Tag: compulsory education laws

Why the Public School System Fails

submitted by jwithrow.public school

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Why the Public School System Fails

January 8, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened at $2,036 today. Gold is checking in at $1,212 per ounce. Oil opened just under $49 per barrel. Bitcoin is trading hands at 286 per BTC, and the 10-year Treasury rate opened at 2.00% today.

The markets have kicked off 2015 with some healthy volatility! The S&P has dipped as low as $1,985 only to bounce back up. Oil has drifted as low as $47, bringing energy stocks down with it. The 10-year rate has dipped below 2% and threatened to drift lower. Bitcoin has fallen below $300 for the first time since 2013 and gold has climbed as high as $1,221.

Last month we contemplated raising children in the modern world and we decided compulsory education was not, in our humble opinion, in the student’s best interest. We reckoned that for any real learning to occur the student would have to be free to engage a topic of their own choice and then have the space to inspect, poke, jab, nudge, kick, and maybe even dance with that topic on their own timeline. Of course this method is the exact opposite of what is employed by the compulsory public school system that says the student must learn this topic in this way on this timeline with this grading scale and he better not interact with his neighbor while doing so.

As always, it is a minority position we take on the important matters of child-rearing and education. Perhaps this is why we had such an affinity for “Don Quixote” as a youngster. While the public school system is accepted as “normal” today, it is important to understand its origin.

The current public school system model was founded in Germany in the 1800s. The Germans called their model the “gymnasium” system and it was organized in part by the German military. This system separated students by grade and limited their interaction with students of differing ages. The intent was to foster a robust bond between the boys for they would be expected to train and fight together in the military as adults. Sure enough, this system created fiercely loyal soldiers.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in America, students were either educated at home or in small groups that were not separated by age. Individualized education in America was less geared towards memorizing facts and figures and more geared towards fundamental reading/writing/arithmetic, common sense, and self-confidence.

Age diversity helped older students develop responsibility and leadership skills by guiding the younger students along. Younger students got the benefit of both adult tutelage and guidance from the older kids. While seemingly a small point, having two distinct perspectives on the same topic goes a long way towards fostering critical thinking. Peter Gray, in Free to Learn, discussed this very dynamic as he observed students in Sudbury Valley School.

America began moving towards the German “gymnasium” model after the Civil War with the political class using force to move the shift along. Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance law in 1852 and all states had compulsory school attendance laws on the books by 1918. Reading the work of John Dewey, one of the leading educators in 20th century America, provides troubling insight into why the shift was facilitated.

“The mere absorbing of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat.”

The political objective was the centralization and control of education in order to reduce the American spirit of individualism and make students more malleable and group-oriented. John Taylor Gatto expanded upon the political shift of American education in his books Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling.

History and political motives aside, Gatto also outlined and then expanded upon several points that demonstrate how the public school system is “dumbing us down”. They are as follows:

1. It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the “free” time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
2. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
3. It makes them indifferent.
4. It makes them emotionally dependent.
5. It makes them intellectually dependent.
6. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
7. It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.

Gatto’s points refer to the public school system itself; not to the individuals working within the system. Most school employees at the local level are well-intentioned and work hard to improve the quality of their school. But they are forced to operate within the confines of the gymnasium system and they are forced to use government-approved politically-correct textbooks. More money will not change this dynamic, it will only further empower the Department of Education and impoverish the public.

So what is a concerned parent to do? Opt out!

Until the morrow,

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Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on homeschooling and educational alternatives please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

The Homeschooling Renaissance

submitted by jwithrow.homeschool

Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance law in 1852. By 1918 all states had compulsory school attendance legislation on the books. Prior to these compulsory education laws, a child’s education was the business and responsibility of the parents. Some children went to community schools, some went to boarding schools, and many received their education at home. The widespread emergence of compulsory public education ushered in the rise of the public school system and the majority of American children have made their way through the public system ever since.

The 1970’s and 80’s witnessed a homeschooling renaissance of sorts as a significant minority of parents began to seriously question the existing educational system. Those parents who chose to opt out of the system and homeschool their children found that they could facilitate an educational experience that was actually superior and the modern homeschooling movement was born.

Of course homeschooling was especially looked down upon in the early days of the renaissance. A few states prohibited homeschooling altogether and most school officials acted as though it were illegal everywhere. According to the HSLDA:

Homeschooling parents faced threats of jail time and having their children removed from their home. Some were arrested. Many were taken to court.

Parents were confronted by concerned neighbors, worried friends, and aghast relatives—all of whom were sure that the homeschooling mom and dad were ruining their children’s lives and dooming them to an unproductive future of illiteracy and isolation.

But those early homeschoolers hung tough. They fought the court battles. They went to the library and crafted their own curricula. And they quietly continued teaching, letting their children’s achievement answer the charges of their fiercest critics.

The valiant efforts of the 70’s and 80’s homeschoolers paired with the Internet Reformation has created a scenario today in which homeschooling can be done much more effectively and at a much lower cost than ever before. Students can now read articles and watch lectures on literally any topic imaginable with just the few clicks of a mouse. Students can use email, chat rooms, and video webinar software to interact with tutors and other students anywhere in the world without any location restrictions whatsoever. Students can even engage in freelance networks to test certain skills in the marketplace without ever leaving the security of their own home.

A world-class education is now available to every family for the price of an internet connection – something even the poorest Americans have access to. This is unprecedented in recorded human history!

According to the HSLDA, the number of families choosing to homeschool is growing at an annual rate of 7-15 percent. Parents are slowly waking up to this and removing their children from the existing educational system. The homeschooling renaissance is slowly creating the future of education.