Controlling children or teaching them?
I’m a former substitute teacher. So, though my view of public schools is limited, I have seen public schools. Teaching is supposed to be the main goal in schools and other institutionalized settings for children, but I’m not sure it really is. I suspect command and control is.
Now, in the classroom of a skilled teacher who is good at command and control, you don’t always see that. Skilled teachers (skilled in running an institution) can focus more of their attention on teaching because they’ve already established control. But control is the main requirement to run a classroom, not education.
If you really wanted to teach a child about the real world, why would you keep them in a classroom, away from the real world? Kids don’t like to be cooped up. Because if you let them out, you couldn’t control them as effectively.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Very true. And actually, one of the most common objections raised against homeschooling is “socialization.” Which seems to lend credence to the argument that it is all about control from the beginning. Most of us think of social skills when we think about “socialization” but that isn’t really what the word means…it has to do with adopting values and the culture through uncritical means.
There are limits to what you can do to encourage the individual expression of each child in a classroom with so many children and still ensure that any learning can indeed take place. That is why many of the problems of public education are inherent in the system.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I agree 100%. I am a former teacher myself, and a product of public schools. I have dealt with a group of home schooled adults for a few years now. What the lack in social skills they make up in audacity. Long story short, a lawyer was involved.
And how do you get to call yourself a teacher just because you’ve read a few phamplets and signed a few papers?
and on that note, I have also tagged you to write seven strange things about yourself.
http://www.sympathypain.com/seven-strange-things-about-moi/