compulsion/compulsory
I believe that the contemporary crisis of education demands that we review the very idea of publicly prescribed learning rather than the methods used in its enforcement. – Illich
Rather than trying to motivate youth to learn our common core curriculum through shiny things, like gaming, or fancy technology, or the latest tools, or project based learning, etc, let’s call into question our presumption that we must teach certain things. Let’s allow for just in time learning. Rather than scale innovations for specific learnings, perhaps we scale the individual.
It is hard to imagine welding equipment in most American elementary school classrooms, and indeed as long as schools are compulsory and therefore subject to all kinds of lawsuits if children get hurt, it is easy to understand their not allowing welding. – Holt
Partial freedom is no freedom. – Krishnamurti
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Compulsion and ownership (intellectual property) seem to be two ginormous roadblocks to betterness. They are eating us alive. We are not being careful.. and we are missing it.
Compulsion keeps us liable – and so we lose/forfeit/compromise trust. If something is compulsory, I can blame the compulser – for whatever outcomes come. [ie: Field trips are risky, if they are part of compulsory school.] So doing simple/important things either become so difficult and costly, they rarely happen, or they are banned all together. Too risky. [lean into your children for one week. listen deeply. see if playing it safe is worth it.] Perhaps we try out non-compulsory public ed. Imagine.
Compulsion keeps us busy – and so we lose/forfeit/compromise the day. Compulsion gets us caught up in the specificities of non-prove-ables. Compulsion keeps us scared. Scared of the enforcement of said non-prove-ables. What if we don’t get the money/resources/accolades, because we didn’t do what we were told. Not only do we spend our days laboring over creating/reading/delivering precautionary paperwork/legalities, afraid of doing anything risky, we figure out ways (often ingenious, always treacherous ) to manifest proof of mandates/compulsions/assumed responsibility. We spend vast amounts of time/money/people/resources on bowing to compulsion. Perhaps we try out non-compulsory – city as school.
It’s all about mindset. no?
What keeps you up at night. Why do you do what you do?
Are you/we doing what matters?
Let’s not miss it.
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via Cevin Soling‘s documentary – War on Kids..
via Cevin: on suicide -the horrors compulsion perpetuates – 1 in 12 have attempted suicide and 1 in 6 seriously consider suicide
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Charles Eisenstein (@ceisenstein) tweeted at 6:00 AM on Wed, May 23, 2018:
Control breeds its own necessity. When human beings are boxed in, surveilled, scheduled, assigned, classed, and compelled, they rebel in all kinds of ways, sometimes irrational or even violent. Ah, we think, we need to control these people.
(https://twitter.com/ceisenstein/status/999258673124868096?s=03)
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be you. 