I like it when people think outside the box in most areas, but particularly so in the area of education. Like contemporary governments, and economic thinking, schooling ‘systems’ are likewise seriously suffering from a lack of adaptation. We are still educating people for a world that no longer exists, and worse, some students are accumulating debts they’ll be paying for well into their thirties to secure this so-called ‘education’. I would hope that permaculturists take a serious look at their educational options. I’d love to hear from readers who’re finding ways to circumvent existing systems to give their children a better, more relevant, start in life.
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert… – YouTube
Further Reading:
- Pinky’s Scary School Nightmare – and Deschooling Society
- Letters from Vietnam: The Hmong People – Reclaiming Lost Skills
– NETWORK OF LEARNING: https://vasarhelyi.eu/books/A_pattern_language_book/apl18/apl18.htm
“In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students – and adults – become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.”
– UNIVERSITY AS MARKETPLACE: https://vasarhelyi.eu/books/A_pattern_language_book/apl43/apl43.htm
“Concentrated, cloistered universities, with closed admission policies and rigid procedures which dictate who may teach a course, kill opportunities for learning.
Therefore:
Establish the university as a marketplace of higher education. As a social conception this means that the university is open to people of all ages, on a full-time, part-time, or course by course basis. Anyone can offer a class. Anyone can take a class. Physically, the university marketplace has a central crossroads where its main buildings and offices are, and the meeting rooms and labs ripple out from this crossroads – at first concentrated in small buildings along pedestrian streets and then gradually becoming more dispersed and mixed with the town.”
– SHOPFRONT SCHOOLS: https://vasarhelyi.eu/books/A_pattern_language_book/apl85/apl85.htm
“Around the age of 6 or 7, children develop a great need to learn by doing, to make their mark on a community outside the home. If the setting is right, these needs lead children directly to basic skills and habits of learning.
Therefore:
Instead of building large public schools for children 7 to 12, set up tiny independent schools, one school at a time. Keep the school small, so that its overheads are low and a teacher-student ratio of 1:10 can be maintained. Locate it in the public part of the community, with a shopfront and three or four rooms.”
Nice one Craig. Very interesting.
Hi Craig, thanks for the post.
My kids go to Silkwood Independent School on the Gold Coast, they have been busy in the last couple of years reforming our curriculum to move on from a Steiner based education (keeping the bits that work and are relevant) and creating a contemporary one which has been designed to teach for a world where we have no idea what it will be like. So, we teach children to learn!!! To be able to adapt and be creative. Check it out http://www.silkwood.qld.edu.au. It is a small school and affordable, hopefully a model for others – I love it and more importantly the kids love it.
love it. RSA has some great animated talks posted.
my favourite right now is ‘The Empathic Civilization’, by author/activist Jeremy Rifkin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
if what he says has any degree of truth, there is hope for our species.