Transitioning society out of the factory model of education

[Karen Hyams]

The logistics of taking your kids out of school seems to be one of the biggest barriers to parents who are unhappy with the current education system and want something better. I've had lots of opportunities to talk to people who think Sudbury/democratic schooling sounds good, but they can't afford tuition, or there is no school nearby, or they have two working parents and can't unschool/homeschool, or the whole idea of rejecting something that is deeply woven into our culture's fabric is just too scary. Plus there's the swearing, but we already know that's a barrier. My sister has all of these factors in her life, with the result that she has a very hard time with the struggles her kids have with school and she feels powerless to fix anything.

It's these people who are needed for the next step in dismantling the school system, but how do we help them? How do you upend 12 years of free childcare masquerading as a great social benefit? And how do we move people from acting out of fear (my kids will fail at life, they'll get in trouble with too much unsupervised time on their hands, they need 'structure', etc) to acting out of trust?

If things are to change, we are going to have to see a shift in how parents think about their time, their kids' time, and the individual costs of staying in the system. We need some kind of structure so parents don't feel like they are just throwing their children out into the wild. What do you think would help do that?

Thanks for reading,

Karen Hyams

My Work

[Clint Kaufmann]

Thanks, Karen.  My guess is that people will trust education alternatives more as they become more and more common and familiar.  ...Long road.  I'd be all for speedier paths to transition.

Clint

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From: karen...@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 08:23:56 -0700
Subject: [DSM] Transitioning society out of the factory model of education
To: discuss-su...@googlegroups.com

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[Jeffery Collins]

The key is to change the conversation from what they are moving away from to what they want to move toward.  Instead of focusing on the bad points of compulsory curriculum based education, focus on the good points of an interest based education.

Jeff

[John H. Underhill]

I wish I knew the answer so I could convince my daughter to take the risk with her youngest even though we won’t have a Sudbury inspired school in my town until the Fall of 2015 (I’m one of the ‘founders’.)   Yesterday my daughter described to me the variation in teacher ‘quality’ my granddaughter was experiencing in 7th grade.   Her English teacher is a Spanish teacher moved into teaching 7th grade English.  At the Parents Night, she said she hadn’t read the books yet for that reason and would be reading them along with the students and therefore couldn’t comment on the books.   MEANWHILE my granddaughter’s favorite class is something offered by the ‘tech’ teacher which my daughter says seems to be engineering for middle school students.  We’ll see how the year goes.   My granddaughter heretofore has been interested mainly in ballet, stuffed animals, make up and other girly-girly things as well as couch potatoeing for ‘chick fliks.”  She has more brains than she’s even admitted to herself she has, and a considerable amount of grit and self-discipline as evidenced by the dancing. Perhaps the engineering will catch her fancy.

John H. Underhill

hunde...@aol.com

[Lydia Soleil]

"How do you upend 12 years of free childcare masquerading as a great social benefit?"

I love that quote Karen!

Your questions are ones I ask myself every day...

Best,

-Lydia Soleil

Founder, Parent, Board Member

Sudbury School of Atlanta

[Don Berg (Attitutor)]

I just recently finished writing my new book called Every Parent's Dilemma: Why Are Schools That Nurture Children Ignored? The book is written for the democratic and home schooling audiences and addresses the question of why growth has been so difficult. The issues go very deep into how our society sees education itself. The historical analogy I use is with medicine in about the 1850's when miasma theory was the dominant paradigm. There was plenty of evidence from a variety practical applications (such as Semmelweiss's hand washing reducing mortality amongst new mothers from 40% to less than 20%) that the miasma paradigm was wrong. Major public investments guided by miasma theory lead to tens of thousands of people dying in epidemics in 1854 and 1873. If we are up against a paradigm shift then we need to think about our strategies for growth in bigger terms. Paradigms do not succumb to mere evidence. We need to raise awareness and understanding at the levels of policy making so that we can garner broader support.

The book will be coming out either in December of this year or in early 2015, after a crowd funding campaign to raise promotional funding. If you are interested in writing a pre-publication review I would be glad to send you a copy.

On Friday, September 26, 2014 8:24:19 AM UTC-7, Karen Hyams wrote:

The logistics of taking your kids out of school seems to be one of the biggest barriers to parents who are unhappy with the current education systemThanks for reading,

Karen Hyams

My Work

[Jim Whiteford]

I think one of the things that will help is building a sort of dialogue or communication channel with kids too. My son sent me this today: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=859531017425231&id=100001050220095

The tide of feeling amongst school students is very strong in certain quarters. A book recently published in Sweden, entitled "F*** Skolan" (the first word is in English in the original title), is a collection of interviews from disaffected school children in and around the Gothenburg area. The rate of arson in schools in Sweden is the highest in Europe and Scandinavia, reaching a plateau in the Gothenburg suburbs. I pointed this out to the previous Education Minister, for what it was worth, as another factor indicating that all was not well in the state of school, and that there might be grounds for investigating alternatives. 

I believe that a (probably online) campaign, targeting school children as the audience, could be effective in accelerating the transition. Once kids know that an actual alternative exists, which actually functions as an actual school, their resulting passion and relentless nagging of their parents will help to bring more schools into being. 

Nothing against Minecraft, but wouldn't it be great if parents tried to catch up with their children's and their children's peers fascination for Sudbury schools, in the way they did with Minecraft when it began to catch on? 

Good question Karen, thanks. 

Jim. 

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[Chris Enock]

Hi!

I think the news and other mass media are a major problem. They are so fear driven, it creates a state of mind that is not conducive to transition or thoughtful change. It doesn't allow for meaningful "conversations" about any topic at all.

Chris

[Erin Little]

Hi,  

I just found this group.  I am an elementary school teacher in a small community in northern Ontario.  I am deeply dissatisfied with my work because every single day I am compromising my core beliefs about how children learn.  I am also a parent of almost 8 year old twin girls.  My heart breaks every day when they ask me if it's a school day and I have to say yes.  

They would be in a democratic school or they would be unschooled if I could logistically do it.  I am the primary breadwinner.  My husband is unwilling to change his work to make money (following his dream) or to unschool the girls.  I am stuck.  

My next move was going to be to apply to do my Masters of Arts studying alternative methods of schooling.  There is a publicly funded democratic school in Toronto (where I would take my masters) but admission is based on lottery.  I could never afford the tuition of a private school (none currently exist in Ontario that I can find).  

If I had the money I would try to start a Sudbury school.  Logistics are the only thing holding me back and I fear for my poor girls.  My friend says maybe building up resilience will be good for our kids but I call that a b*&ls*&t buzzword.  

So, if anyone has any answers I'm all ears.

Thanks for reading.

Erin

[John H Underhill]

One wonders why your husband, who is pursuing HIS dream, is unwilling to see his daughters enabled to pursue theirs?

If his position is a deal breaker in the marriage, you could try to get a job in Toronto.

If not, the main thing would be to throw the TV out of the house and get the girls each a library card.

Check out my YA fantasy romance which is about the crucial importance of following one's own path.    LORDS OF KERBALLA is the title.  Your local bookstore can order it from the publisher, ExLibris, or you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  Two more volumes of the trilogy yet to be published.   The writing of these books is me following MY dream, but I'm retired with a modest pension so I can afford it.

But it would be better if people could do it younger.

I'll even send each girl her own copy if you'll email me privately your snail mail address to Hunde...@aol.com

J. H. Underhill

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[Aaron Yang]

Hi all,

My name's Aaron Yang. I'm 24, currently teaching at a charter school Dallas, Tx. I completely empathize with Erin. This is my 2nd year into teaching and I find it very difficult to go into work each day, feeling like I'm another cog in a failing system. This may be my last semester in public education. However, the problem lies in financial stability. My dream would have been to create a sudbury school in Dallas, but I have not yet reached a level of financial impact to where I can pursue this goal. 

My plan: 

Project 1 (long term): Start an Educational Software company

Project 2 (short term): Start a Tutoring/Mentor Program

One barrier we have as educators is always the fear of not having a stable income. If we don't work in traditional factory model schools, how are we going to make a living? Tutoring may get me by, but how sustainable is it? I'm young and single at the moment, but what happens when i decide its time for a family? Where in education can we make it sustainable? How can we make this imperative occupation a fruitful lifestyle?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

[Scott David Gray]

Hi Aaron,

Working in a Sudbury school has nothing in common with any work in traditional education. It requires different skills (more managerial, less pedantic), different outlook (treating others with respect as equals, rather than as clients and subordinates), different standards (expertise, rather than getting by) and very different standards of job security.

There is much more in common with starting a small business (high failure rate, huge personal investment, no state-backed guarantee of anything ever) than with any other industry.

Generally the only people with the strength of will to put in the needed time and investment are people for whom there is no other choice. If you don't need to work on a Sudbury school -- for yourself, or your own children -- it is likely not the path for you.

If your real aim is to do work in Sudbury education "one day," but not yet, I would strongly advise against involving yourself in industries (and, by extension, social circles) that will pressure you to do things that are pedantic and disrespectful to children -- educational software, and tutoring/mentoring programs are prime examples.

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[Chris Wu]

Hi Scott

As someone who wants to get involved with Sudbury Schools or other democratic schools, your insights and advice are very helpful. Thank you.

[Erin Little]

It bothers me that more progressive  schools like Sudbury Schools are private and therefore class immediately comes into play.  Sigh.  It would be nice if there were publicly funded democratic schools and perhaps other models to appeal to a range of philosophies and needs.  It is not clear to me how Sudbury Schools deal with Learning Disabilities and they seem to exclude children with behaviour issues.  

On Friday, September 26, 2014 11:24:19 AM UTC-4, Karen Hyams wrote: