[p2p-research] On unschooling

[Kevin Carson]

On 4/27/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have to agree with Edward's feelings on this. Though I hated school
> myself, I experienced that one of my children did not fit well in an
> alternative and relatively unstructured school environment, and she wanted
> to join a more disciplined learning environment, where she thrived, and she
> was happy in public school all the way to graduation.

Michel, I understand that many people (like your daughter) may prefer
structured learning environments. In some cases I prefer that myself;
when I do so, the teacher or mentor becomes a sort of “hired
consultant” who is working for me, rather than vice versa. But I think
the important point is that your daughter’s preference of structure
over complete self-direction was a choice, and the central motivating
factor was still her own desire to learn rather than being subject to
someone else’s will.

I don’t have a problem at all with structure, as such, any more than I
have a problem deferring to the craft knowledge of a plumber or
electrician whose services I engage. In fact, I often browse through
college course catalogs online and use course syllabi as a guide to
studying subjects.

> I think the debate echoes the old left/right divide, the left assumes that
> people are naturally 'good', full of potential; the right that people are
> naturally enclined to evil, unless strong institutions guide them. Why not
> accept both truths, but above all create a system with broad freedom of
> school, so that unschoolers can unschool, alternative education methods can
> thrive, and those that prefer a disciplined method also have choices, with
> the partner state authorities imposing only a minimal skillset requirement,
> to insure equality of opportunity for all.

I agree.

> Like Edward, I would not trust that every human being would want to
> naturally do the effort of learning, and also that especially those living
> in less privileged social situations, would get larger doses of assistance.

I think we're blurring two different distinctions.  An individual
learner may prefer structure and deferring to someone else's guidance,
and still be the primary agent in choosing to learn.  A case where the
person simply does not want to do the effort of learning at all is an
entirely different thing, and I have to wonder how constructive their
learning experience can be (at least beyond the bare essentials of
language and math skills), if they're forced to learn against their
will.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html