Do we need an alternative school system?

Reflections from TED talk

 Hackschooling Makes Me Happy by Logan LaPlante

Watching this video I confirmed the following:

·       We adults can learn a lot from kids. They have a lot to offer as they can more easily think outside the box. A box they have not yet entered. Sometimes I feel we are wasting their resources. A few centuries ago we only made them use their muscles to work. Now we make them use their brains while they don’t work. Shouldn’t we make their brains work? As a secondary school teacher I often try to provide open-ended activities so that students can use their creativity. Sometimes they surprise me with alternatives I had not thought about.

·       We all have different values in life, but since many of us wants to be happy, should we not provide an education system that enhances that? As I secondary school teacher I try to remind myself that most students just want to be happy. However, I often find it difficult to plan activities that combine a progress in the curriculum and their desire to be happy.

·       Many Schools and teachers have used the benefits from innovation, but this has not reached public knowledge. The reason Mrs. LaPlante took Logan away from school is simply because she could not find a suitable school for him. I agree that Logan is not the type of kid that would like to sit and do as told, but many of us teachers don’t make kids do that, or at least not the whole time. Logan has interests which differ from the regular curriculum designed to help him “find a good job”, but his idea of a good job is very different to that of some politicians’ (deciding the curricula to be followed) or the parents (choosing school). In my experience as an international schoolteacher I have come across many students who could do much better if they/their parents had chosen a different educational path, more appropriate for them. Higher education is not always the best option.

·       Many parents remove their children from schools… instead of finding a better school. Logan seems to be succeeding in his education. But this is not a surprise as he has in his educational pot all the best ingredients: motivation to succeed in his goals, intelligence (logical, emotional and social), supportive parents (with plenty of dedicated time form him) and resources (his educational path seems to be quite expensive). Any school with these ingredients AND a flexible curriculum not limited by the sole objective of finding a job with a high salary could have helped him in a more socially-rich environment. The interaction between students that I often see in my classes makes me believe that schools can enhance education, especially for creative children like Logan.

·       Kids are different. Following Logan’s analogy of using different paths when skiing, I would like to say that in the schools that I have worked, I have found many kids who want to go off-piste, but others just want to be driven along the main routes sometimes. I have many students who complain that I don’t lecture them enough. They often get tired of the guided freedom I give them to explore some of the educational paths available, but they just want to be told what to do. They have no interest in “hacking” through their education, even thought that they are given plenty of opportunities. There are so many schools around. Shouldn’t we try to make them all different so that they can cater for different learning styles?