(2011-08-20) Gray Real Education Reform

Peter Gray on real Education Reform. For the most part, such reformers can be scaled along what might be called a liberal-conservative, or progressive-traditionalist, continuum... Over time there has been regular back-and-forth movement of the educational pendulum along this continuum. But the pendulum never moves very far... The pendulum never moves very far before it is pushed back in the other direction, because neither type of reform works... Real educational reform, as I see it, requires a fundamental shift in our understanding of the educational process. It requires the kind of shift that I have been advocating in the whole series of essays that constitute this blog. For starters, it requires that we abandon the idea that adults are in charge of children's learning. It requires, in other words, that we throw out the basic premise that underlies our system of schooling... A little "freedom" in a system where success is measured by tests doesn't work, because free children don't choose to learn the test answers. "Play" in a setting where children are segregated by age and are constrained in what they can play at is not a particularly effective learning tool. (UnSchooling)

Our system of Compulsory Schooling--which arose originally for purposes of indoctrination and obedience training (see A Brief History Of Education)--cannot be modified to serve effectively the function of real education... Real reform will occur only when enough people walk away from (Route Around) the conventional school system... The trend for people to walk away from the conventional schooling system will continue and will accelerate. It will accelerate because with each new person who leaves the conventional system, the less weird that choice will seem to everyone else... At some point in this process a Tipping Point will be reached. I think that's wishful thinking - you can keep churning without ever Crossing The Chasm.