Why School?
Why School?
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" It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle
that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled
the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from
stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to
wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the
enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion
and a sense of duty." Albert Einstein
After a brief experience with a private elementary school, my husband and I have chosen to homeschool our five and a half year old son. When people hear of our decision, they generally assume that what we are doing is replicating the school experience (required attendance, school-selected subjects and materials, tests and evaluations of progress, etc) in our home. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are an "unschooling" family, meaning that we believe in a child-led approach to learning. Trust is the essential ingredient in unschooling. Trusting a child to know when he is ready to learn and what he is interested in learning is a concept completely foreign to modern educational theory as manifested in both public and private schools. Although parents and educators assume that children up to the age of three or so are able to learn what are inarguably life's most monumental tasks, walking and talking, without professional assistance, we stop trusting children to learn when they reach traditional school ages. According to psychologist Jan Hunt, "No one worries that a baby will be too lazy, uncooperative or unmotivated to learn these things; it is assumed that every baby is born wanting to learn the things he needs to know in order to understand and participate in the world around him." Unschooling families extend this same trust to children of every age. The inborn curiosity of children, steeped in a rich environment of books, music, talk, natural beauty and art, will lead children to learn. When this learning takes place as a result of the child's own desire, it is enthusiastically inhaled. When a child is able to study what he thinks is worthwhile rather than what someone else has told him is important, the learning becomes active, rather than passive. True comprehension emerges. No curriculum,worksheets or TCAP scores necessary. Although some progressive schools, particularly those founded on the principles espoused by Dr. Maria Montessori, allow children a measure of freedom in choosing among a limited number of available materials, most schools shepard students through eight hours of breaking the day up into arbitrary periods of busywork, administrative tasks and teacher- mandated instruction. Quiet time to play, rest,read, think or dream is mostly unavailable and discouraged. Additionally, schools tell children what they should care about and when they should care about it. One writer described this approach as "a twelve year assembly line, with bits of knowledge poured in or bolted on by others as the belt moves along." School-based learning is completely enslaved to the idea of curriculae. Graduate schools of education have entire departments devoted to deciding when children must learn what. Despite what educational theorists would have you believe, however, there is no well-founded reason why schooled children are taught certain things at certain ages. After all, adults between the ages of, for example, twenty five and twenty seven are not organically interested in or ready to learn only one set of facts, ideas or concepts. Why should we assume that all eight year old children are intrinsically ready to learn one area of study and unready for others ? Our son, for example, is not yet terribly interested in reading by himself. However, he has an absolute passion for The Crusades and The American Civil War. Were he in a local kindergarten, it is highly unlikely that the professional educator at the head of his class would have any idea that he knows all about the Battle of Bull Run. This is because The Civil War is not a part of the approved kindergarten curriculum. No, instead he would have to wait until fourth or fifth grade, at the earliest, to capitalize on this interest. In all probability, the focus of his kindergarten teacher's attention would be on the fact that he is not yet a proficient reader. Perhaps, like fifteen to twenty percent of all American schoolchildren, he would be tested and found to be " learning impaired " (read: different) in some way. As it is now, he is perfectly confident in his own slow but steady progress with the written word. No one has given him the impression that he is not capable of reading. He assumes that he will soon be reading on his own. He often sits for hours, poring over his favorite history books or the World Book Encyclopedia and "reading" in his own way. All it would take would be one negative experience with reading instruction to discourage him from enjoying books. Clearly he would be a square peg in a round hole at our neighborhood school. Unfortunately, he is not unique. Schools have many dehumanizing aspects as well. Students are required to ask permission for even the most basic human needs, such as food, water or a chance to go to the bathroom. Children are made to stand in lines and change activities at the sound of a bell. As New York City's 1990 Teacher of the Year John Gatto has pointed out, the similarities between most schools and a rigid, factory-style workplace are not accidental. Compulsory public schooling came about as a direct result of the need for a more productive workforce in Industrial America. Even today, educators and government officials speak openly of schools as the place where this country's workforce is created. No one speaks of schools as places where critical thinking, creativity, inventiveness and kindness are nurtured.However, those are the goals of our own homeschool. I do hope that our children are self-sufficient and contributing members of their community once they reach adulthood. I also hope that they discover a talent that gives them pleasure and keeps them fed and sheltered. However,I do not wish for them to become fodder for a "Dilbert" cartoon or cogs in the wheel of the statistical American "workforce". One of the most beneficial aspects of learning at home is the improved opportunity for socialization. In a school setting, children are isolated all day long in a largely age segregated (by school and then by classroom) setting. At home, children are out in their neighborhood and world, meeting the mailman, counting out change at the corner store, accompanying parents to the voting booth, volunteering at a nursing home or playing with other homeschooled children. Most importantly, they are not away from their families for many hours each day. Homeschooling families spend an abundance of time together. Parents share the joy in seeing their child learn something new, just as they shared the joy of seeing first steps or first words. Siblings are not sent off in opposite directions at the start of each day. The brother-sister bond is supported and revered with many opportunities for close attachments to form. Parents reclaim the feeling that they, and not paid professionals, know their children and their needs, abilities and interests best of all. |