God101

“My biggest problem with homeschooling is that it makes it very hard to teach leadership because you're isolated.”

                                                                                                                -Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, public speaker, and marketing guru who has a lot to say about education, starting with his belief that modern public school education was an industrial revolution conspiracy between business and government based upon the fear that businesses would run out of a pool of workers needed to man productions lines as well as run out of people who would buy the goods being produced.  The goal of public education was to create a large pool of compliant factory workers while teaching “kids that the best way to fit in and feel good is to buy stuff.”  ₁

Speaking mostly about college level education, Mr. Godin wrote that there are two different kinds of schooling.  There are classes where “you learn technique, facts and procedures,” and classes “where you learn to see, learn to lead and learn to solve interesting problems.”₂ The second type of class is preferable to the first.  It “is where all real success comes from.”₂  Unfortunately, the first type is easier to find.   According to Mr. Godin, “The first type of schooling can even be accomplished with self-discipline and a Dummies book.”₂   

“The sad thing is,” he continued.  “We often conflate the two. We think we're hiring someone to do the second type, a once in a lifetime teacher, someone who will change the outlook of stellar students.  But then we give them rules and procedures and feedback that turn them into a type 1 teacher.”₂ (emphasis mine)

Mr. Godin believes that teachers are the key to a good quality education.   “Why is it that the rest of the teachers were competent at giving exams and getting us to do well at those exams, but didn’t teach us enough to change us?” he asked.   “The system has hamstrung teachers, handicapped those that want to stand out and make a difference… I think we can’t wait for the teacher’s colleges to change, or the schools to change. We need teachers to care so much that they can’t stop pushing until they create change in the students who really need (and deserve) it.”₃

In an interview with Barbara Bray, Ms. Bray asked, “Education tends to be a top-down driven model where administrators, standards, policies, and test scores drive what teachers teach. How do you see education changing with this model where the individual sets their agenda?” 

Mr. Godin replied, “As a student in a digital world, tell me again why I need the building? The administration? The system?  I don’t.  And as accreditation becomes less meaningful because it’s easier to test the student than to test the system, the top heavy organizations will falter. And fast.”₃

“It’s sort of pathetic how we’ve abdicated responsibility to a leaderless system that’s actually accountable to no one in particular.”₃

So, why would a man who values thinking outside of the box and is so critical of public education also be critical of home education?    Why would he boil down his criticism of an educational process that addresses all of his concerns with the observation that what is wrong with homeschooling is that it doesn’t teach leadership?  

Mr. Godin told Lee Stranahan that schools “don’t churn out people who are creative and innovative and interrupt and ask questions.”  Schools are “a complete failure.” When Mr. Stranahan mentioned that he homeschools his children, and homeschools them for some of the very reasons Seth Godin mentioned in his criticism of public education, Mr. Godin ignored the topic. He stated that Lee’s children were lucky to have him, but then continued speaking about public schools rather than discussing the very real potential for homeschooling to address his educational concerns.

In an interview with Avi Solomn at Boing Boing, Seth Godin expanded his thoughts on homeschooling, saying

“Well, I think we need to ask a different question. School's been irrelevant for a while. The question is what do we want school to do? What do we need to create in our next generation? And I've argued we need to create two things: we need to create leaders, and we need to create people who can solve interesting problems.

“Anything we do in school that doesn't help with those two things we should stop doing. So homeschooling isn't necessarily the answer, unless homeschooling is going to come up with a way to work on those two problems. My biggest problem with homeschooling is that it makes it very hard to teach leadership because you're isolated. But with the right parents, it is much better at teaching people to solve interesting problems. My argument is that every parent should homeschool at night, and then send their kids to school during the day. The homeschooling at night should consist of intelligent conversation, asking difficult questions, as opposed to watching television.” ₄

Education should not be so narrowly defined as to be mainly concerned with producing leaders and solving interesting problems.   Those are elements of a greater whole.  Why does a man who believes that school is irrelevant (and has been for awhile), who believes that students no longer need the building, the administrator, or the system, also believe that students should still go to these places each day?  It’s a repeat of the argument that no matter how poorly public schools perform, they are still better than education being taught by a loving mom or dad in the safety of the home.    I’m willing to bet that Mr. Godin has not spent much time interacting with the homeschooling community.   If he had, he would have seen many of his concerns being addressed.  But from a marketing standpoint, we’re being noticed.  People are talking about homeschooling.  The better we do, the more successful we are, the easier it will be for future generations to experience the joy of education at home.  

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea5IgyVd3_U

2 http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/two-kinds-of-schooling-348.php

3 http://living.the-environmentalist.org/2010/01/interview-with-seth-godin-about.html#page2

4 http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/16/interview-seth-godin.html

Teachers Say the Problem with Education is Parenting (and for once I agree with them)

Deputy Political Editor Alison Little wrote an interesting article in the Monday April 25,2011, edition of the UK Daily and Sunday Express Newspaper online. 

HOW LAX PARENTS PACK OFF PUPILS WITH PHONE AND IPOD...BUT NO PEN : Nearly half of the teachers questioned said children did not come to school ready to learn

PARENTS were blamed for classroom failures yesterday after teachers said too many children turn up loaded with the latest technology but lacking basic essentials like pens.

Some 68 per cent of 8,000 teachers questioned by the NASUWT union said lack of parental support was a major cause of pupil bad behaviour.

Nearly half said children did not come to school ready to learn, with a quarter blaming the influence of television, the media and video games. They said pupils were distracted by their phones and other gadgets.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates told its conference in Glasgow: “Parents can’t simply abandon their responsibilities at the school gate. Sending their child to school with basic equipment, on time, with homework completed and with clear expectations of how they expect them to behave in school, is a critical part of their role.

“Too many pupils arrive at school with mobile phones, iPods and MP3 players when teachers just wish they would bring a pen. Hours of valuable teaching and learning time are clearly being lost in lessons every day through pupils not being ready to learn.”

I have long maintained the single biggest problem facing public school education cannot be solved by creating new programs or spending more money in the classroom.  The single biggest problem facing public school education is a lack of parental support, and the reality is that proper parenting cannot be legislated.  It doesn’t matter how much money is spent on computers for a school.  If little Johnny’s parents don’t require him to complete his homework, if they don’t monitor his progress, if they don’t sit and read with him in the evening, if they don’t instill discipline at home, the odds are Johnny won’t succeed in the classroom. 

There are no better examples of active parenting than in the homeschooling community.  That is why the results of study after study reveal that homeschooled children outperform their peers on academic tests at all levels.    

You can read more of Alison Little’s article at http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/242762/How-lax-parents-pack-off-pupils-with-phone-and-iPod-but-no-pen-How-lax-parents-pack-off-pupils-with-phone-and-iPod-but-no-pen-#ixzz1KpbpUhpz

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

Fascinating.  And fun to watch.

"The Government-Education Complex": Another Reason to Homeschool

Bruno Behrend, of Extreme Wisdom, recently wrote an article for Somewhat Reasonable, the blog of The Heartland Institute, which has provided me with an incredibly well-written explanation of yet another reason why I continue to make the choice to homeschool my children. 

In this fantastic article, Bruno Behrend calls our national education system "The Government-Education Complex", and his description of the structural make-up, agenda, and outcome of this taxpayer-funded monstrosity is spot-on.

"The 'Government Education Complex' is the interlocking set of interests that control the vast majority of American education dollars, education policy, and the steady increase in unnecessary education job creation. The explosion of spending, debt, and taxation we’ve witnessed in the last 25 years was used to fund the growth of this Complex."

"The Government Education Complex is designed to grow itself, while spending money by the billions. It is operating exactly as intended. The actual education of America’s children is not its agenda. Spending money is its agenda."

The parents of America's children should be asking themselves these question.

Why would I entrust my child's entire future to a system which

"...merely uses our children as a stick to beat more money out of us while providing, at best, a mediocre education for the lucky few?" 

Why would I entrust my child to a system that is not interested in reforming itself, despite well-documented evidence of pervasive failure to produce positive results?

Mr. Behrend is not a fan of reform.  Instead he argues for a more far-reaching solution.  He believes—and I concur—that the only solution is the complete dismantling of a system that is far more successful at lining the pockets of unions, administrators, politicians, and special interests than it is in providing America's children with a quality education.

And until the system is dismantled, it may have control of my tax dollars, but it will NEVER have control of my children.