Re: NOW(-ish): Education

Julian Leviston (julian@tcp.net.au)
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 16:10:58 +1000

At 09:48 AM 30/03/99 -0600, Jocelyn Brown wrote:
>Have you ever heard of the concept of "unschooling?" There is a school
>called the Sudbury Valley School which has been working this concept since
>1970. There are several basic premises, but for the most part they all
>revolve around the fact that children WANT to learn and that all we as
>teachers and adults need to do is get the hell out of their way, unless they
>come to us with questions. There are no structured classes or courses of any
>kind, and learning takes place when the children are ready to learn. It is
>then up to the child if he needs help from a teacher or if he feels he can
>learn better on his own. If a child wants to learn to read at age 3, fine.
>If he's not ready until he's 7, fine. If he is encouraged to be curious and
>nutured in the the right environment, he WILL learn. And, without the evils
>of tradional schooling to break him down, his curiousity will continue into
>adulthood, and he will have the confidence to learn whatever he desires.
>
>I could go on and on about this topic, if anyone is interested.
>
>Jocelyn Brown
>jocelynb@mindspring.com

I'm interested, Jocelyn.
But - something that has struck me a bit - (because I've often thought of freeing children in schooling) is that children don't know what their options are - another good thing is that they don't know their limits - but sometimes there are opposites and grey areas to this. For instance, some children have heaps of limits and do know a few of their options. Anyway, basically the adults and teachers (they should morph into ONE group) should do two things: Facilitate and allow. Allow the children to be the active part in their own education and facilitate them by ensuring that they are not "blocked" and are free in every way and at the same time given all the resources and knowledge about the subject that they can.

Julian. 

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