Unschooling: Birds don’t go to flight school

“Birds don’t go to flight school.” ~ Linda Dobson

I love Linda's quote. Schooling is not necessary for learning about life and life activities. Children learn to speak before they go to school. Birds learn to fly by doing not by teaching.

Unfortunately we often limit our children from learning naturally by inclination by forcing them into schooling.

It is amazing how the negative effects of schooling stay with you for life. I can still remember vividly the dull, boring, meaningless days of my so called "education".

I should have been pushed out of the nest to fly!!

DK

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Deschooling Society - Education for Social Control

“School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.”
– Ivan Illich, “Deschooling Society”

Illich raises a germane point in his quote above. School maintains the social status quo so that people do not question why society is as it is, and who controls it. This is at odds with the concept and meaning of education.

Why is it that regimes burn books? It is because reading sets people free and exposes them to new ideas. We drug our children's minds at school so that they conform and learn not to question. This is why schools are so important to those who control society (the military-industrial-political complex). Schools are needed, not to educate but to control.

This also explains the flak that comes from the establishment when home-schooling is discussed. Home-schooling, deschooling and unschooling all pose a serious threat to the status quo because they turn out engaged and questioning, self motivated learners. I would suggest that any critics reading this post should get out and meet some of these kids. Be prepared to be very scared. These kids are not afraid of adults, do not accept things at face value and are usually not impressed by what conventional society has on offer.

Imagine a generation of children who are not interested in spending hours in front of the TV or playing video games. Who are not exposed to all of the advertising that brainwashes people and contribute to their feelings of inadequacy. How refreshing to talk to young people who are interested and engaged within their communities and families.

They may turn the age...

DK

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Taking Children Seriously as People

"We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respect them and take them seriously as people."
~ Alice Miller

Children are a unique gift to society due to their spontaneity, enthusiasm and curiosity. Parents and grandparents would agree that having children around adds a joyful presence to life. Seeing things through the eyes of a child is like being a child again.

Do we cherish this child's view of the world? For a while we do, but when our children reach a predetermined age we march them off to school where their view is unimportant and the rule, little children should be seen and not heard prevails. School is a humiliating experience for many children - the slow, the divergent thinkers, the gifted, the disabled to name but a few groups of disenfranchised groups within our schooling system. Not all children are ready for formal schooling at the age of 5 or 6. We know that boys mature later and probably don't "fit" into a school environment until the age of 7 or 8. In fact I would argue that none of our children are ever ready for school as it is institutionalized now. Schools are about social control, not education.

What do you think?

DK

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The Buddha on Teaching

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it . . . or because it is tradition, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conductive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings – that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.
- Gautama Buddha

This advice coming across the centuries is as important as the day it was spoken. The Buddha was a great teacher but he encouraged his followers and students to examine and analyse the teachings they received. His view that we should seek the good of all beings is at odds with today's schooling factories that turn out many blind learners without the skills to examine the world around them objectively. To use Gatto's term it is all about the interests of "the Combine" - big business, the military, transnational conglomerates and those who pursue wealth at all costs. For their interests to be served they need an army of unthinking people who are "educated" to obey without question, to endure boredom and have arid inner lives.

There are now millions of our young people who have been home schooled, deschooled or unschooled and who will not obey but rather challenge the mindless burearcracy that keeps the products of formal schooling in thrall to their masters.

May they turn the age...

DK

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