CONTRIVED

When I go into a school, any school, my body reacts thus; "Toxic. Toxic!"
Doesn't matter that the classroom is brightly decorated, or that the kids are sitting doing art, or on computers. It might look interesting but the point is,for me there is something very unwholesome about institutionalized learning.
The place reeks of contrived projects and curriculum. Imposed learning.
The atmosphere is suffocating with the lack of not only actual air (notice that the windows,if there are any in the first place are hardly ever opened), but with the lack of free will.
If you go to a prison and see inmates drawing, or writing or playing games does that lessen the feeling of confinement and restriction? Of course it doesn't. You still know, your body knows that this is not natural. Nothing is natural about having a whole lot of folks in one area all made to do the same thing as everyone else in the group.
Everything about compulsory schooling is arbitrary. "This year, we are following such and such a curriculum. If you don't, you won't pass and you will never get into the next level and you'll never get a job! Oh yeah, actually forget that curriculum. We're using this one instead. If you don't follow THIS one, then you'll not be allowed to get to the next level and then you'll end up becoming a bum. What's that? The government is changing the curriculum for next year? Okay okay. So forget that. I was talking about the curriculum that will be in place next year. That's the one you want to watch!"
We have a problem. In 'primitive' societies you learn to hunt because if you don't you won't know how to feed yourself. Life itself necessitates and dictates. In our world it's, "learn this because you might need it sometime in the future."
Not a very practical way to go about educating young people.
It's like in the Harry Potter book where Professor Umbridge insists that the students don't need to learn any real defensive spells since they won't be facing any thing dangerous in their exams-passing exams obviously being the only goal of school.
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" said Harry loudly, his fist in the air again. Professor Umbridge looked up. "This is school, Mr Potter, not the real world,"she said softly.

Less math in the early years-not more.

Over 70 years ago in Manchester, New Hampshire, children learnt no formal arithmetic until grade 6 (about age 11). In the fall of 1929, The program's creator, Superintendent Louis Benezet, decided to try the experiment of abandoning all formal instruction in arithmetic below the seventh grade and concentrating on teaching the children to read, to reason, and to recite - "my new Three R's," as he called it. "And by reciting I did not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or of the textbook. I meant speaking the English language.

Benezet wrote:

"In the first place, it seems to me that we waste much time in the elementary schools, wrestling with stuff that ought to be omitted or postponed until the children are in need of studying it. If I had my way, I would omit arithmetic from the first six grades. I would allow the children to practise making change with imitation money, if you wish, but outside of making change, where does an eleven-year-old child ever have to use arithmetic?

I feel that it is all nonsense to take eight years to get children thru the ordinary arithmetic assignment of the elementary schools. What possible needs has a ten-year-old child for a knowledge of long division? The whole subject of arithmetic could be postponed until the seventh year of school, and it could be mastered in two years' study by any normal child."

Benezet picked out five rooms - three third grades, one combining the third and fourth grades, and one fifth grade. To read more about what happened go to the following link:

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/index.html (a three part essay).
In brief, the results were that kids who had no formal math ended up much more knowledgeable about math concepts (measurements, estimations, logic etc) then those who were forced to learn say multiplication tables, etc with no context. Since the teachers focused on reading, discussion, story telling etc the kids ended up being more articulate, more engaged and eager for learning than their counterparts following traditional curriculum.
Today, those of us who follow the unschool route, can attest to the success of this method. My oldest daughter started school this pass fall in grade 8 for the first time ever,and she gets nothing but the highest marks. She very little formal math instruction. My 11 year old who also started in the fall in grade 6 insists that she doesn't have a brain for math (meaning she is simply not interested in math at this time) but is managing to keep up.
Kids need less math instruction,not more. In the mean time, I think showing kids the beauty of math rather than the utter dryness of computing would be vastly more beneficial to the appreciation and understanding of the subject mathematics.

Non-typical teens

Recently, on an unschooling list I am a member of, a woman posted a concern about her teenage children 'not being typical teens.' She has raised her kids with non punitive methods, has respected their educational paths, their interests and now worries that they don't seem like the most teens. She angsts that "they don't drink, smoke, have sex, drugs, or indulge in consumerism. I mean, they don't even experiment?! Here is what I'm feeling worried about. Can kids be "too good"? Are they going to want to experiment later when the consequences might be more harsh?" {Disclaimer-drinking, having sex etc doesn't make you a bad person in my opinion}.

Ehh... and the problem is? They are kind, like to hang out together, don't care about hanging with other teens that much, they like their parents, like their life, could care less about obsessively calling their friends on cellphones or texting every few minutes- in fact they find the company of regular teens a little dull and immature.
Frankly, in her shoes I'd consider myself fortunate. Why worry? She has obviously done a great job of raising them.
The fact is, as Gordon Neufeld (Hold on to your kids: why parents matter more than peers) and others have written, what we are after is for our kids to be adult-oriented, not peer- oriented.
We want kids of all ages to form attachments to caring, engaging, responsible adults rather than having them put all their faith in their peers-expecting them(peers) to serve as role models, and directive and influential forces in their very young lives.
If these teens are not overly dependent on their peers to make their life seem whole then it is a good thing-and it could be because they were raised to find value in their own company, in being alone or with a few close friends and families. This doesn't make them anti social. In fact this is the way to develop into a caring social being.

Reality Check: Teens growing up in many non western cultures don't shun nor are disdainful of the adults in these cultures.

Play-Verboten

I visited a grade 1 classroom (I was there to talk about energy conservation but I learned more from the children who were really aware of what it's all about). I was reminded again of why I never want to be an educator following compulsory curriculum-they interfere with natural rhythms of play and learning.

There's a lot of talk about play going around these days and how important it is for the development of our young into whole, healthy people.
Even old people benefit from play; we keep hearing that play constitutes part of a healthy life. Those who don't play have less imagination and less fun.
Common sense people already know this, but we prevent play from happening due to our over extended schedules (which we impose on little people).
In that classroom of bright and lively children, one little girl was not 'paying attention' for a minute. Instead she took a break to happily delve into a box of legos she'd taken down of a shelf.

"What do you think you are doing?" demanded one of the teachers in attendance. "Why are you playing with lego?"
The little girl sprang up looking down at her feet and in a guilty little voice replied, "I don't know."
From the back of the room the main teacher said loudly, "I've told you over an over not to play. You're already not going to the class party. You've already had one recess canceled and now you are going to have the other one canceled too. AND I'm going to write a note to your mother." The third adult in attendance nodded indignantly.
These teachers are good people I'm sure- at least they are going by the standards they know. My friend tells me a story about what happened at her daughter's school where the school teacher, on seeing the kids getting distracted by the first snows falling (a kindergarten class mind) rushed over to the windows and drew the curtains tight.
Kids are SUPPOSED to play. To get the point across, there is going to be a program on CTV March 14th on the need for play. Also see this article from Scientific America:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-serious-need-for-play

elements

We made art on the frozen water by casting small rocks across the ice, watching them slide and spin until they settled into position, becoming still.

Going after the carrot