To School, To Home School, Or To Unschool

SCHOOLING, IF YOU REALLY think about it, is a form of indoctrination. If fact, its nothing but indoctrination, a great power structure from above, with the most important decisions being made by faceless all powerful bureaucrats at the state and sometimes federal level, local school boards at the next level down, followed on down by administrators and teachers, and last, but least, the poor students themselves, essentially held captive by a system over which they have little or no control. Particulalry when it comes to American History and culture, public schools in America are pure indoctrination, teaching, decade after decade, the bizarre fantasty that ours is a country which is fundamentally a shining city on a hill, a beacon of virtue for the entire world. And that, as anyone with a brain knows or at least senses, is simply not true, or at least, not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then too, there is the matter of sitting in neat rows with rigid restrications on individual behavior, often extending even unto one's personal attire and hair style. Indoctrination. Most of us of course experience twelve years of this without much complaining, because part of the indoctrination is the passive acceptance of indoctrination. Nowadys, however, people are starting to rebel from it, and home schooling is more popular than it has been since the nineteenth century. Home schooling often entails much the same rigorous discipline and structure embodied in public school, only on a personal, family level. Now comes the concept of "unschooling". ON first thought it is tempting to imagine "unschooling" as nothing other than chaos, willful ignorance and anarchy, with children free to play video games all day, or to do nothing all day, or whatever thy choose. IN fact, unschooling seems to work rather well, report the parents who have tried it. Kids tend to be naturally curious, eager to learn, and if only given an environment and opportunity conducive to it, they seem to learn with a vengeance; on their own terms. And what better way to learn! Maybe we should all experience a little bit of all three techniques; there is obviously great value in being forced into a building with many other people, and being forced to learn how to get along with them. Most Americans live their entire lives attending class reunions regularly; there must be a reason why. As Aristotle said: we are social animals. But, as Abraham Lincoln proved beyond a doubt by reading himself into being a lawyer; a human mind can educate itself better than anyone, if given the chance.