Fwd: Re: [LearningCommunities] transforming education

[Harrison Owen]

The subject of transforming education seems to be getting a good ply on
some other electronic venues. So I pass this along to those who might care.
I will try to take care of the inter-change (if any)

Harrison


>User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022
>Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 09:48:13 -0500
>Subject: Re: [LearningCommunities] transforming education
>From: ellis <tranet at rangeley.org>
>To: <LearningCommunities at yahoogroups.com>
>CC: <owenhh at mindspring.com>,
>         <alan at klein.net>,
>         <mishek at hotmail.com>
>
>Thanks Harrison, Michael, Alan and others.  This is the first serious
>discussion of what this list is all about we've had for some time. It is
>very much in tune with our prupose for being.  And it starts very close to
>where we started.  But I will add a few caveates in below.
> >
> > Subject: Transforming Education
>BE:
>A minor point but a serious concept as, Dr. Roland Meighan often points out.
>Our topic is not "education" but "learning."  Education is something one
>individual does to another, learning is an act of self volition. Schools
>educate by teaching.  Deschooling society, as Ivan Illich suggests, is
>eliminating the school/educate/teach syndrome.
>
> > Open Space is founded on the notion of
> > "Self-Organizing Systems". Specifically on the notion that ALL systems are
> > self-organizing and that we do damage to them by trying to control them
> from
> > without.
>BE:
>"Spontaneous self-organization at the edge of chaos" was the topic of my
>1998 E.F.Schumacher Lecture that used homeschooling as one example.  I
>speculatged that HSing are the cells that are spontaneously linking and
>self-organizing could form a radically differen universal system of
>learning.
>My question here is do we really damage them by tryng to control them?
>I agree that they will happen spontaneously without guidance, like the
>weather happens.  But IMHO we can help them happen by providing the right
>social cells and helping to stimulate links.  But I agree that it will
>happen if we staned out of the way.  That is how all evolution happens. It
>is a search for bettter ways of doing things and is ruled by survival of the
>fittest. If a better system is allowed to evolve society will evolve with
>it.
>
>
> > - What if schools were formed as consciously self-organizing systems.
>BE:
>The very concept of schools, and certainly government controlled schools,
>destroy the concept of open and free learning.
>   A better learning system will spontaneously self-organize if allowed, but
>not if government maintains standards and control.
>
> > - What if all participants (parents, staff, and students) were given
> > equal, democratic power and rights within the school?
> > - What if students of all ages were recognized as responsible for their
> > own learning?
> > - What if this meant that there were no mandated classes, tests, or
> > other externally imposed requirements?
> > - What if the only requirement for graduation is to defend (to the
> > entire school community) the thesis that you are ready to take
> responsibility
> > for yourself in the outside world?
>BE:
>The idea of "graduation" destroys your other good points.  Who is to decide
>when someone should graduate. This requires some set of standards, tests,
>and control.  Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Thomsa Edison
>and may others did not rely on graduation to becom valuable members of
>society.
>The concept of graduation made some sense in the days when one could gain
>the skills and knowledge needed for a life long job.  As Peter Drucker,
>Barry Carter and others have pointed out for the coming age it will be
>impossible to "graduate."  Instead society will need a lifelong learning
>system.
>
> > There are a few schools that operate in this way aound the US as well
> > as other places on the planet. What is your reaction to this way of
> > organizing education? What concerns arise in you? What excitements
> arise? What
> > questions occur to you?
>BE:
>In its book and website 'A Coalition for Self-Learning" has tried to list
>such organizations in its "Resource Section," and invites unique learning
>organizations to describe their mission, history and organization in "New
>Chapters" in the online version of "Creating LearningCommunities."
>     We have found none.
>
>Would Alan, Harison, Michael, or anyone else like to write a "New Chapter"
>of 2500 words or so on  Self-organized Shools  ???
>
>Bill Ellis
>    <www.CreatingLearningCommunities.org>

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20011228/534eb70f/attachment-0016.htm>