spending the majority of your day among people half your age and size is an unnatural way of being. this is why our modern educational system is plagued with problems. Freire and Dewey and others have all touched on it before, but now, after 2 years of public school teaching, i'm beginning to fully understand what they mean.
seriously, think about how often you naturally or willfully come into contact with more than 3 or 4 children at a time. it typically doesn't happen because, except for at school, human children don't travel in packs. (unless, of course, they are "wilding".)
thus, i propose we do away with the education system as we know it, and revive apprenticeship! every adult in America should volunteer to adopt 2-3 children/young adults to mentor and guide into adulthood. this would more evenly distribute the adult-child interactions among the population, reduce crime, increase self-esteem among the younger species, increase general feelings of good-doingness, boost humanity's morale, in addition to solving the problems with education. that's like, a whole flock of birds with one giant boulder!
... and i once dreamt of being the next big Secretary of Education...
-stephan!e
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
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2 comments:
happy to volunteer! so, would i have to teach them geometry and algebra and chemistry too, or are we just talking life skills here?
i guess that's why we need schools, to mass-teach those things like algebra, chemistry, etc. but if we had the apprenticeship model, it would just be practical things, like math you need every day.
but, it could also work this way: each of us went to school and learned all the bookish things we "needed." we could teach what we know to the kids. it would be a wealth of knowledge passed down over generations...
i'm totally serious.
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