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By Ben Dench (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Ben Dench - Writer
http://bendench.blogspot.com/2009/07/education.html
We want to encourage children to be open and happy and healthy and to
find the things that they really love in life and to pursue those
things. We want to positively reinforce creativity as well as the
desire for learning. I hear that the Jews, at one point in their
history, in order to instill a love for the study of the Torah in their
children, had the children turn a page and then dip their hands in
honey and lick them-so that they would always think of the Torah and
study as the sweetest things in life. This would be an early use of the
kind of operant conditioning that I think would be useful. B. F.
Skinner, in his book Walden Two, discusses establishing a
community based on the principles of operant conditioning. His model
for learning involved positively reinforcing children with skills that
would be valuable for learning (a love of knowledge, perseverance,
etc.) and then allowing children to study whatever they liked.
Because
children were self-motivated in their learning, and because they were
trained in perseverance and to endure the strain of study with ease, it
was enjoyable for them rather than a chore. Children are naturally
curious-always asking why. What we want is to foster that, encourage
it, strengthen that natural tendency instead of shutting it down.
Skinner seemed to feel that children would learn much more in this
manner-by studying whatever interested them-than through the current
system of indoctrination.1 Children also seem naturally
creative. They like to make things. They like to draw, paint, sing,
make up games, etc. We want to encourage this. We want to, rather than
tell a child to shut up when they ask questions or criticize their
early work, provide them with constant praise, guide them in the
endeavors they show interest in, support them in whatever projects they
take on, and help them to become as fully realized in their areas of
interest as possible. And if we all focus on learning and doing what is
most interesting to us, not only will we all be excited and happy all
the time, we will share what we learn with others in a casual, open,
carefree environment. We will come to know so much with so little
effort-with no real strain or frustration at all. Life's main themes
will be, rather than strain, need, or drudgery-play, desire, and an
exuberance at the beauty of life. We want to cultivate joy. We want
everyone to focus on the things that give them the greatest
satisfaction and excitement-to, as Joseph Cambell says, follow their
bliss.
Learning can become a joyous process. Something that
people want to do. These same principles can apply to work. Find what
you really love to do and work really hard at it. What could be more
rewarding? What could give a greater feeling of satisfaction and
meaning? Freud is wrong: productivity does not require repression.
Repression is only necessary to get people to be productive for
others-to do mindless jobs that they hate.
I want to encourage
what I call gratification education (what others have called "natural
learning" or "unschooling") . Under this model, students would be
encouraged to learn whatever they choose and would be given constant
rewards as part of the process of learning. This is contrary to the
current mainstream model, in which students are indoctrinated, given
huge amounts of grueling work to do, and feel largely miserable about
the process.2 It would be essential to gratification education
that the process be constantly stimulating, fun, creative, opening-that
is to say, enjoyable. The current system, far from being an act of joy
based on rewards, is a test of endurance, encouraged primarily through
punishment if noncompliance occurs-thus learning is reinforced
negatively, but it is also punished in the sense that it is often a
tedious and painful process.
Gratification education would teach
learning itself, behaviorally, as opposed to the current repressive
education that teaches an aversion to learning, behaviorally. Is the
latter an accident? Or is it intentional in a state that would
necessarily benefit from the ignorance of its masses? By making it so
that the majority do not want to read, do not want to become aware of
their situation, because the process has always been a painful one,
they create adults who largely shun education in their daily life and
look for escapes in generic television (watching whatever is on for the
sake of watching something-I find myself doing this) and trashy romance
novels-the motion of taking in information coupled with the opium of
non-information and base entertainment.
One thing that I think
is perhaps essential to teach all children is logic. I remember when I
took informal logic and learned the structure of an argument, what
makes a good argument, what makes a bad argument, what are common
fallacies, how does one break down, analyze, and counter an argument-I
looked at the world totally differently. Symbolic logic helped me
sharpen my mind even more and was an extraordinarily useful tool. And I
wondered, why aren't students learning this in elementary school? If
everyone was taught this kind of thing, politicians would not be able
to get away with the kind of things that they do. We would all demand
unequivocally that they be held accountable to reason and making
rationally legitimate claims, not spewing idiocy to get people to react
emotionally. If I was in a conspiracy theorist sort of mood I might
suggest that this may be precisely why students are not taught this
kind of thing. They are not taught to be critical thinkers. They are
not taught to understand their world on the most primary level so that
they can really effect it and think outside the box and strive to be
more. Why? Because we want an exploitable work force, and the people in
power want to stay in power without having to deal with an intelligent
populace. They want masses that are easily manipulated. In truth it's
probably not so much an active attempt at oppression as a general
indifference. Learning logic may give a lot to the individual, but it's
not quite a skill needed in a work force, so why bother? And so
children are taught upper level calculus, which most of them will never
use, and are deprived logic, which all of them would use every day of
their lives.
I must admit to a certain skepticism when it comes
to the mainstream schooling system. I feel like children are taught bad
things (unquestioning submission to authority, that learning is a
painful process, that learning is a top-down indoctrinatory process
rather than a self-initiated process of discovery, etc), and they
aren't taught some essential good things (logic, for example). This
pushes me in the direction of homeschooling. The Internet already makes
this more feasible than it has ever been in the past-and as technology
improves it will become more and more feasible. That being said, I
think there are many children with Christian parents, for example, that
are harmed by being homeschooled. Their education is insular. They are
exposed to only one perspective, and that perspective happens to be
wrong. But I ask myself, "Could I provide my children-the children of
my community-with a better education than the state?" Answer: "Yes, I
can." This is something you have to ask yourself, and if you can't,
maybe you can find people who can. The greatest objection to home
schooling seems to be that then children won't be socialized, but with
a tribal community rather than a nuclear family, this problem is
solved. Schooling today is largely indoctrinization and memorization.
By reinforcing the types of behaviors that will give children the
character to learn and think critically as well as pragmatically, we
will free them to be self-instructing.
You could learn all the
factual information that you learn from attending school out of
books-but people lack the perseverance to do that-or very few do. So
you instill in kids the ability to learn, the values that allow them to
learn-you teach them how to learn-and then you set them loose. You let
them self-educate and study whatever they are interested in. Again,
Skinner thought that this would be a far more effective model-that
students would learn far more than under the current system-because
they would be self-motivated. They would want to learn. We would
encourage them to develop a love of learning. We want to create a
nurturing, free environment for children, where they can grow and feel
supported. Children need to be guided in 1) how to learn (reading,
using resources) and maybe basic skills (writing, basic math), 2) how
to distinguish truth from falsehood (or the likelihood that any given
claim they encounter is true-logic, the scientific method), and 3) to
be wary of harmful ideologies and influences (to, if and when they are
encountered, treat them as hostile witnesses rather than trusted
friends). This basic framework for learning simply needs to be nudged
along throughout life-the particular content of their study should be
largely if not entirely up to them.
Again, as technology
increases, this will be a real benefit to our ability to educate. With
the Internet, huge amounts of information are now available at one's
fingertips. Libraries are now putting their entire selections into
digital format and making them available on the Internet. E-books make
it possible for individuals to acquire and carry around with them huge
amounts of information easily, like never before. Instead of having
massive amounts of paper books we could just have computers and
Internet access-and students would have access to all of humanities
information. Everyone would. Anytime anyone has a question about
anything they can look up information about it on the Internet-an easy
way to learn a lot over time. Information could be stored in more and
more durable and easily accessible forms.3
Education
should involve not only the development of the mind but the development
of the body and spirit as well. For body education I would recommend
the study and practice of yoga, martial arts, nutritional awareness,
sexual health and technique, and massage therapy. Look into all forms
of alternative medicine-keep what works and leave what doesn't.
Spiritual education should be technique rather than belief oriented.
Learn how to perceive, produce, and control subtle energies; meditate
and develop the ability to have cosmic conscious experiences; lucid
dream; go on shamanic journeys; produce out-of-body experiences at
will; develop psychic abilities in general; bring to fruition your
desired reality; remember past lives and the time between lives; and
develop the ability to communicate with various forms of spirits, both
physically embodied and extra-physical. Look into and critically
evaluate all traditions-keep what works and leave what doesn't.
Although this sort of spiritual education will involve experiences that
are generally peripheral for those living in a westernized,
Judeo-Christian, post-industrial society, this is no problem as long as
the focus is always upon experience, critical evaluation, and what is
demonstrable-never faith or dogma.
All forms of aesthetic
education are of course essential as well-and anything that brings joy
or raises consciousness is essential. Music (and art in general) serves
two absolutely critical functions. For the oppressed it serves as a
tool to motivate and to communicate the goal of liberation. For the
free it serves to glorify, revel in, and sustain the passions of life.
Slaves seek to be free. Masters seek-to enjoy themselves! Multicultural
education will also be useful so that our children can learn about and
draw upon all the world's traditions. Basic economic theory is also
important, as well as any technical training specific individuals are
interested in. While it may seem like this is a lot, I think the great
majority of it can be absorbed through osmosis in a culture that holds
these things as ideals and every day habits.
1 I'm
encouraged by two movements at present: Montessori schools and the One
Laptop Per Child Foundation. Rock on, friends. I'm also impressed with
Rosetta Stone and how it has used technology to develop a highly
effective way to teach foreign languages. I envision the possibility of
all curricula being put into interactive, enjoyable, digital formats.
Imagine a world in which your children learn all the factual
information they want or need by playing video games. This would be an
education system that is much, much more effective, enjoyable,
stimulating, efficient, decentralized, and economical than our current
methods. Older children and adults can buy lecturers by leading
professors in their fields from groups like the Teaching Company and
get in-depth, cutting edge information on any topic that interests
them. You can watch the DVDs as a family instead of watching TV. You'll
become wicked smart through osmosis.
http://laptop.org/en/
http://www.rosettastone.com/
http://www.teach12.com/teach12.aspx?ai=16281
2 Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
explores how the prison is merely the centerpiece of a much larger
carceral system, and that our schools, factories, military barracks,
churches, etc, are all based on these same architectural and
philosophical principles. Let's break free from this.
1 | 2
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