black board, white chalk

Image source can be found here.

This interesting search concept was inspired by Scott at Dangerously Irrelevant. While I didn’t get as extensive a list, I did get a somewhat similar one. However, Liz says that the Google search may be meaningless, while others have piped in that perhaps the “school makes me…” starting point is misleading.

While I try to be careful not to make generalizations of what schools are doing, as there are some awesome schools, teachers and systems in place, there is also a reality that we need to recognize: education in America is reaching points of desperation requiring some serious overhaul. If you don’t believe this then you’re schooling with blinders on. That’s the reality. And reformers in education and learning did not come up with this using a Google search.

But let’s go back to this specific Google search and our game of semantics using the starter “schools make me…” The starter is not misleading and for many, as one comment on Scott’s blog mentioned, if all schools were doing it right, then “schools make me…” should render these results,

empowered
knowledgeable
feel important
be creative
hungry for more
think outside the box
the person I want to be
see other sides and opinions
believe in myself
yearn to make a difference

But they don’t.

Another twist on this is a what “school allows me…” search which renders slightly different results and more on the positive.

But I honestly have an issue with what schools “allow” me because it reeks very strongly of education done to me as opposed to me being an active participant in my own educational and learning process. See the problem?

Others tried Google searches of “education is” or “learning is” with more positive results: education is the great equalizer, the key to success, is freedom, the passport to the future, etc. It makes you think: does that mean education and learning are not connected to schooling? Hmmm.

So given all this, what were your results? What does school really make you? Or allow you to be?

~ by Omaira on March 14, 2013.

Posted in Alternative Education, Authentic Education, Vision
Tags: afterschool, aims, children, connections, control, education policy, homeschooling, soulful education, student needs, teacher training, teaching methodology, unschooling, youth