This topic may be where i am the most unconventional, but by the end of this post, hopefully i'll be able to present my case in such a way that you'll think its perfectly reasonable, and could be a new convention sometime in the near future.
Today, the vast majority of people, whether rich or poor, will have a baby and within a few months return to work, leaving their babies at daycare for most of the day. The child will stay in daycare until age 3, at which point they'll enter pre-school, where they learn shapes, numbers, the alphabet, colors, sing some songs, and spend the most productive part of their day running around the playground, but will be called in for more classroom time. At age 5 they enter school and begin to learn spelling, reading, addition, subtraction, natural science, and social studies or historical stories, mostly falsely patriotic or heroic or in some way misleading. The children sit in rows indoors, and listen to their teacher. As the years progress, the teachers teach increasingly complicated intellectual matters that sometimes they themselves have to review out of a textbook.
My understanding of child development is that the first five years are most significant for building the foundation off of which they learn. Children imitate their parents and people in their surroundings, so its important to be really conscientious about whose care your putting your baby under. They will definitely absorb that energy in some way and considering the possibilities of People in General, that can be a terrifying prospect!
Anyway, fear aside, here is my alternative approach to educating children in the first formative years. Since their brains are growing and they are sucking up knowledge like a sponge, it is easy to teach reading to a pre-5 year old child while they are still learning to speak. Speaking and reading can go hand in hand and need not be separated! There's a video called 'your baby can read' and i'm formulating a video myself that isn't as random and jumpy as that tutorial, but the basic idea can be applied to every day life, since written language is everywhere. The only problem with reading Everything is that a Camera might become Canon and a computer might become Macbook.... But that can be remedied with tape and a marker.
Before the age of 3, which is when they can be expected to be able to verbally express themselves sufficiently, they are completely musical, tonal, and energetic. If the caregiver is conscious of this tidbit, that musical start will blossom into further creativity later. After 3 until maybe 5 or 7, the child becomes very materially oriented, and sculpting and taking things apart and putting them back together will help them become empowered project-finishers, unlike myself, who was intellectually stimulated and materially deprived (!!) After that, the child wants to participate more in the adult world and is beginning to want to be welcomed into the adult world. They also begin to question the authority that they naturally imitated earlier, and now need more substantial evidence of the caregivers competence. If the caregiver is unworthy of their respect and imitation, this will most certainly lead to problems in the teens, but if the caregiver is worthy of respect and imitation, the child will be inspired to follow and reenlist their trust in the elder.
What does all this child development shit mean for education?
Well, since its not compatible with public school systems, it makes things very complicated for me if i want to do what i 'know' is best. Maybe i'll have to start a home-schooling group or a cooperative school and create a lesson plan revolving around sculpting, music, movement, and exploration of the natural world. My son is 15 months old. in 9 months he'll be nursery-aged, and in a year and 9 months he'll be pre-school age... can i get my shit together?
I think if my son gets through the first 7 years unscathed from the ordinary way of doing things, i may be able to put him in public school after that. I think it can be valuable in itself to simply be in that system, to compare and contrast it with his previous way of existence. That way, as he grows into adolescence, he'll be able to say what he thinks of the system and if he'd like to choose another method of school for middle or high school. Middle school can probably be completely avoided. Maybe i'll go out on a long roadtrip for two years during those years.
Who liked middle school, anyway? A roadtrip seems in order, with lots of unsheltering and experiencing the world, and growing into adulthood and maturity and understanding of the universe in all its abstract and concrete forms. Oooo that will be an exciting time!!!
And high school? Oh gosh... Besides the intense socialization that most people encounter, of being in such close proximity with so many people their own age and getting involved in meaningless, existentially questionable dramas, i think high school and clumping all those teens together like that is detrimental to their sense of belonging to society. High school creates its own mini-society with practically no relation to elders or youngers unless as an extracurricular volunteer activity. This may be a really great time to live in some form of community of all ages and really experiencing the different seasons.
Did i just plan out my sons life? It looks like i did. But plans get knocked off course by various effects and i'm open to that.
This was a really long post, and my initial intention of convincing the reader of my reasonable point of view went missing along the way of my fantasizing of the ultimate life-span for my growing teen. But maybe the point came across somehow... I need to test this on someone. Reader?
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I think that your ideas of education are perfectly reasonable. I agree that the current public school system doesn't work for most kids. They are often taught what they are "supposed to" learn, and who's to say what that should be anyway. Have you looked into Waldorf schools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education) or Montessori schools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education)?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you ask if you can be ready in only a few months. He's only 15 months and 1st grad doesn't start until he's 5 or 6. Pre-school and kindergarten aren't mandatory. Basically, you have a lot of time.
I actually really liked middle school. I didn't like the specific school that I was in, but I did like that time in my life.
Also, I didn't go to high school. But I still experienced the "meaningless existentially questionable dramas." No matter what point in your life, you are probably going to surround yourself with people that you connect with. Those people will probably be in similar points in their lives. And for younger people, that, generally, means people of similar ages. Basically, teens are going to hang out and be dramatic no matter what you do. Also, I think it's actually important to be dramatic as that teaches you about the drama, what is important in life, and probably who your true friends are. I learned a lot about people in those years. But, if you look at the Montessori system, they solve your problem of only being surrounded by people your age.
A lot of my education also happened at home. Conversations that I had with my parents about issues shaped the ideas that I have today. I think that that is, unfortunately, often an overlooked aspect of modern day education. Parents just leave too much to the teachers. I definitely agree that children imitate. But for some reason I think parents don't realize that they are the ones being imitated.
Is your goal to create a free-thinker? Or someone that hasn't grown up in "normal" society. Of the two, I think the free-thinker is the more important (and useful).
Haha, what exactly are you trying to create? That's a good initial question here... http://tinyurl.com/bu4s6ls
ReplyDeleteI do not know much about material v. intellectual orientations at specific ages of development and whether or not conventional school systems are poorly setup for these tendencies.
I do know that conventional school systems are extremely good at misleading students of the entire purpose of an education, which should be to have fun (have learning be fun). In my experience conventional schooling makes assignments and tests an anxiety ridden chore by making vague threats of future punishments/failure if you do not get the best grades and (therefore) do not get into the best colleges and have the best life. This is backwards thinking (by forcing too much forward thinking) that schools are teaching early on in a child's life.
Most importantly, this trains children to seek reward in the accomplishment or result of their work instead of in the work itself. The pleasure is received in praise from your parents or teachers after getting the A on the test, or completing the homework assignment. The pleasure really "should" be attained in the process of doing the work itself, a.k.a. learning. When learning itself is pleasurable I think people live more fulfilling and interesting lives.
This mixed up reward system is something I'm still working on unlearning today and is ingrained in many of us. Seeking an alternative education is fine as long as this trap is avoided and the focus remains on the fun/pleasure that can be attained from being generally inquisitive and discovering things about the nature of the world. As the world's sexiest Astrophysicist says, "If your philosophy is not unsettled daily, then you are blind to all the universe has to offer". When people are blind, it is because they find no pleasure in looking.
Also, I agree with Mariko's point concerning the importance of participating in the drama of middle school and high school. Socializing with peers at school is really hard and really good for your brain development. I think you address that when you talk about a more complete community in which you could interact with older/younger people- which sounds like a really cool idea and could potentially be a more complex social drama to participate in. A road trip instead of middle school could be a really interesting experience, but it also will likely lead to far less social interaction than middle school itself- and that's something that Mattheus could resent. I remember missing the socializing at school when only on brief vacations- and would feel like I was missing out.
Tl;dr? Create a thing that doesn't stop loving to learn and make sure he plays with others... if you don't he'll probably still be pretty cool.
Mmm! Thanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI want to create a boy who is really inspired by the world around him and is in love with exploring it. I'd like him to know how to find information, and have a drive to research. These are things that i'm not good at myself. I've only recently become inspired by the world around me, and thats because i've reconnected with natural things. Growing up i was surrounded by too much manmade stuff, and wasn't particularly inspired by the cement, shopping malls, and square buildings... although i thought traffic lights and computer games were neat. Mattheus likes the kitchenaid blender and the magic bullet as well as the camcorder, so i know where i'll be putting some attention in his early education :)
I am currently reading rudolph steiner's lectures compiled in a book called 'rhythms of learning.' He's the guy who created a Waldorf school for the cigarette company workers children in germany back in the 20s, i think, and i love what he has to say. I googled Montessori shortly thereafter to know the difference. The problem with those schools is that it costs a lot of money, and i'm not sure if i'll have money in 4 years or where the funds will come from if i don't personally have a decently sized savings account.
My idea of public/mainstream schools is that a whole lot of subjects is taught with the hope that they'll be able to teach kids what they'll need to know in the future, or at least instill children with a dedication and responsibility to learning. Only some teachers focus on Love of learning, and even fewer know how to instill such a love of learning. All my teachers sucked. Everywhere. I liked my english teacher in middle school, but only because she was pretty and had a nice haircut and was bubbly. We read 'where the red fern grows' and wrote awful poetry-like things.
You asked if i wanted a free-thinker or someone who hasn't grown up in 'normal' society, and here's more on that: I think people who grow up in normal society are pretty narrow-minded about how big the world is. In bethesda its supposedly a problem (according to bethesda magazine) that privileged children don't know they're privileged. I want mattheus to know the world in its entirety. We grew up privileged with traveling to places that are really, really different and at a very young age saw poor mexican children selling dolls on the streets, and island-bound caribbean people, and.... japanese people, and then compared all of that to pop culture influenced american teenagers. I want mattheus to know a decently full spectrum of the human experience.
And as for the meaningless existential drama, maybe a lot of the teen year existentialism has to do with the lack of Rites of Passage during the introduction into the abstract thoughts that fill our little heads around adolescence. I remember feeling like 'something significant is supposed to happen' and then it not happening, and that contributed to my depression which lasted until... the significance of shrooms.
and yes! children imitate parents and they don't realize they're the ones being imitated... I've really started watching myself and my beliefs and seeing if some of my beliefs are dysfunctional. or stress inducing.
and they are.
And then, about work itself being fun. Part of the waldorf education is that a childs work is play. The inculcation begins reaaaally early, definitely before 7, because children are being sat down and told what to learn so soon, when they're brains just aren't really in the mood to begin reading arithmetic already, especially in the manner that they teach (as in, 1.... add another... 1.... then you have.... 2! instead of here's a whole, split it down the center, and now you have... 2, which is more in line with the childs nature which is to take things apart.) And within those subtleties is where a lot of my questioning lies with this early education.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that there is something fundamentally flawed about the way 'we' teach children and i don't want mattheus to be subjected to that... in humanity!!!
If you experience a child, even a baby, they ARE inquisitive and wanting to discover the world... but we (even i) am just too friggin brainy! i gotta get more in my body somehow, and really experience the world the way he does, to feel the helicopter passing overhead with my entire being, and to see the blender assembled with my whole feeling.
THere's an almost subconscious part of me that still remembers what it was like, and i want to figure out where we went wrong.
Because i know somewhere along the line, something went wrong... because here i am and i haven't done SHIT!!!!! i'm 24 and i could have accomplished so much by now, but due to faulty education my life has practically been ruined so far.
RUINED!
All because they taught me math in a shitty way and because my mami didn't let me watch her cook in the kitchen.
shieet.
ok this has been plenty long. Thanks for your comments. Its good to think about these things and super interesting :)