Want to use this for your own project/research? Press this button first:
The Origins of this Part
Back in secondary school I made a second attempt at a website, this time more rooted in reality. It was mostly about and against the coercive education system we force our kids to go to, unfortunately. I never really liked it nor really learned much from being forced to rehearse and make assignments that were nothing but 'fill in the blanks'. Thus I wrote a lot of short and long pages arguing against coercive education and for a MUCH healthier alternative, namely a system that lets kids learn whatever they are interested in. The following parts and pages are ALL pages from the old website, plus some new writings...
Two Friends Living Together
Anne, 7 years old, wakes up at 10AM and tries to cook an egg with cheese and bacon. As she grabs an egg from the fridge, her best friend Denna, aged 5, comes down from the stairs and asks for a hug. Anne promptly gives one and grabs another egg for him. He thanks her and turns the dial of an electric stovetop. Anne takes the bicycle to school. Denna takes a seat on the back of Anne’s bike. The trip may be rough, with uneven road surfaces, but it’s greatly rewarding. The couple ends in a large, open room filled with closets, cupboards, drawers and corners to explore. All is well-lit with warm white LED light strips on the ceiling and large open windows on all sides of the building. They’re so interested in what’s around, they never look at the clock for even a second. When they open one drawer, they come across a small book they decide to read together. Quickly afterwards, Denna decides to grab another copy of the book and follow Anne’s moves. When both got all the way to the end, they put it back in the drawer and Denna picks up another book. He decides to read himself this time. He quickly understands and comprehends what he sees. When Anne asks him how this was possible, Denna tells her he learned from street signs and other things that were just around him. In the meantime, Denna just keeps on reading several books and seems to enjoy it! Anne, in the meantime, decides to have a look at another cupboard. Inside, she discovers a box filled with LEGO. She has never played with it before, but makes several discoveries about these blocks in just a matter of minutes! When Denna and other kids look at what Anne’s doing, they quickly see she’s created several buildings and fields. They look like things Anne has seen before. She’s obsessed and eventually starts creating things all out of her own mind. They look like something from another world! When the day comes to an end, Anne and Denna return home. Anne decides to make some small pizzas for dinner. When they go for a walk together, they can’t turn around without seeing the solar panels on the roof of every house, the trees planted at every corner of the streets. This screams nature to the two children. They see happy children playing on the roads, both with each other and with adults. When they come home, mommy also returns from holiday. She notices a child who isn’t their own coming with her son, but they know they’re just best friends. They fall asleep soundly at 9PM.
Is a free-for-children, child-oriented world a utopia? Is it achievable for the near future?
Reforming the definition of a school
Our current schools are like factories, where children are forced to go to, under the threat of getting arrested, do seemingly meaningless tasks in the name of ‘learning’. This is done through the principle of: explain, test, forget, repeat. What happens is:
The child gets an explanation of something that will come for the test. It’s repeated several times.
The child eventually gets an extremely hard and stressful test. Just the day before, he’s told to do even more repeating of explanations.
The child progressively forgets more and more of what he/she learned for the test.
Rinse and repeat until the child ends up with a diploma but almost nothing of what he/she needed to learn for it.
Such a flow demotivates the child and can cause burnouts in both the children and the teachers, leading to sick leaves, leading to more stress for teachers, and a vicious circle. Because knowledge gets forgotten when not in use for a test, it’s also completely, 1000% useless. It’s also very, VERY old, i.e. the Dutch obligatory schooling law stems back from 1901 and the world has changed at a rapid pace since then. There’s also only one place where you can go to school, which is chosen by the parents, and that doesn’t help with making friends and maintaining contact with extended family, and prevents kids from learning about other places and properly integrating. Children are age-segregated, meaning the only friends you know are of your own age. Such inequality quickly leads to stereotypes and bullying. If a skill needs to be added, the teachers have to be completely retrained, or there might even be a need for more teachers. Many children find the pace at which the school does their thing either too fast or too low. What’s the worst, the system places a label on said children and gives them prescription medicines. NO!
And who keeps this in place? THE GOVERNMENT, and more specifically in the Netherlands, Mark R. and Sander D(these two names are outdated). They were talking about this Education 2032 plan, which is only about changing the standard curriculum, but what’s worse, I never noticed anything. WHY? THEY TELL THE LIE THAT THIS IS GOOD FOR CHILDREN, AND WORST, THEY NEVER CARRY OUT THE PLAN! They even somehow realized their own mistake, as they closed school for COVID-19, but then the schools opened up without any changes (except for a stupid face mask I absolutely hate.) I was a little unhappier because I never saw my friends, but not that much, since I could always turn off the sound and do something else.
Instead, we should see the entire country as one giant school, as in a place where things are just waiting to be discovered. Playrooms are still essential for such a system to work, as they bring children and adults together and house part of the to-be-discovered things. There will be so many of them, only a central or state government agency can keep them stocked and well-maintained. The exploitation needs to be handed over to foundations and alliances, who order special sets of objects and information from the agency, and make sure there are always 24/7, at least some adult supervisors to guide the children only when they need it. There also needs to be an organization, whether a government agency, a foundation, an alliance or a company, to move children from one part of the country to another quickly and safely. This way, the children can learn from all around the country, and properly integrate. Such a system relies on the principle of search, discover, explore, repeat. What happens is:
The child comes across a book, object, phenomenon... Or an adult or another child points said thing out to the child.
The child becomes interested and has a closer look. If an object, the child will begin to play and discover new properties of the object.
The child might ask other kids or adults about what the object is/does/etc. Or he/she just learns on his/her own.
If the child learns from other people, they might from a friendship. Such a friendship is not dependent on age, social status or any other factors.
Due to intrinsic motivation, the child no longer realizes there's such a thing as time and becomes very delighted!
Rinse and repeat until the child is no longer interested. He/she now has long-lasting memories about the learning process, and very rich experiences.
The child then discovers something else and the process starts all over again.
Such a system actually is so useful, it’s to be considered Class A critical: meaning it should be maintained 24/7, and should never close down, even in case of a pandemic. If it would, children would become extremely sad, almost inconsolably so, as they know their friends from there, the objects they play with, the books they read in… A form of what Germans call “Heimweh”. On the other hand, compulsory schooling laws are not only a big NO-NO, they’re inherent, especially since the entire country is one big school. Children choose completely by themselves what they want to learn, and when, and where, and even how. Such freedom of choice is very beneficial even to the youngest of children, as several schools implementing democratic principles have worked much better than traditional schools. The reason for that is children learn at their own pace and out of intrinsic motivation. Every child knows when they’re ready to take the next step (Dutch: er klaar voor zijn). In fact, some skills can only be learned in freedom and thus are left out at school, which is essentially child neglect.
A system as described above has an almost infinite number of benefits:
Adjusts itself to the needs of the child, instead of the school child being forced to comply with the school.
Much less stress for teachers and children
More potential for actually learning
Learning becomes a fun activity, instead of a chore: in fact, there is no difference between playing and learning.
School's expenses are transferred from parents to the government in a direct sense, almost analogous to what the UK's NHS does to healthcare costs for patients
Children can discover more places in their life
Children progressively become less dependent of parents
Children aren't stuffed with unwanted lectures and tests; instead, the child asks when they need assistance.
Consistency: the school may ABSOLUTELY NEVER close (i.e. for holidays, weekends or national crisis)
Children learn at their own pace, which speeds up their learning process
No skill is neglected
Future-proofed: All you need to do to encourage new skills is to provide new material to the children.
All children of all ages, colors, religion, ethnicity... are placed together, which increases the potential of integration even further, and allows children to learn about cultures from around the world.
Learning through experience, not fact, means children will have practiced the skill they learned, and never forget it along the way. That's guaranteed!
But why isn't it implemented?
This is a complete reform of education, something the ruling party doesn't want to do to a whole country or state. I can only think of one true concern: MONEY! The money needed for this is there, but it's thrown away to peace missions in Libya, altering the current education system, the Royal House of a kingdom, and other vanity projects. O, there's the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, saying elementary schooling should be mandatory, and children must live with family, but we can just opt-out like the UK did to the EU.
But the reformed system is actually (removing hyperbole) a lot more effective AND cheaper! In fact, there are already single schools that place emphasis on the children instead of a standard curriculum, but too many to list them. What isn't here is a country implementing this as a standard because of the money concern.
Let's see how cheap the reformed system is:
Less working positions, all that's needed at a school are coaches and minimal admin positions. The government also needs much less people, i.e. social workers, education inspectors and admin positions. (this is another argument against)
Less burn-outs mean lower healthcare costs
Obesity, Diabetes type 2 (fixed semantical error) and other inactivity-related diseases are also reduced
Less crime on the streets, as employers are happier with someone who's had job experience than someone who just got a diploma and nothing else to show. In addition, the reformed system reduces problems in certain areas, especially when combined with a UBI.
Schools are (or can be) physically much smaller
Youth psychological care is almost useless and thus removed
People also use false arguments against the reformed system, to keep the bull*** intact.
The children will learn nothing
WRONG! WRONG! 100000000000000000% WRONG! Children will actually learn more with the reformed system, especially those who can't go to school under the current system or those who have a different pace.
They will play video games all day!
Also a very wrong argument! Interest comes and goes in waves, and children never look for something to distract themselves (like video games) unless they're in a boring lecture they never asked for or forced to do homework by parents. In addition, even if this were true, children will always learn something, and at some point, the child will no longer be interested and look for something else to do.
They will never be ready for the real world!
Well, children are learning in the real world. Developing skills they actually need, including how to pick between options. Our current education doesn't teach that, but instead forces children through things they never want, something that WILL NEVER HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD! Even if you really don't like your job, you can quit freely, especially if you've saved enough or there's a UBI. If you fall out of love with a person, you can divorce. But children can't quit school, or for that matter, divorce their family, no matter how hard they try. They're forced into it.
There's no consistent family
Well, another piece of BS. Children can always return home if they want, no matter how far away they are. In addition, children who don't want to live with their parents anymore sometimes don't have any family problems, they just want to spread their wings. There's no reason to be concerned about family issues. In fact, the schools in this reformed system are everywhere, and a child can choose where they want to go. And they might discover another member of their family in a new city or village!
Children need to be guided in their life
Bull*** again. The schools do have coaches to guide the children, but only if the children need it. In fact, they might learn from other children, no matter their age. So that's no concern either.
And in addition, the guidance doesn't mean being monitored and checked every day on what you do. It doesn't mean being told what to do, or when. That isn't guidance, that's control. And that can really hurt any children, no matter how they are.
Children won't learn to be responsible
That's another piece of bull***! The WORST you can think of. Because in our current education system, children don't learn to be responsible but to do what someone else says. That's not responsibility, that's compliance.
In the reformed system, children will be let on their own, teaching them to be responsible for their actions. In fact, ANYONE who is allowed freedom will take responsibility, and anyone forced to do what someone else tells them to will not. Again, this has a significant impact on crime rates.
In conclusion:
Our current education system is outdated, expensive and useless! We should let children be free. Free to do what they want to do, when they want it, where they want it. This way, they make discoveries and learn much quicker than when forced to attend boring lectures. This leads to fewer psychological issues, fewer inactivity-related illnesses, lower crime rates, and so on. Every argument the pro-school ID10S throw at you is 1000% false and should be ignored or acted against.
New pages explaining more parts of the reformed education system will go below.
