Reasons for School: It's Not Pretty

These are my personal notes I took from a speech given by John Taylor Gatto at the 7th Annual AERO Conference, Albany, New York, June, 2010.

Before you read any further, I feel I must warn you. John Taylor Gatto is a pretty radical dude. But I like him. And I might add that he has a great sense of humor about his angle on education. He filled his speech with personal stories, and backed up his opinions masterfully with books and articles about the history of education. All eye-opening. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, he is a must in my humble opinion.



Reason #1: To make good humans
55% of private schools are religious

Reason #2: To make good citizens
Teach skills that need to be experienced, not memorized.
Public speaking and persuasive writing should be at the front of education, but it's not.

Reason #3: Schooling is for personal development
The above three traditional purposes are inoperable to manage.
It's not in the nature of man for principles to be taken seriously.
Principled people must be marginalized because a society with masses that are too productive destroy an economy.
See the essay "On Libery" by John Stewart Mill
Train young people early from straying from the right path
Conquer the parents first and divide them into thinking "what we are doing in school is best."

Reason #4: Create Artificial Fear- the poor are irredeemable
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by Baruch Spinoza. Divide them from their parents and culture and religion, fill their heads with nonsense. This concept was reworked in Prussian Germany, through the creation of the Pope in Rome, and the creation of Tutonic Knights. "exterminate the heathens"

Reason #5: Common people (roughly 80% of the population) have to be neutralized
How?
Memorize lists, deep analytical thinking has to be rid of, deprive them of primary experience, supply a confused version of reality. Read "The Federalist Papers." All power is inheritantly evil and corrupt. "Decent Of Man" by Darwin has given public schools the license to label students as both inferior (special Ed) and exceptional (Gifted and Talented).



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mommies Need Adventures Every Now And Then

When I was 20 years younger, I lived the adventurous life as an Outward Bound Instructor. I traveled from base to base in my AMC Concord and lived in a tent, or a simple room at whatever base I was working at. The job didn't pay much, but the flip side was the experience of living outdoors, leading expeditions for young people and sharing these adventures with co-workers/friends. In between our time on course, depending on where I was, Instructors would get together to surf, kayak, climb, backpack, canoe, or live in Key West for a winter of waitressing and basking in the sun. Ah, what a life.

Fast forward to the present. I am a wife and mommy of three kids, and every now and then, it's time for a little adventure with my Outward Bound girlfriends. Our last get-together was about ten years ago backpacking in Colorado, before I got pregnant with my first child. Ten years is a long time to wait for a girlfriend adventure.

Since I live in Bayfield County Wisconsin, we decided to do a little exploring of Bayfield and The Apostle Islands. We signed on for a one day kayaking trip to see the Sea Caves through an awesome outfitter, Living Adventures. I have lived up here for four years and still had not seen them yet. They are only visible from boats or by walking out to them on the frozen Lake Superior in the winter.




Anne and I are geared up to go.




Our first close-up look at the caves was a place called "The Crack". You paddle in until you can't go any further.








Here, Anne and Lisa paddle into The Crack for a look.



After time in different caves like "The Garage" and "The Car Wash" we took a break on "Lunch Beach".


Notice the folding table with the checkered table cloth? It was first class all the way, with a gourmet spread of freshly made deli wrap sandwiches, tasty GORP, homemade hummus with sliced apples and lemonade, served to us by Eric and Chris. What a treat to be on the other side, not having to be in charge of gear, safety, and of course, the food. Being a customer of a classy outfitter sure has it's perks. We just enjoyed our yummy lunch!


The last half of the trip was seeing the caves from a different point of view. The weather had changed, from a little on the overcast side to bright, sunny and calm waters.














What do you see hidden here?






So, if you are ever in the neighborhood of the Apostle Islands, be sure to look up Living Adventures. They offer overnights and day trips. Excellent, qualified friendly staff, all gear included and tasty food. We had an excellent adventure.

Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, and homeschooling

By now you may have read my first post: Star Wars, Darth Vader and project based learning. I want to revisit this theme of non-formalized education. I never would have seen myself saying this but Obi Wan and Yoda were outdated in their instructional techniques. To examine this concept let us return to the real world for a moment to illustrate the parallel.

Take reading for example, most ordinary people view reading or learning to read as a mystical and complex endeavor, where "experts" are needed to instruct the young "Jedi". We have spent billions of dollars developing techniques and processes to further increase the aura of this task. We send the youth to large institutions where the masses are taught to read in a systematic, regimented, and prescribed format. Teachers are being trained to follow procedures and stick to the script. In a time of national crisis in education, individual needs are being sacrificed for the greater good. Great interest at a policy level is the push to replicate or "clone" schools that work.

Back to Yoda, how did the use of clones work out for the republic? Oh that's right. They turned into the dreaded Storm Trooper. Are we creating our own clones that will not think for themselves? Yoda and Obi Wan were part of the problem. Yoda didn't even want to teach Luke at first - "he is too old." It is always harder to teach humans who have developed and are more resistant to being treated like an empty vessel waiting to be filled. This may explain why we can get away with "drill and kill" on little children and by the time they reach the high school level they rebel.

Remember it was the free thinking Luke, homeschooled for the majority of his life that left Dagobah in the middle of his regimented training to go save his friends. Yoda and Ben were beside themselves, thinking the young Luke was not ready to confront Vader. (Does the concept of prolonged adolescence jump into your mind? I'll save that concept for another blog.)

When he returned to Dagobah, Yoda told him his training was complete. How did he accomplish the mystical and complex teachings of the force without a scaffold scoped and sequence curricula? Like most humans we learn things when we need to, sometimes on our own, sometimes through short periods of help from others, sometimes through books ... you get the picture.

The problem is that we have swallowed the idea that we need experts to learn anything. Luke never lost sight of what was really important. So as a young man without a diploma, blows up the Death Star, becomes a Jedi, helps destroy the Emperor and saves a soul. Not bad for a kid with little formalized instruction.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Star Wars, Darth Vader and project based learning.

This is a story of two men, each one grew up in poverty in a broken home. One was sent to a public school where they wore uniforms, had a rigid code of conduct, and an exit exam to be considered done with his education. A place with very high standards.

The other reached adulthood living on his aunt and uncle's farm. He learned how to be a pilot, learning from a series of mentors that came and went out of his life. The ideal of service and sacrifice to others, became engrained into his very fabric.

The first one became egotistical and obsessed with pleasing others, often seen as rash and quick to temper, yet he preformed very well on all exams given to him by his school. After years of being instructed by a very elite academy his resentment grew from always having to follow orders the prescribed way. This resentment grew until he lashed out at the very institution that had "cared" for him, culminating in a mass murder of his school mates.

The second lad had many opportunities to succeed and fail, yet he typically made his own decisions and had to live with the consequences of his own actions. He daily life consisted of projects that he needed to complete to survive in the harsh environment he called home. Opportunities came along and his sense of adventure led him to accomplish great things, yet he was always humble and remembered his roots, unlike the first lad who was pampered in an educational academy.

If public schools produced Darth Vader, and homeschools produced Luke Skywalker, where would you want to place your kid?

The essence of this essay is to ask what we ask of our kids. Does your school give students the ability to ask questions and learn in a style that fits their spirit? I think we forget that children are unique. A school that prescribes a set way of doing things for all in the end only produces resentment in the very children they are trying to cultivate, nurture and support. Project based schools that allow children to make meaning out of the world from their own perspective have the ability to produce individuals that in the end may blow up the Death Star and save the galaxy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad