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EDUC100W School and Study Reading Response

Brainstorming

The school’s very existence has been called into question by radical deschoolers and unschoolers throughout the twentieth century. Schools, so they argue, rest on the false premise that we need them to learn, while we learn much better or faster outside school or outside the classroom (Illich 1970; Bentley 2000; Griffith 2010). Moreover, schools have been compared to prisons and camps (Gray 2013), they have been accused of being brutal colonisation machines. And all this seems to be based on sound observations and arguments. In today’s era of lifelong learning and (digital) learning environments, perhaps one is allowing the school to die a quiet death

The school and classical education become redundant according to their critics: the entire concept of curriculum and classification based on age is a product of outdated ways of distributing knowledge and expertise.

Therefore, the space of a learning environment seems to be the perfect mirror of our hyperactive, accelerating society, aiming at returns on investment in a way which is as effective and efficient as possible. The space of learning environments is no materialisation of free or public time, time of delay, but of time of investment and production. The school is no longer a place where society puts itself at a distance of itself. It becomes a (public) service delivered to individuals and to society, the community or the economy itself in order to reproduce itself, to strengthen, grow or expand. (94)

A community of students is a unique community; it is a community of people who have nothing (yet) in common, but by confronting what is brought to the table, its members can experience what it means to share something and activate their ability to renew the world.

Outline

As of recently, I’ve experienced great uncertainty regarding my future career and the path to get there. With core aspirations such as providing financial freedom for my family and positively impacting society through creations that exceed my own time on this earth, I found entrepreneurship to a potential path to follow. However, as I began to reflect on my current situation, I questioned whether going to university would adequately satisfy my entrpereneurial desires. If I truly want to reach the same levels as people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, going to school would only hinder my learning speeds. As a result, the following relatable criticism spiralled me into a midlife crisis where I questioned the importance of schooling:

Schools, so they argue, rest on the false premise that we need them to learn, while we learn much better or faster outside school or outside the classroom (Illich 1970; Bentley 2000; Griffith 2010). Moreover … they have been accused of being brutal colonisation machines. And all this seems to be based on sound observations and arguments. In today’s era of lifelong learning and (digital) learning environments, perhaps one is allowing the school to die a quiet death

In my field of computing science there’s an abundance of free online resources I could use to learn; in fact, I find myself learning and relying on them more than my actual professor’s lecture. Thus, I thought to myself,

why am I paying for schooling when the free option seems more effective?

I was considering dropping out to learn independently; time spent on preparing for standardized testing could be better used making meaningful progress and having experiences, tuition fees could be saved for business capital, and rigid class hours could be replaced with flexible and accelerated independent learning. The list could go on and on.

Although these above views haven’t changed, there is one irreplacable factor; the socialization school provides is integral towards adresssing my crippling flaw of social anxiety. Sure I could learn all conceptual things on my own, but there’s no way I would be able to setup anything similar to a schooling environmen to achieve similar social support. Seeing as the school is

a community of people who have nothing (yet) in common, but by confronting what is brought to the table, its members can experience what it means to share something and activate their ability to renew the world.

Like mentioned in my learning response,

Like mentioned in my teaching response, how would I

Such shared school culture and values important


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Created:: 2021-11-11 11:06


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