Re: [Discuss-sudbury-model] Questions about Their Future

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Kinnucan" <Michael_Kinnucan_at_buacademy.org>
> Joe, you're right that I haven't had the opportunity to visit an SVS-model
> school, though I plan to in March. That's part of the reason I'm asking. I
> discuss education extensively with my teachers, peers and friends. In many
> cases I'm in the position of explaining a system of education to them,
> although I'm by no means an expert.One of the questions that continually
> arises is this one.

Michael, I appreciate that you are doing "research" to bolster your ability
to discuss democratic schooling with others. Those of us who have been
involved in such schooling know that those on the outside think that "How
can you possibly not require kids to take particular courses?!?" is THE
important question. The sad fact, however, is that we know that the REALLY
important question is "How do you handle getting the school cleaned up?"
(i.e., What structures have you developed that allow the community to
maintain itself - in a variety of ways?)

>> I guess I don't really understand how you can make a contention as to
>> what your life would be like had you gone to a Sudbury School since a)
>> you didn't, and are therefore not the same person you would be if you
>> had,
> I'd have to disagree with you on (a). Although I can't get into details, I
> can make estimates, based on my conversations with SVS and other
> alternative-education students. Not only every retrospective
> consideration, but every choice and every experience we have rests on
> imagining how we will behave in situations we have never been in, as
> people with different experiences than those we currently have.

How one views oneself as a learner is such a fundamental piece of our
self-concept that in many ways I don't think your analogy to other choices
we make holds up. Think of yourself as a building. I see the choices to
which you refer as involving the upper floors. These can easily be seen and
imagined differently than they are. How one views oneself as a learner is
more like the foundation -- dug into the very bedrock, usually invisible,
and not so easily changed.

> if producing curious,
> self-motivated students means many of these students don't appreciate
> calculus (again, just an example) as much as they might, I'll keep looking
> for a compromise.

I'm afraid that this is one of those cases where a compromise is not
possible. If coercion is used to make kids "learn", then coercion is used.
In any case, ANY system of coercion will have to make choices as to what
will be taught and what will not. So your statement is equally (Actually
more) true of coercive "learning" environments that they will produce
studrnts who don't appreciate some "important" subject matter. There are
just too many possible things to learn!

>> What it would have been tantamount to would be
>> to allow you to choose to take or not to take calculus.
> My original point here was that there's a difference between the skills of
> algebra and reading, in that reading has benefits which are evident even
> to those who cannot read, whereas algebra has benefits (i.e., calculus)
> that are not evident until one has learned algebra.

Algebraic thinking has many benefits, some immediately evident and some not,
just as reading does. Calculus is by no means the only or even the best
reason to learn algebra!

>> It was not, however, their place to gamble with your life.
> But, again, my point is that putting me in an SVS-model school would also
> have been gambling with my life.

Not the same. It would have been to allow you to take charge of your own
life. Or, to be more precise, to recognize the fact that you DO take
responsibility for your own life in any case and to not place impediments in
front of you in doing so.

~Alan Klein
Received on Mon Feb 24 2003 - 07:14:00 EST