Well, back again after my longest absence ever. Almost done with summer teaching, and soon will be working on another chapter for my book about education. That's where you, dear readers, come in. I need your thoughts on how schooling should be. I'm especially interested in school as it should be from the ages of 12 to 18. I have long suspected that there are problems for this age group, particularly those who are not ready, willing, and/or able to be Tools o' The Man. They find school a place, like, say, prison, where they are forced to do their time, and then they will be free at some point. Some stay the course, some opt out (drop out or GED), and some sell out. By "sell out" I don't necessarily mean sell their souls, but they do in some way come to a compromise position in which they are forced to put up with some shit they otherwise would avoid like the plague, because not to do so would endanger their future well-being. This, of course, is a kind of economic/cultural blackmail that keeps kids in school.
Anyhow, might there not be some better way to go about keeping people interested in school? Personally, I'd like to see a more open system, under which kids get greater and greater autonomy as they make progress. I'd like to see less emphasis on grades and testing. I'd like to see students exercise their passions in choice of topics to learn. For example, if you like horror films, why the heck is that not something that can provide the content of a class teaching basic skills like reading and writing? If you like to blow shit up, why can't that be part of the science curriculum? Okay, granted, that might be problematic, but the point that I'm making is not: People will spend long hours, under brutal conditions, in order to pursue something that interests them. Why can't school systems act upon that simple fact. It would probably help kids who hate school, and might also be good for getting the "good kids" to worry about something besides their grades--When they get to college, they often care more about the grade than the learning, to their, and my, detriment.
So, what do you think? What are some potential alternatives to how schools presently are run that would allow students more autonomy and more joy in learning?
About Me
- Doc Johnson
- I'm an assistant professor of communication studies. Not really sure how that happened.
2 comments:
Maybe it would spur discussion somewhat if you asked more specific questions... people seem to like those :P
either way, I'm going to post the URL to this on my mailing list. if anyone replies on the list i'll send you the responses. not the most talkative bunch though, but we'll see :P
I guess I sort of see this as a "wish list" sort of thing. I'd like people to work from what they have experienced and to imagine alteratives for that. For example, I left high school at 17, at the end of my third year (normally it takes four). My reason? I was tired of being treated like a little kid. It's been my observation that schools do a shitty job helping young people move from child to adult. They seem only to want to control them. The attempts at granting autonomy tend to be in things like menu-style curricular choices (one from column A, two from B, etc.) or so-called "student government," which tends to give the popular and successful kids yet one more reason to feel good about themselves, about school, and about their futures. Not that they will actually be given any real power to determine how the school is run, of course.
I'd like that to be different. More like college, in a way. More freedom, more autonomy, even if it's something simple like having more than one time of day when you can take a math class. Maybe I'm not much of a morning person. Why should I have to take geometry at 8:00 a.m. in the morning? Stuff like that could go a little ways toward what I'm talking about.
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