Nexus - 0404 - New Times Magazine-pages

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1850. It was resisted—sometimes with guns—by an estimated 80 per cent of the Massachusetts population, the last outpost in Barnstable on Cape Cod not surrendering its children until the 1880s when the area was seized by militia and children marched to school under guard. Now here is a curious idea to ponder. Senator Ted Kennedy's office released a paper not too long ago claiming that, prior to compulsory education, the state literacy rate was 98 per cent, and after it, the figure never again reached above 91 per cent, where it stands in 1990. I hope that interests 1850. It was resisted—sometimes with guns—by an estimated 80 society is disintegrating, and in such a society the only successful per cent of the Massachusetts population, the last outpost in people are self-reliant, confident and individualistic—because the Barnstable on Cape Cod not surrendering its children until the community life which protects the dependent and the weak is 1880s when the area was seized by militia and children marched dead. The products of schooling are, as I've said, irrelevant. to school under guard. Now here is a curious idea to ponder. Well-schooled people are irrelevant. They can sell film and razor Senator Ted Kennedy's office released a paper not too long ago blades, push paper and talk on telephones, or sit mindlessly before claiming that, prior to compulsory education, the state literacy a flickering computer terminal, but as human beings they are use- rate was 98 per cent, and after it, the figure never again reached —_ less—useless to others and useless to themselves. above 91 per cent, where it stands in 1990. I hope that interests The daily misery around us is, I think, in large measure caused you. by the fact that—as Paul Goodman put it 30 years ago—we force children to "grow up absurd". Any reform in schooling has to ere is another curiosity to think about. The home-school- deal with its absurdities. He: movement has quietly grown to a size where one and a It is absurd and anti-life to be part of a system that compels you half million young people are being educated entirely by to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and their own parents. Last month the education press reported the social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the amazing news that children schooled at home seem to be five or —_ immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety. It cuts you even ten years ahead of their formal- off from your own past and future, ly trained peers in their ability to sealing you in a continuous present think. much the same way television does. I don't think we'll get rid of the Here IS another curiosity to think It is absurd and anti-life to be part schools anytime soon—certainly not about. The home-schooling of a system that compels you to listen in my lifetime—but if we're going to to a stranger reading poetry when you change what's rapidly becoming a movement has quietly grown toa want to learn to construct buildings, disaster of ignorance, we need to size where one and a half million or to sit with a stranger discussing the realise that the school institution . construction of buildings when you ‘schools' very well, but it does not young people are being educated want to read poetry. ‘educate’. That's inherent in the i i It is absurd and anti-life to move design of the thing. It's not the fault entirely by their own parents. from cell to cell at the sound of a of bad teachers or too little money spent: it's just impossible for educa- gong for every day of your youth in an institution that allows you no pri- tion and schooling ever to be the same thing. vacy and even follows you into the sanctuary of your home Schools were designed by Horace Mann, Barnas Sears and demanding that you do its "homework". W. R. Harper of the University of Chicago, Thorndyke of "How will they learn to read?" you ask, and my answer is, Columbia Teachers College, and others, to be instruments of the "Remember the lessons of Massachusetts!" When children are scientific management of a mass population. Schools are intend- given whole lives, instead of age-graded ones in cellblocks, they ed to produce, through the application of formulae, formulaic learn to read, write and do arithmetic with ease if those things human beings whose behaviour can be predicted and controlled. make sense in the life that unfolds around them. To a very great extent, schools succeed in doing this. But our But keep in mind that in the United States almost nobody who reads, writes or does arithmetic gets much respect. We are a land of talkers; we pay talkers the most and admire talkers the most, so our children talk constantly, following the public models of television and schoolteach- ers. It is very difficult to teach the ‘basi any more because they really aren't basic to the society we've made. r “Iwo institutions at present control our children's lives: television and school- ing, in that order. Both of these reduce the real world of wisdom, fortitude, temperance and justice to a never-ending, non-stop abstraction. In centuries past, the time of a child and adolescent would be occupied in real work, real charity, real adventures and the real search for mentors who might teach what one really wanted to learn. A great deal of time was spent in community pursuits, prac- i ane OUR Ce ROCCO MCMC RCE mum tising affection, meeting and studying every Wilma Amaro's bottle washed up ona New Jersey beach where it was picked up by the police level of the community, learning how to chief. That led to a lunch invitation from the chief to Wilma and her mother, lessons about how pollution happens, and happy apologies from the students and the school. make a home, and dozens of other tasks nec- essary to becoming a whole man or woman. you. about. WILMA AMARG ——_ 14 = NEXUS JUNE - JULY 1997