Are schools becoming obsolete?

[CarmenSanDiego]

It's a provocative question, but I'm really beginning to wonder what purpose traditional schools are there to serve.

The adult world is a complex place and there are many paths one can take. You could be a manicurist or a gardener, a lawyer or a doctor, a housewife or an entrepreneur. Or several of these things.

There is an assumption that schools should 'prepare' children. But for what, and how?

Now, I realise that parents may have to work and money and resources are limited, but I'm pondering on the whole concept and whether education needs revolutionising.

I withdrew my children from school a few months ago. I didn't really want to do it but now am actually amazed how easy it has been. We're following an online curriculum and I love how the lessons are very specific and to the point, with particular learning goals for each one. We get through maths and English quickly each morning and then have the rest of the day to pootle around with science, history, music or whatever we fancy.

School seems more of a continuum of practicing and rehashing work. It seems a slow way of learning when today's kids are very fast - able to zoom through internet sites and learn about a range of topics very quickly, zooming in and out on what interests them.

I'm also amazed at just how much time is wasted in school - all the nonsense that is inherent in the school culture - uniforms, PTA squabbles, disputes over healthy lunchboxes, bullying, peer pressure, proms etc. and having just read about the teacher who was taunted and cracked under the stress, there is an element of dehumanisation about schools - teachers aren't seen as people by pupils. PSHE doesn't even touch what you can learn by talking about the news and engaging with the real world and with people of different ages rather than just the dynamics of your own age group.

It interests me that children are often seen as unengaged at school. I remember being so bored and zoning out in lessons, yet as an adult able to choose my own method of learning, I haven't stopped studying. My children seem to be the same - they learn without even thinking about it or planning it, they just follow their interests. They're most engaged when it's a project they like whether it be dinosaurs, computer programming or a dance show.

I think the ideal is a system where children can somehow pick and choose their learning. I love the US system of summer day camps where children can do pretty much anything they like for a week at a time - golf, horseriding, chemistry or dinosaurs.

How do we decide what is important? Why does understanding the formulas for gravity take precedence over being able to compose a song or design a web application or bake and decorate a fantastic cake? Why should children learn French or German? Why can't they do Japanese?

I really think we need to move towards some kind of system where children can follow their interests and start rethinking school - rather than it being such an incestuous artificial environment, it should be more flowing and community based. I think this would lead to a happier, more productive society in the long run. Am I mad?

I question this a lot. I like my children's school (it's a typical state primary with lots of exciting stuff going on all the time and a good mix of ethnic groups).

However, the holidays are better!

I was always very struck by home schooling but didn't want to be part of a very small group of people doing homeschooling. Plus I have to work. (And therefore need childcare)

But, even the most liberal schools seem to have odd rules; I mean, why wear school uniform?

However, my dd's school now has no playtime rules and they are allowed to hang ropes off trees to make swings, play with 'scap' and build dens.

The californian system sounds brilliant.

Even when I was at achool myself, I was baffled by the system. Why on earth do they think that all kids of the same age will be the same ability? Why, if you are good at one type of maths, will you be good at others? WHY on earth did I spend hours and hours listening to other kids read the set book out loud as a teenager instead of discussing it?

I really worry about my kids education. I have compromised and said they can start school, but on the proviso that they be allowed to switch to HE if it doesn't work out. I would give my eye teeth to have a HE resource centre nearby where they could go for the odd group lesson (nearest is a good hour by bus away) because then I could give them what I believe is the best education.

ButterPie, I am baffled by your experience. Is this the norm here in the UK? My experience is different. Pupils were able to select the maths class they took after geometry, and English classes were discussion based starting from the age of 10.

As I said before, I don't think that schools are obsolete. They can be amazing and HE isn't the solution after a point because the interaction with informed, involved teachers and the dynamics of interstudent learning is invaluable.

I don't know if mine was an unusual expierience, my memories of school are of being bored, being punished for asking questions and of being constantly...well, it wasn't bullying because that implies one child was doing it, it was just that the entire school just seemed to dislike me.

I remember a teacher ripping up my exercise book in front of the entire class and ridiculing me, saying that if I was so clever (I had just come top of the year group in some test or other) then I should be able to write neatly. I was a dyspraxic 11 year old at the time.

I did quite well in physics, even though I was constantly being told that the questions I was asking were not the right ones for that stage, and the teachers response was to put his arms round me and tell the entire class that I would probably, if I worked really hard, be able to be a physics teacher like him one day. With that presented as the ultimate prize, combined with the ridicule of the class, I soon learned to start answering questions wrong on purpose.

In fact, I used to do that in most tests, answer a few questions wrong, after learning how much rubbish I would get for the slightest slip up if I was top of the class. I got endless (as in it was rare for me to leave school at the same time as the others) detentions for messy work, being "clever" (ie asking questions or trying to bring in my own reading to the discussion), forgetting things, not trying hard enough (again, mostly based on the things that I still find hard such as sequencing and co-ordination. No effort was made to find out if I was having trouble, even though I ended up pretty severely depressed, they just put me in a side room away from any sharp things).

I am not some kind of genius, I just didn't fit the mould for state school in the 1990's. I scraped 8 GCSEs (mainly though two teachers really helping when they realised what a state I was in, luckily the last month before the coursework deadline was a month of me being super productive, so I passed) and went to sixth form college, but by the end of the first year I was working and studying with the OU, which suited me far better.

sigh I just think that most of school was a bit of a failiure for me. I think (and hope) that I was the exception to the rule, that I just slipped through the net, that things are better now, but I SWEAR that my girls will not have to go through that crap. I will move heaven and earth to make sure they get a good education, not so much to chase some bizarre tickbox of "sucess" (although obvioulsy I would like it if they did well) but so they can see the joy I have now discovered in learning and in life. If that means school, fine. If they suit a more flexible, home based education, also fine.

School just seemed to waste so much time. So much lining up, waiting, going over things for the people who didn't get it first time (why do this with the whole class?), copying out, colouring in (seriously, we had to do colouring in for our Geography GCSE, I remember being told I wouldn't get good marks if I left any white bits), filling in gaps, and so on. When you have to miss your lunch if you want to find out what to study to do the higher exam (ie the only way of getting an A) something is wrong.

My old schools all got excellent ofsted reports and are heavily oversubscribed, btw.