Good Student or Life Long Learner?
April 22, 2011
Growth and mastery come only to those who vigorously self-direct.
Initiating,
creating,
doing,
reflecting,
freely associating,
enjoying privacy
—these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent,
on one pretext or another.
~John Taylor Gatto
We have got to change the way we view education. We have got to change the way we define success!
The current form of education, both in institutionalized schools (public and private), and even in most homeschools, has done much damage to the natural process of learning.
If we would
- turn off the mind numbing distractions,
- remove many of a child’s self-indulging activities,
- quit force feeding one-size-fits-all curriculum to cookie cutter children
- give them problems to solve
then we would ignite a desire to explore, learn and truly understand within our children!
Do we want our children to simply be a good student, filling in the blanks to get the diploma or do we want our children to embrace a lifestyle of learning that never ends?
As a culture we often sing the praises of the child that makes all A’s and follows the rules, yet the one that is bored and always asking questions is the troublemaker.
Yes, there needs to be structure, expectations, and rules, but let’s not treat education as something mostly done within walls and book covers.
As Mr. Gatto says, “Give them a whole life!”
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