple opinions on the same subject from different points of views via streaming video of lectures? But, but, what about the social interaction beyond middle school, you may ask. I’m not suggesting that we cut each other off completely (we can still participate in clubs, go to places of worship, etc. and get some face-to-face interaction), but why not learn more about each other with the tools that are available to us, rather than constraining ourselves to the same flawed systems that students were subjected to in the 19th century because they had to.
[...] Original post by sonic911 [...]