Zen Habit’s Leo Babauta has a very timely post today on education in the schools.
When my first child was supposed to enter Kindergarden and I brought up the topic of home schooling with his soon to be teacher, she looked at me as if I were her enemy and proceeded to tell me that it was illegal and that if my son should not show up for school by Grade one, she would have the truant officer at my door. She went on to explain how the interaction with other children at school would improve their social skills, which would affect their ability, later in life, to obtain the best jobs.
Three children and twenty years later, I look back and realize how wrong she was. My extremely polite and socially adept sons and daughter entered school as everything a parent wanted in their children at that age. They came out the other end when high school was over, totally confused about where their place was in this world.
Their manners and command of the English language had deteriorated; their self-esteem had taken a huge drop and many evenings over the years have been spent with them sitting down with me, looking for an alternate method of learning math skills in particular. They had, for the most part, every bit of curiosity drummed out of them. Schools do not teach you to learn on your own. For the most part, the teachers are only interested in keeping control of the group that is in their classroom at any particular time.
Slowly, since then, they have learned to think for themselves again. My younger son never really lost all of his intense wonder in everything which drove the teachers crazy when he was younger; one or two even smiled at his ideas with a look of nostalgia on their faces. My older son and daughter didn’t fare as well and it’s taken a few years of being out of the system for both of them to regain the interesting personalities they once had. All three came through without any of the major problems that are so common in younger people today.
Yes, the whole school system needs re-vamping. Our children need to learn that they have the capabilities at a very young age to create their own future.
DemGen
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