Not sure if it’s the websites I’m frequenting lately or just the general mood, but my roundup for today has a lot of links debating the merits of formal schooling.
In this view of American educational history, the public school is not seen to be a magnificent vehicle for upward mobility, as is the traditional notion; it is viewed instead as a machine that exists to disable students, to remove them from the running for middle-class status, thereby ensuring the maintenance of exploitative social structures. [Colin] Greer wants us to understand that school identifies those who can accept a strict routinizing of their lives, points out those who can be expected to perform, to know their places. It is seen as a giant sorting operation that helps define for America those students for whom the promise of “getting ahead” will be fulfilled. Those who are slated to live lower-class lives are conditioned to accept their fate and taught how to function in their prescribed roles.
Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence by Keith Gilyard
- We Have Ruined Childhood (New York Times)
- Children should learn mainly through play until age of eight, says Lego (The Guardian)
- Why On Earth Do We Trap School Children Inside Four Walls to Learn? (Outdoortopia)
- Why introductory chemistry is boring: a long-term historical perspective (21st Night)
- Education Is a System of Indoctrination of the Young (Noam Chomsky, Video)
I’m not sure how I personally feel about formal schooling. I went to a private Montessori preschool and then public school all through university. My husband attended private schools for most of his early education. I’ve known people who were homeschooled that struggled to catch up and those who were homeschooled that were ahead of the game. I do think there are pros and cons for all forms of schooling from the strictest military schools to the most relaxed unschooling education, but I do also acknowledge that the American school system as it currently is has many deep flaws and struggles that don’t have any easy solutions. It bears thinking as MoonGirl emerges out of her toddler years and I’ll need to start thinking of possible options for her preschool years.
What do you think?