The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

On the Virtues of Schooling (sort of)

You're not likely to find someone who's more opposed to the modern American system of education than me. Technically, I don't think you could, because I'm completely and utterly opposed to it.

There are two issues that I am more adamant and solid on than any others, I think, and those two would be the drug war (I'm against it) and the modern American education system. I say "modern American education system" instead of "public schooling" or "the American school system", because there are defintely bright spots out there in the school system. But all of those bright spots -- homeschooling, charter schools, vouchers, and Internet education -- are things that go against the grain of the system I'm talking about.

I don't think it's necessarily confined to public schools either. I'm sure there are many private schools that are doing their own thing, but I'm also sure there are many who are doing much the same thing as most public schools -- that being, dragging a bunch of kids into huge buildings with dozens of classrooms and hundreds of students, 20-30 to a classroom, and ringing bells every so often, and herding the kids this way and that, and so on. That is the modern American education system I'm talking about.

I've written at length about how the very structure and culture of schools leads to inevitable, deeply damaging problems, and I've written at some length about how the educational structure of a single-teacher classroom is essentially guaranteed to only tap into a tiny amount of any kid's learning potential, if any at all -- and how there could be a way we could get that amount a lot closer to 100%. So I won't go into those issues too deeply -- you can read either of those articles to see where I'm coming from. I'm really writing to introduce to you an article I just read -- probably the best newspaper article I've ever seen about homeschooling (and unschooling). But I'd be remiss if I didn't wax eloquent with some thoughts on it all, while we're on the subject.

As I was saying, opposition to our "education" system is a big issue for me. I don't have a single good thing to say about it -- to me, it's a fundamentally flawed model, if the aim is to produce educated, intelligent young adults who are best prepared for their adult lives. A lot of education scholars, particularly folks in the "opposition" like me, will tell you that that's not what the modern model was intended to do -- that instead, it was designed to produce a dependable flow of docile, obedient workers who could be easily trained to do simple reptitive tasks; and that it came along in concert (and partnership) with the advent of mass production and the factory boom.

Now, if that was the goal, then our system was perfectly designed, at least as long as it was keeping pace with the workforce needs of the economy. Of course, it fell out of pace, right about during my time in school, as the Information Age sent the Industrial Age packing. But that hardly matters -- because that shouldn't be the goal of our educational system. It still is, though the parameters have shifted a bit. Prepping kids for the workforce is still the plan, even though anyone who tells you they know what the workforce is going to look like when these kids are adults is lying outright.

Aside from that fatal flaw, the system is struggling urgently with the pains of bureaucracy -- it's this big national beast, increasingly micromanaged from the top, with so many layers of power struggle on the way down that it's probably impossible to map. Down at the bottom, teachers and principals, with their metaphorical arms and legs chopped off by the many layers above, try to manage what is essentially a big, crowded educational prison -- often with inadequate or shoddy materials, with little control over curriculum, and with each having anywhere from 60 to 150 kids a semester under their surrogate care.

And the mission of schools has gone far beyond readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, or even science, history, and civics. Because they are essentially acting as part-time parents of these kids, a whole host of non-curricular issues come up -- sexuality, spirituality, character, ethics, hate, rage, violence, pregnancy, and so on. And what is it exactly they're supposed to be doing for the kids? Do you think that any two people would give the same answer to that question? Are we trying to make them better learners, better workers, more likely to get into college, or are we trying to improve their character, or their physical strength and dexterity, or their social skills? Or all of those things? And what sort of workers was it we want them to be again? Tech workers? Medical professionals? Historians? Zoologists? Politicians? Wouldn't each of those professions involve developing different skills and subjects, even before age 18? It did, for hundreds of years before the 20th century.

If I had stayed in high school for 12th grade, I would have been taking pretty much what all the smart 12th graders took -- AP Math, AP Physics, AP English, and some filler stuff, plus Phys Ed. I had already taken almost every English class my school offered -- I took two and a half years of English one year -- and that was the only the only subject I cared for. Those "AP" classes were "Advanced Placement", which is basically a dedicated year of teaching to a test -- the Advanced Placement test. My AP U.S. History teacher drove herself nearly crazy year after year trying to prepare kids for that test, while trying to also teach them something about history.

So basically there was one class that I would actually have enjoyed at all, and that one was corrupted by being geared specifically toward a standardized test. I would have had one or two study halls a day. Utimately I only had some miniscule amount of credits left to earn, and (if I recall correctly) Phys Ed was my only class requirement that wasn't filled. That's what our public education system had to offer me for 12th grade. I had been out of my mind with boredom in school for 11 years, and it seemed like the last one was going to be the worst yet.

Thankfully, two different places with a little more sense took it upon themselves to get in touch with me, and I ended up going to the University of Southern California's early entry program. My high school protested a bit, but not as much as they might have for someone else. Actually, most of the authority figures in my school were probably breathing record-breaking sighs of relief. I was an excellent student with a volatile attitude, and that can be a lot of trouble for teachers and school administrators. And it was.

But I digress, a lot. I wanted to respond to my own statement that I have not one good thing to say about the modern American educational system. Many people respond to that suggestion with something like "You must admit that some good things come from school -- that some kids come out having added some value of some sort." And yes, I'll concede that. While my K-12 education probably amounts to less than 2% of my total education, I did learn a few useful things in school.

The way I see it, it's like a glass of cloudy, muddy water, with a jagged rim. If the government went and gave all the country's kids 8 cups a day of muddy pondwater in glasses with sharp, jagged rims, some good would come from it. After all, water is one of the best substances on earth, and even muddy and gross it has a lot going for it. My dogs drink muddy water just like it's normal, and it doesn't ever seem to hurt them. If any one of us was truly parched and had no other choice, we'd gulp down pond or puddle water like it was the fountain of life -- and in all likelihood, it would be. It would do that good thing water does, and the mud and muck probably wouldn't hurt you much, if at all.

And about that jagged edge on the glass. Well, first of all, not all the glasses would be totally jagged, per se -- some would just have a chip or a little crack, or a sharp area or two that would be easy to avoid. And plus, kids would learn to be cautious and controlled -- and cuts and scrapes are part of growing up anyway. And you can't really expect a national kidwater system to be perfect, particularly when you're using glasses as the delivery method.

Besides, kids need water -- they'll die without it. And the impurities in pondwater seldom cause any serious harm to internal organs. And parents can't be expected to take time off work to follow their kids around all day and make sure they get water. Plus, making these kids stay at the water depot all day teaches them discipline and how to behave themselves, and standing in long lines teaches them patience.

See, there's tons of good to a system like that!

In a certain twisted way, it's all true. Not just some, but a lot of good would come from giving our nation's kids 8 jagged glasses of muddy pondwater a day. Millions of kids would be internally cleansed and refreshed, and their young bodies would soak up that water like it was the fountain of life, which it is (to a body). It's probably more water then they drink now, and it's a good amount of water to drink. But it should be crystal clear that that would be a horrible plan -- nothing that anyone in their right mind would choose. There's so much negative and wrong about it that it's not even worth considering.

Jagged glasses of muddy water could bring inestimable amounts of good, but no human on earth would choose one over a nice smooth cup of clear spring water.

The metaphor breaks down like this: Learning, or education, is water; the jagged glass is our educational system, after a century of wear and tear; the mud is the bureaucracy and anti-learning dogma that has seeped into almost every pore of the system; the government is the government; and the kids with bleeding lips and gastric problems are kids like the Columbine killers, and the teens who don't know the three branches of our government, and the victims of "zero tolerance" policies, and the kid in every other sad school story that rides the headlines (or doesn't).

So I'll correct my statement. There are good things I could say about the educational system, but it would make no more sense to say them than it would to defend the benefits of mandatory universal pondwater for children.

If you somehow made it all the way through this, then you should enjoy a shocking contrast by reading the article below. It tells stories of learning and child development that you will seldom see coming out of the vast majority of youth learning institutions in this country. Actually, that's not technically true, since there are now millions of home schools, each a unique learning institution in its own right.

If you are already into homeschooling (or unschooling), read this article and glow with recognition and pride. If you're considering it, read this article and tip the scales. If you're a skeptic, read it and have your skepticism challenged. If you intend to form an opinion about homeschooling at any point in the future, you should read this article.

Homeschooling: Teaching Thy Children Well