Thread by @deb_fillman

I hate that the choice seems to be schools run with rigid discipline, in order to preserve order, because no one can learn in chaos (#fact) OR mollycoddling and enabling bad behavior as children growing up in chaos rebel against arbitrary hierarchies and timelines. 1/

2/Yes of course the former is preferable to the latter, and a percentage of students will thrive in such an environment, and one can maintain discipline and order without eliminating caring, compassion and even excellence in teaching. But...

3/those who ask "what about the percentage who can't thrive there?" have a point. That percentage grows every year irrespective of what's taught in schools. John Taylor Gatto railed less about ideology than he did about structure and hierarchy, timeline and incentives...

4/He was still right, long before any of us knew what CRT or SEL were. He was right because "school" as we know it, is NOT a fit for most kids. Being ripped away from exploring the world at your own pace, amongst people who love and care about you, or who at least see you as an

5/individual, can be for many, if not most, a traumatic experience. The obligation to separate from your child at 5 or 6, per the state, and the economic demands of that state (taxes, including school taxes) that make staying home and homeschooling seem impossible,

6/changes parenthood and family cohesion too. Fewer and fewer parents are able to maintain the emotional closeness & trust needed to help children mature through puberty and adolescence into healthy young adulthood, internally rather than externally validated.

7/Parents emotionally disassociate sooner, for their own self-preservation--telling themselves this is as it should be, because that's what they're told by the "experts" and the "society," and of course the government...

8/Children do their best to explain it to themselves, this feeling of abandonment and loss of trust, and some succeed, but most do not. When you add in abuse sustained at school, by a wide variety of people, mistrust of parents who left them there deepens. Frustration grows, and

9/for some, that emerges as "behavior problems." For others? The frustration turns inward, on the self. They cut, they use drugs, they zone out, they desperately look for new people to trust all day, so they can have a new "family." Sometimes they find those people too...

10/But when problems appear, from generalized anxiety disorder to classroom violence, we don't question whether the system needs to go, we look at how we can change the PEOPLE. Kids should be more caring and compassionate and accepting and contemplative...

11/Parents should worry less, ask fewer equations, give over more autonomy and disconnect MORE so the system@wont have to compete so hard for their child's trust and compliance...Teachers should model compliance with school norms, and shame students who rebel or ask questions...

12/Meanwhile, the common denominator is schooling! Again, I'm not saying the model is terrible for ALL. Just as a one-size-fits-all doesn't work for it, neither does it work against it. The point is we don't question IT enough. Yes, better discipline would certainly help many,

13/especially those with chaos at HOME; the kids who weren't so much ripped away from loving families, but perhaps rescued from dysfunctional abusive ones. But today we are treating ALL kids like those kids AND dropping them into chaos as we do it! That can't work for anyone.

14/Likewise, we need to look back a step and ask WHY are so many homes so chaotic? That number IS growing, and what if schooling played a role in that too? What if, as I said, ripping kids from their trusted people so young, and stealing their childhoods and dictating where their

15/curiosity should focus, or if it should even be allowed, was a BAD IDEA all along, as JTG and many others have suggested over the years? What if it's just taken 100 years for schooling to make good parenting and close families nearly impossible? What if all that, PLUS

16/the internet and social media and the never-ending-workday (necessitated by the never-ending tax code, and inflation, and propaganda persuading people that *this* is the "good life") won't be fixed with "schooling" intact as an institution?

17/What if--hear me out--we would all be smarter, happier, healthier, wealthier, and FREER without schooling, period? What if it were the responsibility of parents, caregivers and others who genuinely, voluntarily care about kids, to educate them?

18/Why do we assume the absolute WORST about all these people, and imagine Lord of the Flies level horrors if my hypothetical came to pass, but ignore the widespread illiteracy, mental illness and LoTF level horrors we have WITH schooling in place?

19/Are people so materialistic as to believe more $ would solve this? A change in building, or discipline policy alone? These are cosmetic fixes, akin to a facelift or Botox. They might temporarily fool the superficial perception, but fail to address or accept reality:

20/Childhood is brief, and important. Navigating it surrounded by strangers, in an environment built around obedience to abstract concepts and arbitrary hierarchies, is bound to produce young adults who, despite knowing some "things" about the world, know little about freedom.

21/And how can people who've been taught--by experience if not explicit instruction--freedom is a lie, or selfish, or chaotic--be expected to even WANT it?

They can't.

22/Maybe 2023 should be the year we take a few more giant steps back from "what about the poor kids" and "what about the single parents" to ask "What if school helped create them?" What if we made this the year we didn't act like "schooling" is neutral all by itself? /END

*ask fewer questions