Natural Learning

Submitted 3 years ago

Bullying has become a major problem in our schools.Who's fault is it? Prussia!

It absolutely blew my mind. During one of our first conversations over Skype, Skinner was telling me that dividing children by age in schools doesn't make sense. After few seconds of skepticism, I took his argument seriously and I realized that the idea of grouping students by age was an assumption I had never challenged before.

2 years later that call with Skinner, I'm in Chile building Exosphere with him, and this morning while passing by a college here in Reñaca I couldn't think of anything else than: why do they divide them by age? It doesn't make sense!

Isn't natural and obviously beneficial for children to be learning next to other children of approximately the same age?

What we take for granted and see as "how things are", is often just "how things have been done lately". The fact that we grow up doing things in a certain way tend to install in us the assumption that that's the unique way to do them, and that humans have always been doing them that way.

It is, simply enough, how we build our map of the world when we grow up. As we update our maps of reality by new information, and as it's very difficult and rare to have accurate information about the past, we usually go through life without recognizing many of our assumptions for what they are.

Further discussion and research about age-grading convinced me that what most people think as natural is actually a mistaken idea implemented by education bureaucrats at the beginning of the last century.

"It is constructed upon the assumption that a group of minds can be marshalled and controlled in growth in exactly the same manner that a military officer marshalls and directs the bodily movements of a company of soldiers. In solid, unbreakable phalanx the class is supposed to move through all the grades, keeping in locked step. This locked step is set by the 'average' pupil-an algebraic myth born of inanimate figures and an addled pedagogy. The class system does injury to the rapid and quick-thinking pupils, because these must shackle their stride to keep pace with the mythical average. But the class system does a greater injury to the large number who make slower progress than the rate of the mythical average pupil . . . They are foredoomed to failure before they begin.

Could any system be more stupid in its assumptions, more impossible in its conditions, and more juggernautic in its operation?"

This critic of age-grading was written in 1912 by Frederick Burk, first president of what became California State University at San Francisco, and quoted by Charles E. Silberman in his book Crisis in the Classroom. Many other authors agree upon the fact that out modern education system is the evolution of the prussian model, imported in the US and the taken as standard all over the world.
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Credit Rocìo Hedman, ayrozio

We may argue the model to be at least out-dated and worth-revisiting, if not universally wrongly conceived.

Age being the most important characteristic that children and students share and therefore the parameter for putting them together is also one of the ideas most criticized by Sir Ken Robinson, in his world famous TED Talk Changing Education Paradigms:

"Students are educated in batches, according to age, as if the most important thing they have in common is their date of manufacture."

Why do we divide children by age? Is it the best way to foster growth and learning?

We all know (it's true for everyone and each of us!) that what you learn out of curiosity and interest sticks with you forever, while what you study out of threat of punishment will fade away very soon after the test is passed. Given that different people are curious and interested in different topics at different times, if we really care about learning we shouldn't build a system that force every child on earth to study this when he is 7 years old and thatwhen he is 7 years old and a half, this other thing when he is 12 and that one when he is 13.

Age doesn't matter that much. Children and students should be immersed in an environment that allows them to dig into their curiosity in the moment they feel interest for a particular subject. And not in a one-fit-for-all 15 years long schedule.

Also, in the real world we all have to be interacting with people of different ages at the same time. Throughout life, the years spent in traditional school are the only ones where we are segregated by age: as adults, we encounter and have to interact with people both older and younger than we are. Why do we create a fake world for our children?

They should learn from the beginning how to manage many very different relationships simultaneously, and slowly get used to the complexity of life. They should be developing the ability to play different roles given the circumstances, and not switching just between equal (relating to their peers) and submitted (related to authority). This is extremely important because we shape the perception of our relationships in a binary mode that is a dangerous oversimplification: then you have 25 years old smart graduates who still think that the world is run by geniuses and that their teachersand professors know everything about everything, while they do not see value in their peers and themselves.

This last thought leads to another argument against dividing children by age: it's based on the assumption that only experts could teach.

Learning is gradual. In order to learn, you need someone who was in your situation not long ago and now is just few steps ahead. He will be able to relate to your problems, because he has a fresh experience of them, and he will be able to help you overcome them much better than someone who was at your stage sometimes decades ago.

Older and younger students would play diffrent roles in the learning environment and the variety would benefit all of them. Older students relating to younger peers would learn to tolerate and act respectful towards them and teaching them would become their best way to foster self-confidence about what they learned.

At Exosphere, we oppose the traditional top-down system, and we implement peer to peer learning in most of our activities. As our participants usually range between 19 yo and 50-something yo, all from different backgrounds and cultures: in Hydra I, the current program, we have 15 countries, from Colombia to Ghana, from Vietnam to the Netherlands, represented by artists, economists, coders, ex-soldiers, engineers and more, we witness this reality every day in our programs.
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Last week was Coding Challenge week, and the dynamics described above are observable more than ever. Each participant has a different level of knowledge about coding, but they are in mixed groups and let run free. We have few expert coders who follow the groups' advancements, helping with suggestions but never solving problems for them. Most of the learning is self-learning and peer-learning, a win-win situation.

Variety is guarantee for innovation, for discover, for learning and growth, from a personal standpoint as well as from a professional one. The mix of experience and age is what allows them to flourish and learn with unbelievable results.

The way people learn is the foundation for how they approach the rest of life, and Exosphere's current programs and operations are the starting point of our strategy to offer alternatives in primary, secondary, university and adult education in the coming years.

Exosphere's philosophy is that learning is a methodology for approaching all of life, seeing everything we do, everything we experience as an opportunity for a new experiment, a new improvement, a new invention. Free exploration of the world around us should be the muse for every child, every teenager, every adult, and a seamless life of learning and creating is the highest calling of each and every human being.

A new model for education is possible. This is what we are building, because we do want to make sense.

Government at all levels has failed the American people.

It has become little more than a parasite that's devouring its host.

No one is happy with the current "state of the union" except those politicians and bureaucrats who are intoxicated with their power, and are enjoying compensation and perks that most Americans can only dream of, as well as the "insiders" who extract a "skim" off nearly everything government touches.

The time is long past due to find a way to work together to develop new structures and methods to govern ourselves. Unfortunately, today's Americans may not be up to the task.

Many cannot even imagine ways that government could work differently than it does today. This lack of independent and creative thinking is primarily due to the monopoly created by the American "Education Cartel."

In the early 19th century, progressive American "educators" became captivated by the Prussian educational system. In 1843, Horace Mann went to Prussia to see firsthand how it worked. After his return, "Mann lobbied heavily to have the Prussian Model adopted" in the U.S.

The Prussian Model is a centralized government-run-and-controlled tax-funded compulsory education system, which gives the government "a superior claim to the child over the rights of the parents."

"This was a radical departure in methodology and content from the successful traditional forms of education in America."

"The Prussian mind, which carried the day, held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1. Obedient soldiers to the army; 2. Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3. Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4. Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5. Citizens who thought alike on most issues; and 6. National uniformity in thought, word, and deed."

"Alexander's book clearly documented the totalitarian nature of the Prussian model..."

In short, "...the Prussian court attempted to instill social obedience in the citizens through indoctrination..."

It should be no surprise that after more than a century of escalating progressive leftist indoctrination, by the "Education Cartel," this country is no longer producing the free and independent citizens that are needed to save it from the crisis it now faces.

Millions of Americans are incapable of the independent thinking and reasoning needed to participate in a meaningful discussion of the kind of reforms that are so desperately needed in this country.

In addition, indoctrinated people become very comfortable being ruled by the "elites" and never question the orders that they receive from "on high." Aldous Huxley said it best in "Brave New World," when he wrote "...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude...."

Currently, there are two warring tribes battling to rule this country. Unfortunately, when the situation degenerates to this level, the indoctrinated are incapable of examining and understanding policies and issues, they just blindly follow their self-appointed "leaders," which leaves very little hope for a peaceful resolution.

totalitarianism is not American and does not belong in our schools

11 academic benefits of Natural Learning

In Natural Learning to University, Judy Arnall, a parenting expert and 'Natural Learning Instructor' to five kids, makes the case for ditching the classroom.

By Judy Arnall October 1, 2019

Photo: iStockPhoto

Many people ask, "How do kids pick up 12 grades of knowledge if they don't go to school or homeschool?" The answer is that children acquire knowledge through play, projects, volunteering, field trips and everyday life. They don't need to "catch up" because they are learning in a different way and much of it is invisible. When they get older, they may switch to a different track; one where all that accumulated knowledge is proven with gradable output such as exams, essays, presentations, and research projects. Here are 11 academic benefits that Natural Learning provides:
1. Critical thinking is encouraged

Large bureaucracies do not handle questioning well. They operate, by their very nature, on the contingent of obedience. If there are too many disrupters, they get bogged down and lose time and efficiency.

Critical thinkers are disruptive because they interrupt the prescribed flow of content delivery. Classroom dissenters are often dealt with by being sent to detention or shamed into silence.

All children should be critical thinkers. They should respectfully question everything they don't understand, from content to rules and regulations. Critical thinking is about gathering information, exposing embedded values and assumptions, breaking down data, and analyzing arguments.

Natural Learning promotes questions without punishment.
2. Problem solving is encouraged

When schools have problems, teachers, principals, and support staff are expected to solve them. Children are rarely consulted. Yet problem solving is the most valued among the top ten skills that employers seek. Most problem solving in the education system ignores the central stakeholder-the learner. Problems involving students are "solved" by using punishments and bribery, not by consulting and collaborating. Yet success in life is attained by solving problems. When win-win is always the goal, life becomes easier and healthier, with far less stress. In Natural Learning, children are free to practice problem solving.
3. Initiative and grit is encouraged

School is an institution; it must have rules, routines, policies, procedures, and permissions. To run efficiently, it must adhere to those elements above all other considerations, including personalized learning. A student who wishes to do something outside of the norm is often shut down because of "liability issues," or "safety concerns," or just plain "policy." The beauty of Natural Learning rests in its very lack of these constraints. If your son wants to make a potato print, let him! As long as it is safe, it can be done! Natural Learning allows for yeses, instead of "No, you can't do that. It's against our policy."
4. Natural Learning is multi-aged and interest-sorted

Children in schools are graded by age, not by interests or abilities. Thus, they are often corralled into the wrong group for their actual level with no movement for personalized learning.

If a child excels at math, she shouldn't be held back because of her age. If she needs to take years to learn a concept, she can. True personalized learning cannot be offered in same-grade classes. Learning must be as multi-age friendly as unschooling is.
5. No streaming or tracking

School children are sorted and ranked according to the government system's judgment and placement criteria at around age 15, or Grade 10, in North America; sooner in Europe. In some countries, children are streamed as early as age 10. This is wrong. Research consistently shows that children's brains do not develop their pre-frontal cortex and children do not develop their abstract thinking abilities until age 13 or 14. Thus, children are sorted even before they have demonstrated their capabilities.

When children use Natural Learning, they are not streamed until they apply and write the entrance exams for postsecondary courses.
6. Natural Learning can delve deep into a topic

In schools, topics are broad and diluted. Schools teach wide and shallow in order to give bits of everything to their students. The goal is maximum exposure; time constraints do not allow for deep, involved learning. Children become masters of tidbits and experts on nothing. Deeper learning must be done on their own time. Because there are so many topics, schools pick and choose. A child cannot possibly study every country in 12 years, so the system picks a few: Japan, Brazil, Peru, Greece. Why should the system choose? Why can the learner not choose?

Clearly, customization is the adult model. People are not masters of all topics. We specialize.

Most children don't know what they want to do in life when they finish high school. Many blindly enter college or university without having had time to pursue their passions. An engineer might have preferred to be a baker; a psychologist might have been happier as an artist; a teacher might have had a passion for welding.

When children need to know something, they can consult their mobile devices; information is readily available. What they need more is to focus on their true interests. In unschooling, students choose. They can go as deep as they wish, for as long as they want. Children have the time.
7. Natural Learners learn entrepreneurial skills

Schools can't teach how to run a business until university. Hence, many children may have art or products to sell, but not the business skills needed to do so. Success in business requires critical thinking, risk-taking, creative problem solving, communication skills, and initiative. Organization and record keeping require long hours, discipline, and responsibility. Success requires persistence-an unwavering faith in a product or service in the face of naysayers. Success requires making mistakes and learning from them; rejigging a model, idea, or product until it's perfect.

A bureaucracy such as school does not teach how to operate a business or how to succeed in a competitive environment. Schools barely touch on the topic of financial literacy-indispensable knowledge in today's world, regardless of a person's choice of career or profession.

Many young Natural Learners start businesses. They learn math, English, science, and social skills through the execution of the business.
8. Natural Learning eliminates cheating

The school system is the worst for drilling into kids the idea that mistakes are a bad thing. The entire system is based on grading to motivate kids, but in doing so, low grades punish them. On a test or project, they are not rewarded with marks for the effort they put in, nor is the quality of their learning assessed. They are marked negatively, on the basis of the mistakes they made. Ideally, all students should be marked and then given the chance to fix every marked item before the final assessment. That way, learning actually takes place and poor marks are not permanent.

The consequence of marking by punishing mistakes is that kids will cover up their mistakes. Covering up mistakes has unforeseen consequences that, at worst, can endanger lives-I don't want my child's brain surgeon to have cheated on her exams. Cheating is rampant in our schools. According to a survey of Canadian university and college students, 73 percent had cheated on written work in high school; 58 percent had cheated on a test. (CBC, 2016) When the majority of students cheat, something is wrong with the system.

In unschooling there are no marks, and thus, no competition for marks. There is nothing to cheat against.
9. Parents, teachers, and caregivers learn too

We must continue our learning and our enthusiasm for learning throughout our lives. When we set an example for our children by following our own pursuits, by being curious, or by taking adult education courses, we stoke their enthusiasm for learning. Unschooling models learning for its own enjoyment.
10. Children have more time to read

School children are required to read one novel in English per grade. That's it. My informal poll of home education parents of various ages revealed amazing reading habits. Homeschooled children read from 10 to 40 novels in a year. Why? Because they had free time. Reading enhances ideas, discussions, world knowledge and provides pleasure. With so many hours of free time, unschooled children tend to be voracious readers.
11. Sleep grows children's brains

Time for sufficient sleep is a physical benefit of unschooling, but it also contributes hugely to academic performance. The natural sleep rhythms of young children in elementary school are early-to-bed, early-to-rise, which works well for an early morning start to school. However, when children get older, their circadian rhythm shifts to later-to-sleep, later-to-wake. Adolescents are sleep deprived because of early-hour starts, a critical factor affecting in their performance in junior high and high school. University kids have somewhat more flexibility in scheduling their classes around their need for sleep.

We are at risk of high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, compromised immune systems and the propensity to gain weight when we don't get enough sleep.

Children who use Natural Learning can sleep in until noon or later. A full night's sleep benefits their developing brain cells. Kids eventually do have to prepare themselves for 8 a.m. workday starts, but not until they reach adulthood, when seven hours sleep a night is sufficient. When the time comes to adjust to a new schedule, they will.

Many of these benefits only exist when education is delivered outside of a big institution. We owe it to our children to provide the best form a education for them.

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