10/04/2021
This is a long-ish postl. Please bear with me! My goal here is to hopefully prompt people to examine the public education system in more depth than simply CRT, Comprehensive Sexual Health Education, or mask/vaccine/distancing mandates. The world is changing and now is the time to create something better for our children.
I'm a former public school teacher of 9 years (10, if you include my student teaching), and before that I was a PhD scientist of 9 years.
My scientific background has me CONSTANTLY examining and questioning everything (well, maybe it's partly just my nature too!).
Despite getting positive evaluations for my teaching skills, I felt inadequate to the task of behavior management and the ability to motivate (coerce) my students to master the entire curriculum each school year. It was an exhausting job! About 4 years ago I decided I would give teaching only 5 more years and then move on to a different career. Even though I loved my students, I struggled with with forcing children to stay seated, not talk, do this work right now, etc, etc. Well, then along came the "pandemic" and I was not willing to participate in the child abuse of distance-"learning", and the inevitable masks and anti-social distancing that I foresaw coming. I quit in Aug 2020 and spent the last school year one-on-one tutoring, supporting PSD students in a learning pod, and homeschool tutoring. In the summer I picked up a delivery job.
While doing all of those things, I searched for a way to offer children an alternative to public school. I knew I wanted to start up a very different type of school, but I had no idea how to do that.
Long story short, I came across the Sudbury model. It's well-known, extraordinarily successful in producing competent and confident adults, and has been in existence for over 50 years! Freedom School is a Sudbury model democratic school, but with even more emphasis on community involvement.... at least, that is the plan once children are allowed to freely visit care homes, businesses, farms, artisans, etc. They need to see how the adult world works, and they need opportunities to participate in "adult" communities.
Ok, now to my main point: the current problems we're encountering in schools are just the tip of the iceberg. I'm reading "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto and it is TRULY enlightening! It completely explains my discomforts as a teacher, and my constant yearning for "something better" for our children. I've posted a video with John's deep insights and incontrovertible truths regarding our "education" system below. It is the first chapter of his book "Dumbing us Down", which I've listened to in its entirety. This first chapter brought be to tears at hearing what I've felt in my heart, put into words. Right now this book makes even more sense than it did in the nineties!
I sincerely hope that listening to John's wisdom will open your minds and hearts, and that this message will benefit children in our community.
Marilyn
A reading of Dumbing Us Down written by John Taylor Gatto, read by Dusty Rose. Chapter 1: The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher.You can purchase this book on Amazon...
