Sit down, shut up and stop thinking, we'll do it for you
I have a number of interests that I regularly pursue, but none has caught my attention and changed my way of thinking so much as when I learned of unschooling. Now unschooling is an "education" method used by some parents to allow their children to grow and learn naturally through their own interests. Years of reading forums, mailing lists, blogs, websites and the occasional honest to God book, have made me an almost fanatical supporter of this idea.
School sucks ass.
Why does it suck ass? Cause it fails at what you think it should be doing while succeeding at exactly what it was designed for. It fails at teaching kids and instilling in them a sense of wonder and curiousity, which they don't need anyway cause human beings are innately curious and full of wonder. It succeeds at turning people into Pavolian dogs who drool at the sound of the bell. It turns people obedient and smashes down their desires to know more then what they're told they should know. It encouraged uniformity and frowns about individualism. It is a system based on unfair shaming and irrelevant awards. It is disgusting and children everywhere are being sent to it everyday.
Now I'm sure you're thinking I'm speaking out of bitterness and you'd be right, but not for the reason you're thinking. I'm not bitter cause I didn't succeed despite how well I jumped through the hoops. I'm bitter because I was good at jumping through hoops. I'm bitter cause if you include preschool, I spent eighteen years of my life, that's almost 2/3 of my life, in school. 18 years only looking at what they told me to look at, think what they wanted me to think, go where they wanted me to go...
Sit. Stay. No you can't go outside. No you can't read now, we're doing math. No you can't do math now, we're reading. No we don't care if you don't like this you can't go do something else. No you can't play. No you can't go to the bathroom. No you can't leave. Stop asking so many questions.
It is a waste of time. Nothing they teach you in school cannot be learned on your own or through independent classes or tutors. Yes teachers have their place, I don't bash teachers. The system strangles and limits teachers however. They're so busy teaching the test, they can't teach their subject. I've known lot's of teachers who wish they could throw the curriculum away and just go with the flow. They can't and with NCLB the level at which they can't is only getting worse.
When I realized what I had been through, I went through denial. "Oh but it was different for me. I still love to learn and I was a good student." Sure give me a cookie and pat me on the head and I can line up and march just like any other brainwashed kid. I love to learn and thankfully school didn't rob me of that, but how much could I have learned, how much could I have accomplished with my interests, if I hadn't spent so long being an experiment?
I went through anger. "You stole my childhood! You're stealing all our childhoods! You're wasting our money and our time. You don't work. Your goals are questionable and your actions are deplorable. Give me back what you stole from me!" That speaks for itself.
I could go through all the levels of grief, cause that's what it is really grief. Acceptance, the last stage hasn't arrived yet but I'm getting there. I spent a lot of long moments wishing I had a time machine that could somehow make it so my siblings and I could be unschooled. It would have been easier on all of us, including my mother. I don't have a time machine so I have to deal with the reality. I'm not a kid anymore but unschooling doesn't have an age limit. I've decided to unschool myself. I suppose I have been doing this since I left school but now I'm aware of it. Now I can pursue it. Now I will get back what they stole and nobody is going to take it from me again.
School sucks ass.
Why does it suck ass? Cause it fails at what you think it should be doing while succeeding at exactly what it was designed for. It fails at teaching kids and instilling in them a sense of wonder and curiousity, which they don't need anyway cause human beings are innately curious and full of wonder. It succeeds at turning people into Pavolian dogs who drool at the sound of the bell. It turns people obedient and smashes down their desires to know more then what they're told they should know. It encouraged uniformity and frowns about individualism. It is a system based on unfair shaming and irrelevant awards. It is disgusting and children everywhere are being sent to it everyday.
Now I'm sure you're thinking I'm speaking out of bitterness and you'd be right, but not for the reason you're thinking. I'm not bitter cause I didn't succeed despite how well I jumped through the hoops. I'm bitter because I was good at jumping through hoops. I'm bitter cause if you include preschool, I spent eighteen years of my life, that's almost 2/3 of my life, in school. 18 years only looking at what they told me to look at, think what they wanted me to think, go where they wanted me to go...
Sit. Stay. No you can't go outside. No you can't read now, we're doing math. No you can't do math now, we're reading. No we don't care if you don't like this you can't go do something else. No you can't play. No you can't go to the bathroom. No you can't leave. Stop asking so many questions.
It is a waste of time. Nothing they teach you in school cannot be learned on your own or through independent classes or tutors. Yes teachers have their place, I don't bash teachers. The system strangles and limits teachers however. They're so busy teaching the test, they can't teach their subject. I've known lot's of teachers who wish they could throw the curriculum away and just go with the flow. They can't and with NCLB the level at which they can't is only getting worse.
When I realized what I had been through, I went through denial. "Oh but it was different for me. I still love to learn and I was a good student." Sure give me a cookie and pat me on the head and I can line up and march just like any other brainwashed kid. I love to learn and thankfully school didn't rob me of that, but how much could I have learned, how much could I have accomplished with my interests, if I hadn't spent so long being an experiment?
I went through anger. "You stole my childhood! You're stealing all our childhoods! You're wasting our money and our time. You don't work. Your goals are questionable and your actions are deplorable. Give me back what you stole from me!" That speaks for itself.
I could go through all the levels of grief, cause that's what it is really grief. Acceptance, the last stage hasn't arrived yet but I'm getting there. I spent a lot of long moments wishing I had a time machine that could somehow make it so my siblings and I could be unschooled. It would have been easier on all of us, including my mother. I don't have a time machine so I have to deal with the reality. I'm not a kid anymore but unschooling doesn't have an age limit. I've decided to unschool myself. I suppose I have been doing this since I left school but now I'm aware of it. Now I can pursue it. Now I will get back what they stole and nobody is going to take it from me again.