Educational anarchy

Via Dana, who wrote about it, and ImPerceptibility who made the graphic.

   

   

Educational anarchy isn't about crashing and trashing education.  It's about academic liberty, and that trite construction, 'lifelong learning.'  (I see the corporate version of 'lifelong learning' as being "you buy your learning from us," rather than each of us undertaking a continuing quest to learn more through observation and living)

Am I in favor of self-proclaimed doctors who practice any kind of medicine they choose without some kind of answerability for the results of their practicing?  Of course not.  (I use that example because it's a favorite of the Anti-academic-liberty League)  There is a difference between certifications meant to protect the public concerning professions that serve the public, and being widely read and well-experienced.  You would think that other widely read and well-experienced people would be able to see that difference.

As it is, with homeschooling, the children who are homeschooled through 'high school' will not be entering the adult world as practicing physicians, or sanitary systems engineers, or even cosmeticians.  They will be entering the adult world like their peers, as people setting off on their own adult adventure and in pursuit of however they wish to spend their time.  If they want to be doctors, they will go to medical school.  If they want to be sanitary systems engineers, they'll train for that.  If they want to be cosmeticians, they'll go to beauty school.  Figuring out this progression isn't rocket science, for crying out loud.

And as for parents who teach their children, since most of us have been through some kind of schooling, why are we so suspect?

• Did our schooling 'work?'
• If it did, why aren't we bright enough to figure out where to get the information to teach our children?
• If it didn't, why would we want to put our kids through that?

Teachers need certification because they chose the complex job of teaching lots of other people's children, using those other people's money (and then some).  The dynamics within a room full of children with whom the teacher does not have a primary relationship are different from the family dynamics of a parent with a (usually) much smaller number of children that the parent has (often) lived with since the children's births.  Again, this isn't rocket science.

For the most part, educational anarchists, uh,  homeschoolers, are merely accepting Modern Life's challenge of having an interesting adventure with the children with whom they've been blessed.  It is in this spirit that I, with my 98.6 degrees, embrace educational anarchy.

Live free, learn free!  Long live the Adventure!