By JESSE SCACCIA
I got up just before dawn this morning. I went to Samuel’s shack and knocked lightly at the door.
“Hey, you up man?”
The ruffling of his pile of wool blankets, but no answer.
“Samuel. Get up. We have to leave in ten minutes.”
The door opened slowly. Samuel, faced still creased with sleep, nodded at me.
“You’ve got work today,” I reminded him. “We can’t be late.”
The mention of work brought life to his face. He smiled, then turned to quickly dress.
Samuel isn’t that bright. (Not all of us all.) His natural lack of scholastic aptitude was compounded by his horrible home life and own drug problems. No matter how hard anyone tried, Samuel wasn’t going to make it through high school, no less college.
But now Samuel has a job at the butcher’s.
More importantly: now Samuel had pride.
We push too many people through the education system even when the system will do them no practical benefits. In the case of someone like Samuel, being forced to go to school does spiritual damages, causing his self-esteem and sense of place within his peer-group community to vanish.
It’s almost punitive, the way we push our non-scholastically minded teenagers through the system. It so often does them harm, and the alienation they feel from their peers, and lack of positive feedback from teachers and administrators, actually makes them more likely to float to the fringes of society, where drugs and crimes dominate each day’s lesson plan.
Of course I believe in school. I’m a teacher. But it isn’t for everyone, and to say it is is to have the kind classist, bourgeouis-centric mentality that is the root of many of our ignorances.
Now that we’re near the end of the school year many of us will face students saying that their desire is to drop out. Before you encourage that student to come back, hear him or her out. Sometimes it’s okay to drop-out; while it might not be the best choice for the student, it can be the right choice for the young adult.
Like the New York Times said this weekend, it’s okay to work with your hands.
I absolutely agree. As educators, we get the idea in our heads that school is the most important place in the world, the only place where kids can learn. The sad truth is there is that way too often there’s a whole lot more learning going on outside of our doors than inside and the type of education some of these kids need isn’t going to come from us. What our students really need is a supportive, guiding adult to help them find the path that’s best for them. That may or may not include finishing school. For some, it may be leaving early and coming back later. That’s what it was for me. I was a good student, who hated the structure of school and felt no support from most of my teachers. So, I left after my junior year. Now I’m a National Board certified teacher with ten years of experience. I feel I have a special rapport with kids who are the way I was. I understand why they don’t like school and I see THEM, not just a curriculum that I need to cover. Sometimes the “out” door is the “in” door to the place we belong.
Hey Jesse–maybe some people would be happier out of the system learning on thier own…doing school/work/hobbies at home? hmm….
Wait! Are you the same guy who did the homeschool post? Are you sure?
I *agree* with this post… fancy that!
How ironic that you are behind this concept, yet have such a dim view of Homeschooling. You’d better reconcile, or “Revise”, your arguments, Teacher!
You are quite an interesting person…I can’t believe this is written by the same person I wrote off as a close minded, ignorant, and ag….well never mind, this post has given me a little bit of a different impression.
I happen to agree with you 100% on this one!
I think you will find many homeschoolers do.
I don’t think there is a one size fits all method of learning life skills. Homeschool is a great solution for many. Public school works well for many as well, as does private school. In many cases formal education of any means may not work for some who would benefit more from a vocational program.
May I suggest you really research homeschooling a bit more with an open mind before you completly form your opinion? I think you may surprise yourself with your findings.
There are great homeschools and some who are doing so in name only and disgrace us all. Just as there are some wonderful public schools and innovative charter and alternative schools.
I suspect you may just like to debate, argue and insult for kicks, but as an educator who truly seems to care about what you do and your students I would think you would be interested in learning more of all alternative schooling methods.
Do you have children yet? Who knows…maybe one day you’ll be one of us! YIKES!
Tara B
No kids yet, but I thought of that today… after the crapstorm of the last couple days, I’m probably destined to end up homeschooling.
And you know what? If my thinking evolves that much that I do a 180 and homeschool, I’d be proud of myself. That’s the spirit of this site, actually: to never be sure you’re Right, to always be revising.
Yes Jesse, that in fact is why I enjoy your site. I think that some of the qualities that we desperately need in teachers today include a desire to find most up to date viewpoints on the subjects they teach, examine them critically and compare them to the latest facts, and pass this on to the students… in the spirit of discovery and investigation, not telling children how to think. This is America, and if people think that showing up in some building with a group of other people to worship some “unprovable” deity is stupid, or a waste of their life, or even damaging to humanity, they are free to say so. If they cross the line and start unlawfully harrassing these people, the law should be applied, and they should be prosecuted for their actions, not their viewpoints. The same goes for the teachers union VS school choice debate. Americans need to be free to express their views and live their lives accordingly. I strongly support the right of people who want to point out their view of homeschooling, however negative it may be, just as much as I support the right of people to share their views of the public school system.
As an open minded “life learner” American, I plan on continuing to share my own views, seek out the views of others, and revise my opinions when new facts and considerations emerge. Right now, just like you, I do not claim to know where I will send my children to get an education. I have a set of principles in mind, including the idea that even if I homeschool my children through elementary school I would like to let them choose their method of schooling in middle school and high school for themselves, so that they will take greater ownership of their own education.
Good luck with your continuing journey of discovery and taking a look at a diversity of views on the subjects you post about on this site… I’m sure I’ll enjoy sharing a good part of it.
Fight the power, Benjamin, fight the powers that be.
(Thanks, brother.)
Okay, you’re right about the forceful nature of today’s public education system, but the kids dropping out or being “at risk” aren’t just kids who aren’t intellectually competent for the higher levels of modern society. Gifted kids bored and fed up with school, or kids with great potential, yet struggling with problems outside of school are leaving school due to dissatisfaction. Most schools of this time fail to meet individual needs. The more appropriate strategy in my problem in my opinion, would be to counsel the student to see what’s really going on with them – to understand what is causing them to distance themselves from traditional school. The following options could be:
therapy if the student is stressed
special programs tailored to the students needs and abilities
Homeschool
Independent study
skipping a grade
going to a democratic school: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_school
and as a last resort, dropping out and completing the G.E.D.
We need our janitors and bus drivers and such – people who just didn’t make it – because that’s the place we live in. But to just let go over every child that requests this, assuming that they weren’t smart enough anyway, is incorrect.
Id just like to thank Jesse for taking the time to open a real discussion on this issue. I am a 25 year old home owner who works in a brand name “customer service escalations department” (when you call up this company’s customer service and say “I demand to speak to a manager!” you get me). I am a college dropout; I didn’t feel like going $24-80k in debt to have someone else tell me what I should be studying, what I should be writing about, and what opinions I should hold about the world in order to get a passing grade for the purpose of credentialing. Please don’t even get me started on the illegality of IQ tests for the purposes of employment. Because I actually care about and enjoy a variety of subjects, I purchase and read a large number of non-fiction books, watch C-SPAN, read large volumes of scientific, economic, historical, philosophical, and other types of informational material online. Sure, I was homeschooled for part of junior high… I am ADD and school bored me so badly that my teachers in elementary school couldn’t motivate me to do the busy work to get good grades. Sure, I was part of the first graduating class of Woodland Christian High School; in fact I was the “principals pet”, T.A.’d his Honor’s Chemistry class my senior year (I would catch his minor errors/word flips when he lectured) and preached in chapel one morning in front of 200 or so of my peers. Sure, I got a 1350 on my SATs (back when it meant something) and a 95 on my ASVAB. And I still laugh because my principal begged all of us students to “do something with our education, don’t just go get a burger flipper job”… and I proceded to work as a security guard for 8 months, followed by 4 1/2 years of working at McDonalds. I’ve always been a leader in my workplace… I enjoy working with a “diversity” of individuals. I see the value in people like myself interacting with “those less fortunate than myself”… I’ve given hundred of rides to work to co-workers who were too irresponsible to own cars. I’ve given important life advice to people I meet playing online games like World of Warcraft, inspiring these people to ditch their current “barrier to success”… I can think of a number of people who I inspired to quit using/selling drugs, and get a “real” (legal) job or an education. I’m a “go to” guy at work who saves large amounts of money for the company I work for… many times the amount I’m paid, and I spend a lot of time helping out my fellow employees and educating them on how they can best serve the company in their positions. I feel you on the value of diversity, I really do.
This is why I think that it’s so key that you bring up the fact that not everyone needs what the public school system has to offer. I’m not going to take up space talking about the success of home schoolers I know, as there are other articles that people have posted volumes of replies to. My concern is that in my brief stint in college, there wasn’t a healthy respect for diversity of opinion. There was one right answer. Diversity was individuals showing up wearing ethnic clothing, or having different colors of skin. Yay. Congratulations for bringing your skin to school. But when it cames to topics that have a lively debate outside of the classroom, there was only one right answer: the liberal one.
Are public schools the best place to get an education: “Of course they are, we are actually public school teachers ourselves.”
Does government involvement in people’s lives make their lives better? “Of course it does… the government is run by the brightest minds in our country, and they will be default have the best solutions available for our problems, and will be able to secure the funds for execution without being swayed by the interests of big corporations.”
If you are a patriot who believes in the United STATES of America, and believes in states rights and that America was well designed because it can have different laws in different states to suit the wishes of the populations of these various (and often culturally very diverse) states… wouldn’t it be a reasonable statement to say that you would have fought on the side of the south in the civil war? (When we studied the Civil War in college level “American History” the teacher didn’t even touch on the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t actually free a single slave, as it only declared as free the slaves living in the counties not controlled by the Union.)
I could go on for hours talking about the lack of tolerance for the diversity of views that people have, or the way that most schools, public or private, tend to “smooth over the facts” to convey certain messages… suffice it to say that because people are different, there is no “one size fits all” program for learning, and that submitting oneself to a program that acts as such is inadequate as an “education”, and that trusting such a program as a “compass in life” instead of seeking out the truth for yourself will guarantee that you will be submerged in ignorance and falsehoods. Even and ESPECIALLY in a public school setting.
Thank you so much Jesse for opening this can of worms… I’m hoping that your site can shine some light on the hoodwinking of American youth, and the indoctrination that passes for education these days.
P.S. I was raised a non-denominational Christian… I am still a firm believer in “God”, in the sense that the more I study science, the more impractical it seems that what the universe contains now happened at random. On the other hand, I must admit I’m less trusting of the writings of a bunch of dead guys who claim to speak for him.
Holy marshmallows, Batman! I agree with you! ^_^
Why you think dropping out is okay but homeschooling is not, though…that confuses me.
Good to see real eperxtise on display. Your contribution is most welcome.
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