In the past, parents have put very little thought into how their children would be educated, and many of them have thoughtlessly put their trust in government schooling. However, times are slowly beginning to change, as more parents are turning towards homeschooling, unschooling and alternative education paths.
According to figures released by The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, the number of home-schooled students in the U.S. rose from 1.09 million in 2003 to 1.77 million by 2012, a 62% increase.
Proper education is a necessary part of our advancement on this earth. If we are not able to create a better learning environment for our children then they will be doomed to repeat the same madness that came before them. However, the whole structure of the government education system is damaging, traumatizing, and completely unnecessary, and it was never even relevant to begin with.
Given the right conditions to grow a child’s mind would be able to do incredible things, but they will become thoughtless drones if they are forced into a strict regimen where they are not able to think creatively and freely.
We must develop an education paradigm which celebrates creativity and individuality and actually works to educate, instead of indoctrinate. This is why now more than ever parents are choosing to take matters into their own hands and homeschool their children or use alternative education centers.
Homeschooling is still frightening to a lot of people because the idea of sending children off to a state institution for 12 years has become so deeply ingrained in western culture, even though the government is obviously a horrible candidate for a babysitter. However, this is actually a relatively new practice and literacy rates have actually plummeted since the government got involved in education and forced parents to send their children to specific schools by law. That’s not to say that organized group learning isn’t a valuable thing, but there’s no need for government involvement for organized group learning to take place.
Many of the alternative learning centers popping up worldwide have adopted the Montessori Method of education which to some extent allows children to direct their own path in learning. This method is named after and was developed by an Italian educator and physician by the name of Maria Montessori. Her work rested upon the idea that when given freedom and independence children will grow into far more responsible adults and will have a continued interest in learning. Montessori took what she knew about developmental psychology and applied that to her work with children and had great success with improving the outlook and learning abilities of her students. There are many affordable options available for parents who don’t want to put their children through government schools and even more options will develop as more people begin to understand the disadvantages of state education.
John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.
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