Mantle of Curricular Authority

[oneiromancer666]

The divide between childhood and adulthood is the acquisition of [a degree of] autonomy. The goal then of parenting and education is to ultimately empower children with the autonomy that they will need as an adult. Many parents in our modern culture though try so hard to keep their children from growing up ["too soon"]. In such homes these

Comments

[oneiromancer666]

Actually I am fully aware of the failure of granting curricular authority to all students from the beginning without making them earn it. One of Lacie's cousins attended the type of alternative school that you mentioned, and they gave her a diploma even though her English writing skills were so underdeveloped that she she could not write a passable essay for a remedial college English course, and resultantly had to drop-out of college. I imagined granting Curricular Authority only to students that earned it.

[oneiromancer666]

It is not that there was no way to test that her cousin's English writing skills were inadequately developed; her so-called "educators" simply chose to give her a diploma without testing her, because they run their so-called school with the priority of not pissing off the parents so that they keep their children enrolled there. There are many tests that could have been given to her to test her competency

[oneiromancer666]

My idea with the Mantle was to provide a stepping stone into adulthood prior to graduation, rather than having students thrust from childhood to full adulthood without any adequate transitioning.

As the education of less motivated students would be harmed by granting them Curricular Authority too soon, the education of gifted students can also be harmed by not granting them Curricular Authority soon enough (at least in the subjects in which they are gifted). Our culture does not nurture the empowerment of the individual, so it is no surprise that a school within our culture fails to support the empowerment of its students.