Times they are a changing

 

I was able to work with my dad a little this morning. 

We ran into each other at home depot by chance. We were both headed to the church to get some things done. We put in a few hours together.

When I was in junior high and high school, I walked about a half mile to the bus stop. As I walked, I would daydream about a time when I wouldn’t have to go to school anymore and I could just spend days working with my dad. It was nice to be able to do that today.

It wasn’t that I disliked school, but more that I was bored with it. It was too easy and I had to take classes that I didn’t necessarily have any interest in. Those are areas I still have no interest in today. It was a waste of my time. Much of the school day is nothing more than a waste of time.

Because of this, we will see some changes in education. We have already seen some. I remember when you had to attend the school district in which you lived. I actually attended a high school out of my district. It was an experiment. You had to have a certain grade point average in order to qualify and then maintain it to stay. The classes were supposed to be a bit advanced so as to challenge us. 

From what I understand, kids are now able to attend schools outside of their district if they choose and are accepted. The schools they are choosing either offer a safer environment, better academics or the programs they desire. The schools they are avoiding will die and they should.

With the internet, schools around the world will soon be made available. The days of brick and mortar schools are coming to an end. I’m sure they will always exist to some degree, but they will not be the automatic go to that they have been. 

My children homeschool. They do so because we want them to be prepared for their lives. If I asked you to list the five qualities you possess that have helped you most in your life, I bet that none of them were learned in a classroom. We teach them the basics: math and English foremost, history, geography, science and Bible. They then can choose what else they would like to learn. Nicole is working on piano, writing and job preparedness. Winston is working on keyboarding, Spanish and guitar. We also give them reading that we want them to accomplish. It’s quite fabulous. Our schedules are our own to construct and allow for great learning opportunities in the real world.

Everything about the current educational model has a herd mentality. Cramming fifteen or twenty students that all possess very different personalities and learning capabilities into the same classroom is ridiculous. It made sense when they were just going from the classroom to the farm or the factory. This is no longer the reality of our economy. 

According to Forbes magazine, sixty percent of college students cannot find work in their field. I believe the word the kids are using these days is fail. It’s not the kids that are failing, it’s the system that is supposed to be helping them succeed. Systems are run by people and unless those people who devise the systems don’t want their kids in their basement for twenty years after college, they better educate them instead of just sending them to “school”.

I’m sure this will be popular.