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| Alternative schooling: A choice after all! |
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| Written by Laurence | ||||
| Monday, 16 February 2009 10:52 | ||||
 For most of the parents, putting their child in school is rather simple. You live near a school, your child goes to that school. Simple.
However, there are some that have another point of view and choose to put their children in different schools. The vast majority of educational establishments pretty much anywhere that you live in the West are run by the state. That means that the education that your child will receive there is controlled to a certain extent by the government. How did we arrive at this arrangement? According to the Canadian author Matt Hern in his book Field Day the first organisation of state schooling appeared in England, France and Prussia from the 1700s. Napolean in France saw it as a way of taking control of education away from religious organisations. Prussia, after being defeated by Napolean's armies, copied his schooling system as a way to increase "...cohesion, commitment to the nation and willingness to sacrifice for its good." Prussia's booming economy led to its schooling system being copied around the world. According to Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally acclaimed creativity expert, schools curricula today are based on the needs that society determined during industrialization. The state therefore has created a schooling system in which it decides what children must learn and what it is appropriate for them to learn. It begins to control to some extent the minds of its citizens. However, some people argue whether the state really knows what is the best way to educate children or a particular child. There are in fact many different philosophies that govern how children learn best. In addition, we know that each human being learns differently.  Some of the different approaches that are available are:
These approaches are called "alternative" schooling methods. Most alternative approaches focus on allowing a child to really get the most out of themselves. When a person can take the opportunity to experiment and really understand the areas where they are strong and what they enjoy, they can become passionate and very successful adults. Supporters of the state sector will often point to the success of pupils that pass through the system: doctors, lawyers, writers, scientists. The state system is capable of providing excellent education. Yet the real question has to be: have these people achieved their maximum potential? Supporters of alternative approaches fear the answer is no. Moreover, there are strong signs that the state system is not working well: the rate of abandonment in Québec's schools, for example, was around 21% in the nineties (*). For most people the biggest issue with taking an alternative approach for their children is that it can be very expensive. Most alternative schools are private, not funded by the state, and thus are not accessible to many. Thus parents often do not have the choice of where they would like to send their schools and are obliged to send them to state run establishments. Surely the time has come to look at other solutions. Matt Hern suggests that local communities need to decide what should be offered in their schools as they better understand what is appropriate for their needs. Certainly a caring parent will have the best idea of what their child's needs are, so each local community must be able to offer an array of different options for parents to choose. What do you think the future of education should be? (*) http://www.echecscolaire.be/europe.html For more insight into this topic, see these articles:
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| Last Updated on Friday, 22 January 2010 21:36 |
