Check out the ideas in this article: gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/2013/09/whats-the-big-idea/?show=all Here is an excerpt from the article - contributed by Nikhil Goyal: "Get Rid of Compulsory Schooling In the April 1924 issue of The American Mercury, journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken ginned up a well-constructed piece on the true purpose of public education: “The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” With lineage in 19th-century Prussia, Horace Mann and various education reformers were successful in molding a compulsory school system — forcing children to kowtow to an irrational authority for years on end and learn via obedience and coercion, antithetical to human development. It is a well-known fact among historians like David McCullough that the literacy rates prior to compulsory schooling were much higher in states like Massachusetts. We must get rid of compulsory schooling in this country. It will force schools to reinvent their practices and become humane and healthy places to send children, instead of being another rite of passage around age five. Meanwhile, let’s reimagine our cities and communities as engines for schooling and problem-solving, where learning shifts from institutions and into the “town square” — coffee shops, makerspaces, museums, libraries, and community centers. There are too many problems to solve, too many people to meet, and too many lives to touch to mandate that young people be holed up in prison-like buildings and conditions for some of the most creative years of their lives. What if we gave young people the tools and resources, opened the floodgates, and let them have the freedom to live and learn?"
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 04:08:35 +0000
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