Weapons of Mass Instruction an essay on Emily's journey

The book by John Taylor Gatto published in 2009, was inspiring and eye-opening to my own condition.  My takeaway from the read was two-fold: 1) compulsory schooling including school regulation & huge bureaucracy that subsequently formed is harmful to the education of children . 2) Standardized testing as a measure of the system's success fails the all-around child by labeling them & holding them to mature identically.

He postulates with many examples & sources that what has made America great is under attack, and that by removing children from the influence of family and life education for most of every day to be schooled by strangers, they are ultimately being trained to obedient subservient life to "the man".  What made America great was our ingenuity, our independent thinking, our natural curiosity & problem solving.  Additionally he surmises that by extending the schooling years & thus "childhood" of our youth from seven years or so, to twelve, our young people are more immature and at the end still need time to find themselves, because they have merely been following a path set out by some compulsory power.

It is extremely worth reading. 

The alternative is basically some version of homeschooling.  Kids with their parents, being raised to learn through life's lessons, and the feedback (negative or positive) of life experience.  Even "doing school at home" may still create a workbook student, who can test, but not learn on their own.  He encourgages engaging student interest in their own learning by following their current passions with volunteer projects etc.

I for one do not see why students should have so many high school years.  Hormones raging but not old enough to marry and do something about them.

It opened my eyes to my journey.  In the last ten years I have been educating myself on the subjects of life and hobbies.  I thought when I finished college I would be done with school.  From college I learned that falling asleep in chapel has a direct correlation to staying up late socializing the night before.  I made wonderful friends, and then we all got married and moved away...to have our lives.  I began my education in Israel on a living in the land semester.  I studied hard, I worked hard, I was independent, and I got 100% on fill in tests!  I finally earned a grade instead of learning and working the school system.  School is about going through the motions.  Education is embracing  learning, propelling exploration!

In the last few years I have been learning to cook.  Deeply immersing myself in stacks of books from the library about organic farming, seasonal eating, healthy eating, vegetarianism, veganism and getting vegetables into kids.  We have eaten at Indian restaurants and tried to learn about their foods.

I taught myself to knit, or rather an elderly Asian woman at a craft-store class and a five year old Ryan, on a library video, taught me.  As a reference I have a pocket knitting for dummies booklet.  I learned mostly that unless it's sentimental to knit something, it is incredibly cheaper in materials and time to buy what you need.  So much for off the grid!

I investigated having pet chickens, but this is on hold.  Once again, more expensive than just buying eggs.

Throughout my marriage I have read books and attended conferences together to educate ourselves better about this opposite self.  Financial classes,  communication seminars, dance lessons!

Lately, massage therapy-is this a good career for me and is it still going to be after I pay $8000 and 8-12 months of my life investing in it?

And physically, I will have to be stronger to do it, so I invest myself toward yoga and core strengthening to consider the physical costs of this course of action.  Not to mention that I don't like exercise.

I have volunteered with my kids' classrooms, and it helped lead me away from para educating, or a regular school job.  So many rules, even at a relatively progressive public school.

Is "unschooling" for us?  I read a book about Unschooling for Christian families.  Trusting God to lead families' daily education of their children, and the Holy Spirit to lead the children themselves with their parent's facilitation.  It would mean putting my plans on hold, or it could be a part of a plan I couldn't envision.  This is the reality of education--the rabbit trails of life experience!  That is where the treasure and value is.

My children made a list over break of things they want to learn about.  I want to travel and take them to learn about The Mona Lisa, Graupel (hailish weather), pet cats and ? And for Ian, why does the world spin, why does rubbing your hands together (friction) make heat?

I think we'll stay at school, since ours is progressive, but it's hard to find time to unschool with them gone all day.