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How 5 Truths About the Future Encourage Unschooling
By Laura | December 31, 2008
While it’s impossible to get a clear glimpse into what the future may bring, it is acceptable to make certain assumptions about it. On his blog at jimcarroll.com, trends & innovations expert Jim Carroll writes about 10 Truths About the Future. Let’s take some of these truths and see how they support an unschooling society.
1. It’s incredibly fast:
Product lifecycles are collapsing. It’s said that half of what students learn in their freshman year about science and technology is obsolete or revised by their senior year. There are furious rates of new scientific discovery. Time is being compressed.
Students in school spend years learning facts that are often rendered useless because of the speed at which science and technology progresses. It’s a waste of time being forced to learn soon-to-be useless information when the student may not have any use for it in the future. If a child is genuinely interested in learning something, s/he will have no trouble in picking it up through personal study, or later on in university.
2. It has a huge instantaneity:
The average consumer scans 12 feet of shelf space per second. Most news becomes old hat within 36 hours of emerging. We live in the era of the rapid idea-cycle.
A lot of the information we need becomes old-news by the time curriculums get updated. It takes years to change an educational curriculum and by the time it gets to the students, it’s not usually an item of interest or necessity.
Furthermore, life is so fast-paced that children constantly want to “move on” to the next piece of information, and not linger on it and forced to commit it to memory if they feel it’s not necessary. This is how we get “learn-it and forget-it syndrome” where students cram everything to memory only to forget it as soon as exams are over. If something is learned out of genuine interest, it will be retained.
3. It’s about innovation:
It is said that the VAST majority of technological and scientific innovation happened in the last 150 years, and there is no sign of this trend letting up any time soon. Before the end of the 21st Century, space travel will probably be a common event and anyone without a personal computer or blackberry will be considered as living in the dark ages (if not already in some parts of the world).
Traditional schooling forces students to think inside of the box, rather than outside of it. It stifles creativity and free thinking. Notice that when given time to choose what to do, an institutionalized child will not know what to do with him/herself while a homeschooled or unschooled child will immediately have an idea of what to explore next. If we are to keep up with the wave of innovation, children need control over their own thoughts rather than having them implanted by government puppets.
4. It demands resourcefulness:
I once ran a small test between schooled and unschooled children: make a list of 50 things you can do with a spoon. While both groups struggled with the assignment, the unschooled children averaged 40 items on their list while the children in the traditional educational system only averaged 25…coincidence? I think not.
The people of the future will need to become more resourceful than ever. With an increasing world-population and decreasing resources, creative techniques will need to be thought up to resolve the problems caused by this generation of adults.
5. It’s about (co) inter-dependency:
Rather than becoming more independent, our society needs to get together and work as a community. There was a time when neighbors knew each other and were more than willing to help a fellow-neighbor in need. Today, people don’t bother to get to know those around them and the attitude has become one of “don’t know, don’t care.”
By segregating children into groups by age and social class (yes, they are segregated by social class when they are assigned to a school according to where they live instead of which one would suit them best), they are being taught to only help those in their select group. Older children are to be revered, while smaller ones should be picked on. The elderly are dismissed altogether as useless contributions to society instead of being respected for their experience and wisdom.
If you ever go to a homeschooling get together or park day, you’d be amazed at how everyone gets together. Children play together regardless of age and mingle with other families without hesitation. Moms hold babies that they have never seen before and they don’t worry that their children are somewhere being bullied.
Unification of all classes of people is imperative if we are to function as a society and this is only happen when people start tearing down the barriers that separate them. You may not like what’s on the other side, but remember that that feeling is probably mutual. To away with segregation altogether and let the children grow up in a community.
Topics: in the community, unschooling | 5 Comments »
December 31st, 2008 at 3:29 am
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
http://www.thetreadmillguide.com
December 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Love the article. Thanks for your blog/website.
My only disagreement would be that number 5 be titled “It’s about Inter-dependency” rather than Co-dependency.
I think the school system and society in general creates co-dependency which hold negative connotations for me. Co-dependency is about control and compliance. It’s about creating hoops (control) and jumping through them (compliance).
Granted, I’m a recovering co-dependent so I may be biased.
Inter-dependency is about a community full of independent thinkers capable of working together with compassion and acceptance for the sheer joy of it. So much more real compared to creating/achieving for the gold star, kudos, or the “A” grade.
It wasn’t until I was in recovery for co-dependency that I realized I was trained to be co-dependent by the school system. Teachers love pets who are obedient and just do what they are told rather than question and follow their own muse.
Kay
December 31st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Thanks Kay,
You are totally right, it was my own poor choice of words–thanks for pointing this out, I’ve made the change.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I love this post — thank you for it.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
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