As I’m about to have my first child, I’ve been thinking about the public education system he will probably suffer through just as I did, so it was well-timed that a Reddit commentor found this little gem about how school prepares us for a life of servitude and not one of leadership, free thought, or creativity.
It reminded me of the book by Charles J. Sykes: Dumbing Down Our Kids, Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add (worth it for the title alone). I found this book in my bookshelf today, and noticed that I had written some sort of poem-like thing on the back page, presumably after reflecting on what I read in the first few chapters (I’m pretty sure that’s as far as I got). I’ll reproduce it for you here:
knowledge is important.
applying knowledge is also important.
knowledge is a necessary prerequisite.
learning is hard work.
making this seem untrue or avoidable
is popular and lucrative.
often, the result of catering toward this
interest is something other than learning.
we are not learning.
our laziness and desire to feel good
have obscured this.
we are being sold our own stupidity.
we pay a little for nothing instead of a lot
for something, and we believe this
to be a great deal.
Something to think about.
I am a product of the Mesa Public School System. I can attest to the worker-bee syndrome instilled in me as a yoot and how schools stifle creativity. I’ve been casually reading about home-schooling for the past couple of years now. One book I continue to revisit is Alfie Kohn’s Punished By Rewards.
Kohn delves into the ridiculousness of rewarding children for things they *should* do and/or rewarding them for things they already like doing. Kohn also talks about how there is no substantial link to homework and learning and other goodies. Anyhow, much of it goes back to motivation. My 5 year-old *loves* to practice letters and numbers. I don’t have to tell/remind her. Her handwriting is better than most 6th graders. The 1-year-old then sees the 5-year-old and well, she follows suit ’cause it looks fun!
*streaks a star and rainbow through this post*
Hey MiQL! Thanks for the tip – I’ll look for that book next time I’m at the store. We’ve talked about homeschooling but we are concerned about the effect on social skills. Not that I ever learned any.
It’s great to hear that your kids are naturally drawn to art and enjoy its intrinsic rewards, and I agree that it is silly to try to reward people for things they already enjoy. At some point, we all have to find our own sources of enthusiasm, and the sooner we can discover what frequencies make us resonate, the better.
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