Quality over Quantity in Education

Schooling. It's quantity over quality isn't it? Like mass produced shoes, shirts, furniture, sheets, cups and saucers. Make it as cheap as you can and sell at maximum profit.

That's okay. Mass production has its place but does it have to be that way with education?  As for me, I am always going to aim to get the best made shoes, the best tailored coat, the most carefully crafted bowls. I prefer to have one pair of well made boots then 10 poorly made, 'slave' laboured ones any day. I prefer to seek out that well made jacket in a used clothing store. I prefer to go without. And so it is with education.

I will pick a kid who knows one subject in depth- whose love and attention to the subject matter is evident. Whose careful and caring research into the topic reflects a depth of understanding-linking this knowledge to the wider context of the world around her.

They are making connections and evolving relationships with that interest as a starting point- their authenticity can not be dismissed.

I would pick that kid over one who has no love for anything. Who has a smidgen of knowledge on this and on that but cares nothing about anything much. That's the kind of kid that schools churn out everyday-ruining natural ability regularly. 

Look at the comments from this article to the question (posed to 13 year old kids)  "would you want to homeschool?" 

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/would-you-want-to-be-home-schooled/

Notice the similarity in response to the question.

This is mass thinking at its worse.

These kids have no experience with home schooled or unschooled persons. They have no context whatsoever and yet here they are, voicing ignorant and hasty opinions- worthless half thought out ideas, non truths.

It is shocking to see the way these kids respond.

There was only one kid who was honest enough to say: "I don't know. Let people just do what they want to do."

This is a kid who was not afraid to say that the emperor had no clothes on.

The War on Kids

THE WAR ON KIDS is a 99 minute documentary that shows how American public schools continue to become more dangerously authoritarian. Be warned,the message here is hard core;schools are bad places for kids. In addition to failing in their mission to provide education, they erode the country’s democratic foundation and often resemble prisons.
Note *It won Best Documentary on Education at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. The movie's website is http://www.thewaronkids.com/MAIN.html

Institutionalized Education; Is this the best we can do?

I hear it said that what we have in place is "the best education available to many."

Is that really true? Can we honestly say that what passes as education, i.e. compulsory, state-controlled, mass schooling, is education?

The confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the definition of education as contrasted with schooling.

Schooling is imposed on a person; education is self achieved. Education is not given, but taken. With this understanding, can we honestly say that the best place to gain an education is between the four walls of a school room? For any body, rich or poor?

School worked for a while: 150 years during the time of rapid industrial growth, but does it still? Is mass, curriculum-driven schooling the best we can offer?

School is not flawless my friend, it is miles away from flawless. It can never be flawless because it is an idea that has had it's day.

Still, criticizing mass schooling is tantamount to insulting the Queen or country or God. Like an old tyrant, you can't say a word against it without fear of being persecuted, but like crumbling regimes of tyrants' progeny, it's time to retire or be torn down.

Just because the slaves have shoes and eat seven days a week doesn't make them free men and women.

As John Holt, one of the greatest thinkers on eduction of the 20th century said, "most slaves could not escape from slavery,yet no one suggested or would suggest that because all the slaves could not be freed, none should be." (Instead of Education).

So the weary and wearisome argument that school is our best hope for the children of the poor and disadvantaged, I just cannot buy. Instead, use the enormous amount of money spent on 'schooling' to let people manage their own education.