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‘Traditional’ vs. ‘natural’ education
52 CommentsI don’t want to get into semantics in this post, I don’t want to make it too long and I don’t want to go off on a rant about ‘global warming’.* I’d just like to discuss the graphic below from Harold Jarche’s blog (who in turn got it from Dave Pollard) and ask a couple of questions and make a few points:
- It’s all very well having planned communities, but who’s going to do the planning?
- I’m sceptical about the word ‘natural’. I agree that something needs to be done about western education systems, but unschooling as ‘natural’ is a subjective and context-dependent term.
- Dave Pollard writes, “The education system is loathed by its inmates, and serves as little more than an expensive incarceration for excess, untrained, and not-yet-obedient labour.” A little extreme, n’est pas?
- I absolutely agree that there is a hegemonic power nexus which can control the way we think and act. But to ‘unschool’ children does not mean they will become entrepeneurs. Nor do we want/need them all to be!
- Doesn’t ‘planned communities’ sound a bit 70s? Surely ‘nodes on an online learning network’ is where it’s at? :p
*apart from point out that in 1340s England had balmy, Mediterranean-type summers, in the 1970s people were predicting another ice age, and that Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth contains at least 9 factual errors…
Published on October 12, 2007 · Filed under: Uncategorized;
52 Responses to “‘Traditional’ vs. ‘natural’ education”
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audrey said on October 13th, 2007 at 3:36 am
The language alone puts me off. very 60s, granola… insincere… all I can hear is the arrogance of a generation.
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I think it’s the assumption that entrepeneurship is a “good thing” that I dislike the most. Ironically, I think it’s important that the education system challenges the propoganda around things like “entrepeneurship”.
And don’t get me started on terms like “Cultural Industries”…
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Oh, my. I can’t decide whether Mr. Jarche sounds like a 21st centuary Marxian conspiracy theorist or an extreme right wing nut case. To some extent, he echos what I recall of the research found in Flinn work, but this diagram is too simplistic, rigid and narrow.
Public schools are not perfect indeed, but the system is not entirely devoid of benefit for students. I have many students who are inquisitive learners destined for great futures as leaders in business, government, and–my fingers are crossed–education.
“Unschooling”–a term which I find highly offensive and condescending by the way– is not the panacea for the woes of public education that its proponents suggest. It suggests personal advancement based on isolation rather than seeking collaborative solutions to problems that exist within communities. Unschoolers are quite often more concerned about separation from and division of the classes rather than unification.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand alone.”
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Well what we see here is that Canadian leftists have absolutely nothing in common with American right wingers.
And I thought the last of the global warming denialists had died – but I guess they’re still out there, preaching magic over science…
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Who’s American? ;)
Stephen, aren’t you supposed to put something in capital letters when you worship it – so it should be ‘Science’ shouldn’t it?
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I was actually referring to th commenters, who actually are American, some of them, and are waving the flag (“the military industrial complex feeds your kids?” I mean, really now).
But I confess, I saw the global warming sceptic agitprop in your post, and my mind immediately leapt to right wing Americans. Because that’s where they are, mostly.
And I also confess, I don’t get it. I haven’t always agreed with what you say, but I didn’t think you were loopy. But now I don’t know. The evidence was in long long before Mr. Gore’s film, it means nothing if he wasn’t precisely right (and I will point out, he was rather more right than the people accusing Iraq of WMDs, and look at how much that has cost). It’s not reasonable, it’s not rational, to be a global warming sceptic.
These days, when people express doubt about global warming, they do so in order to declare a political affiliation rather than to make any serious statement about climate change. There are numerous studies, as I link to in the post that you pointedly didn’t link to (this, again, favouring a partisanship rather than typical blog practice and etiquette).
Is this the statement that you wanted to make?
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Stephen, I didn’t get the link from your post – in fact I only read it after your comment. So I do apologise if I haven’t referenced every post from your canon. For the sake those, like me, haven’t read Stephen’s posts relating to climate change:
Stephen, you’ve got to recognise that politics is different around the world. I’m not a scientist, but I do try to research my opinions. And it doesn’t really help when those trying to change my mind insinuate that I am ‘loopy’ and call me a ‘lunatic anymice dissenter’.
As an historian I recognise that ‘catastrophes’ and apocalyptic warnings are usually embellishments of a smaller truth. The political reality as far as I see it over here in the UK is that large corporations are using Climate Change and ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ programmes to reduce their costs. Adverts on TV appeal to middle-class buyers making them feel guilty about using plastic bags (so go out and buy an expensive one that we’re selling!)
Have a look at the graphic below from the BBC website:
All this talk of something being ‘the hottest since records began’ doesn’t really mean something in the whole scheme of things, does it? Unless, of course, archaeologists are on the verge of announcing that the purpose of the Domesday Book was to provide William the Conqueror with a way of siting his coal-fired power stations… ;-)
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Here’s a bit of clarification from your the conspiracy theorist, aka extreme right wing nut case.
The industrial models of schooling, business and urban planning all have major flaws, and in my opinion have outlived their usefulness.
The term “natural enterprise” was developed by Dave Pollard after lengthy conversations a few years back. The term may bring up the wrong connotations to some people, but read the references on Dave’s blog and then refute the model.
Yes, there are aspects of the industrial models that still work, which is why they haven’t collapsed (yet).
Our current communities were “planned” by many vested interests over the years. They were not planned by those who live in them. Commuting to work in a car from a suburb is not in the best interests of the individual worker nor the environment. It is in the best interests of the automobile industry.
What I like about Dave’s diagram is that it shows that we need to develop alternative models, test them out and learn from them. I am not advocating a return to 60’s hippy communes nor a luddite anti-technology approach.
If you think that our current school systems, managerial capitalism and urban sprawl are OK, then you are entitled to your opinions. I do not think that the current situation is sustainable. I am actively talking about alternatives and building local instances of new models for living, learning and generating wealth. We will be starting construction of our “work & environmental commons” in our small town of 5,000 in the Spring. This has been a two-year effort and I have raised substantial money from the public and private sectors.
There is a hunger for people to live in a more meaningful and sustainable way. We are building alternatives that give people some say in their future. Another example is the “community supported agriculture” (CSA) group we created this year. Our CSA will triple in size to 60 families next year. If everything was just fine, I doubt that our CSA or our Commons would have been able to get this far.
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I have seen the diagram to which you refer, Doug – it is sometimes referred to as the ‘hockey stick’ argument.The link you give to th BBC website isn’t working. No matter. You can’t simply look at the diagram and say, ‘hey, there’s no change’. You have to actually make the calculations, to take the actual numbers and see what the trends are. Eyeballing is is no substitute for mathematics, especially givn all the ways the visual presentation of graphs can lead you to believe one thing or another.
And we transfer the domain of argumentation from the realm of charts in BBC News and to the realm of actual statistical analysis, then there is no doubt: we are experiencing unprecedented global warming. Which was the basis for my post, “There is no remaining doubt” an couple of years ago. http://www.downes.ca/post/38416
And while I’m writing, I may as well correct your misrepresentation of the Al Gore movie as well. You assert that there were “9 errors” in the film. This was most likely based on one of numerous misrepresentations of a hearing that appeared in the popular press. Like the Telegraph, for example. http://tinyurl.com/yulga3
The fact is, the judge never ruled that there were nine errors. What was actually asserted was that there were that there were nine points that might be errors or where differing views should be presented for balance.
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/10/an_error_is_not_the_same_thing.phpWhat were the ‘errors’? (See – I’m using the word in the same way the judge did). Well if we look at them, we can see that they do not detract from the veraciy of the film at all.
For example, Gore reports that polar bars drowned after swimming for 60 miles while searching for sea ice. Did the bears drown? Yes, unquestionably – I have seen the photos for myself. Did they swim 60 miles? Well, maybe not that far – it might have been only 50, or even 40; Gore has not been able to prove the exact distance.
And for example, Gore argues that sea levels will rise 20 feet if the ice over Greenland melts. Is this true? The judge suggests that other people might consider this “alarmist” and that the actual rise in sea level might be a bit lower. It’s subject to interpretation. But this is hardly an “error” in the film.
Now think about it: in a two-hour film jam packed with statistics and argumentation, a judicial review found that there were only 9 points in which an alternative interpretation might be possible – and not *any* that were, in fact, “errors”.
Somehow – *somehow* – you find it nonetheless more rational to doubt this?
Now you don’t like my characterization opf you as “loopy”.
Well, my response is: if the sum total of your research on an issue is to read the newspaper, then perhaps you ought not take unprovoked pot-shots against people who actually *have* done some reserach into the topic.
And if you *are* going to take a pot-shot at someone like that, at least do them the dignity of linking to them, so your readers follow the link, read the articles (including the links I provided to actual research and data), and can understand that it was just a pot-shot, and not partisan hackery.
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I am genuinely saddened by the name calling that has cropped up in the comments on this post. I had kind of hoped that we were a mature enough community to debate ideas without resorting to the use of epithets like loony and nut case :-(
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@Stephen: I agree that as a full-time teacher, husband and father (and part-time blogger) I haven’t had the time to look into things perhaps as deeply as you. But the overwhelming sense I get is that the corporate bandwagon is distorting reality. I’m not taking the hard-line view that global warming does not exist at all; obviously power stations, etc. are going to take their toll on the environment. But what I am saying is that the problem isn’t as big as people make out. It’s being used for political ends, as you mention. Perhaps you don’t realise that you’re being manipulated yourself?
As for the continued requests to link to your blog, I have done! Again, you weren’t part of what I was originally looking at. The whole edublogosphere doesn’t revolve around Downes, Warlick and Richardson, you know. Anyway, I would have thought that, by now, you don’t need the links for your Technorati ranking… :p
@Karyn: You’re right, I thought Stephen was a bit more mature than to do all that. But then, I’ve never seen him make a wholly positive comment on anyone’s blog… :(
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Doug: I have It’s about life
Hope I did the href properly!
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Top load of comments here, love it! :D
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JSA said on November 20th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Online Distance Learning
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