Introduction (English Version)
(regresar a la versión en español)
Education beyond schools
My name is Mario González. I am a citizen of this world, a husband and a parent. As many of you did, I spent most of my first twenty years in school settings. It is hard to imagine my life without schools. It is even harder since, later on, I became a school teacher myself. Though I’m not a school teacher anymore, I still teach from time to time out of the system.
I guess being a teacher is more my fate than my pick. That is probably the only job that, for me, it is not a job at all. I think that “teaching and learning” is something so natural that you can’t even escape from it – even if you wanted to. I agree with many that “education” is both the problem and the solution to overcome poverty, violence and many other effects of mental slavery and ignorance.
Many of us have struggled looking for better ways to educate ourselves. And when we become parents, we make sure to find a way to bring up our children within a safe and productive environment. We all try to find the best school we can afford to send our children, but unfortunately, most of us cannot afford the quality of education we want. So we just do the best we can with what we believe is all that we’ve got.
This question I post today: Is there any other way? Is there? Anyone?
Of course there is… and not only one. We just have to think out of the box.
When I met my wife, she introduced me into an alternative educational paradigm known as “homeshooling”. Before we got married, we discussed about the way we would bring up and educate our future kids. She believed in homeschooling and she wanted to know my views on the subject. As soon as I learned the basics of this educational paradigm, I said to myself: “No way, Jose.” “This thing is for freaks!”. Then, I got into learning more about homeschooling and unschooling. I read about it and met a few families already doing so. I pondered the benefits and risks of this family educational approach. I thought and thought, and thought about it, over and over again. At last… I became a freak myself.
I have three little young men and they will not go to school. At least, not to kindergarten, elementary school or high school. You may be thinking, “Poor kids!” “Anyone stop those freaks!”. That is because you need information. Of course, there are important issues you should carefully watch, such as: academic development, socialization, certifications, etc.; however, the benefits of not taking our three kids to school are for us clear and superb.
I will list the most important reasons why we chose to educate ourselves and our kids in a supraschooling way (that’s the way we call it).
1. Every adult and every kid is different. As humans we share many things. But we do not share everything. Every individual has personal goals to achieve in life. Schooling seeks to produce “standard people”- at least until High school. Children are supposed to learn the same subjects, the same way, at the same pace, from the same sources. And still, schools dramatically fail to do so. In Mexico, no matter where you went to school, everything is about memorization, so only a few nerds remember 20% of what they learned in the classrooms. Now, experts in education are starting to realize that kids (since a very young age) are interested in learning different things, and that they all have different learning styles, and that they require a different pace to achieve full learning. As a former Berlitz language instructor, I became aware of how effective 1 to 1 teaching is compared to group learning. I am not saying that group learning does not work. I am simply stating that if group learning is all you have… then you are screwed!
2. The center of the learning activity is the Learner. Observing young children makes us quickly understand, that as humans, we are curious to know and explore the world around us. Every kid is full of curiosity and passion about learning -until they are put into a school classroom. “Open your books on page 54, let’s read about the French revolution” – all you want to know as a seven-year old is how that spider managed to build the web on top of your teacher’s desk. “Pepe, open your book! You will ask that question to your biology teacher when you reach Junior high” – and Pepe is afraid of passing that awful History test and never getting the chance to ask.
If we only gave us a chance to believe in true spontaneous learning, we would all become self-taught productive individuals. Believing that you need a teacher so you can be transferred his or her knowledge to your brain in order to become educated, makes no sense at all. This is a time where 99.9 per cent of what I was supposed to learn at school is in my iphone. The most important skills I have developed do not come from school. I learned those by myself. I wish I had had more time to become better in what I wanted to, and not in what others told me it was more important. At the end of your schooling journey, all you get is a piece of paper that reads that you are a college graduate – ready to join the list of unemployed professionals. Anyone with any small business, running well, is better off than a new college graduate.
3. Better chances for socialization. One of the first objections to homeschooling or unschooling (I hope “supraschooling” too) have to do with socialization. “How are the kids going to socialize if they do not go to school?” “You freaks!!”. Well, the answer to that, is simple. There are more interesting people to meet out of school that there is inside. Not taking your children to school does not mean that you have to lock them up in your house. It only means, that they will not be locked up in the classroom with other 30 imprisoned youngsters. Teenagers often have trouble socializing with younger and older people. Their life is, in most of the cases, pretty superficial and nonproductive. If children do not go to school, they can make better use of their time. They can have different kind of jobs, study many kind of courses and be free to learn whatever serves to help them achieve their life purpose. You can make lots of friends in different environments and you will learn how to deal with all kinds of people at an early age. You will be learning about the world in the world and not learning about the world in a classroom.
With all these thoughts, I just want to motivate people to dare trying different solutions for old problems. Being creative requires the ability to see what others can’t in the same situation. Supraschooling education is an exciting pathway to go and my family and I will walk in that direction. As pioneers we encounter many difficulties and high risks. We hope others can follow a smoother and better way after us. Fortunately, we are not the very first ones to start; but in Mexico, education without schools is like speaking of God without religion. We need brave people who undertake problems in their own hands and start walking against those pessimistic voices that we all hear around. Take you stand and walk firmly!
Mario González Hernández – Guadalajara, México (April, 24 2010)
mario.gonzalez@supraschooling.com