In my last two posts, I wrote a bit about the history of Education and how homeschooling can take education back to its roots, in Homeschooling: Back to Education. I also wrote about how the Industrial Revolution shaped education in Education and the Industrial Revolution.
I contend that looking back at the history of education is the only way to shape its future. We need to see what worked and what failed in order to shape the minds of tomorrow. From what I can tell, when education was focused on the basics and peppered with inspiration and the ability to express oneself, the product was scholars whose intellect and creativity helped shape our country. The second that education became about controlling the population, no matter how honorable the motives, it began to fail.
Human beings are creative people. We are meant to push boundaries, and challenge authority. To learn, we must be able to investigate and discover for ourselves. I feel that education in its current form does not allow this. To ensure the best results for everyone, the individual does not get the best results for himself or herself. Everyone is fed the same rigid, pre-scripted, predetermined diet of ABC’s and 123’s, followed by cramming every bit of information that has transpired since the dawn of time into our brains. Our brains were not meant to hold this glut of information based on someone else declaring it was important. We were meant to discover information as it became relevant to us.
Think about what you remember. Do facts that people told you stick in your mind; or do experiences stay with you forever?
As homeschoolers, we are challenged to find a balance between facts and discovery. So many times, I would love to toss the curriculums aside and allow my children to freely explore. Society, however dictates that a child must meet certain milestones by a certain age. If the parent fails to help the child meet these milestones, then the chance of being brought up on charges of educational neglect becomes a real threat. Sure, one could laugh in the face of such constraints and unschool their children. Most of the children actually meet the milestones without prompting anyway.
Meanwhile, I, and many parents like me, perform the balancing act of doing what is “mandated” while finding time for children to explore. This is the current state of Education. Most children are still educated by the government and will blindly follow no matter how many are lost to the educational system. The ones who do not make it are just labeled as not good enough or troubled makers. Then there is the minority who chose to do something different because they realize that they cannot trust the system to look after their individual child. They are still however, restricted by the governments rules and regulations in educating their children. Finally, there is the minority of those who broke away who truly embrace education as it was in the beginning, and to excel in spite of all of the improvements.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
*Want to know more about homeschooling? Start with the 2006 homeschool blog in review!
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?