Episode Details

The crux of the educational problem: The age-old bad meme of an "authority" presiding over a learner's activities Sometimes, homeschooling mimics traditional pedagogy (i.e., teacher-directed learning), as do supposedly enlightened private schools (e.g., http://www.vandammeacademy.com/) Identifying, integrating, and experiencing what you're interested in--the essence of unschooling The leniency versus authoritarianism educational/parenting paradigm must be dispensed with and replaced by a respectful model Fears of parents about unschooling their kids, such as they're not "teachers"; but you don't need a permission slip, just an intrinsically motivated kid (which fortunately comes naturally:) A variety of useful resources for learner-directed homeschooling (unschooling): http://www.unschooling.com/ http://www.unschooling.info/ http://www.unschooling.org/ http://sandradodd.com/unschooling http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/unschool.html http://www.unschoolingamerica.com/ http://borntoexplore.org/unschool/whatis.htm http://www.amazon.com/Unschooling-Handbook-Whole-Childs-Classroom/dp/0761512764 We need to see kids as little people, capable of achieving great things, just like good tutors do And we need to come to terms with the fact that the learner has a teacher within Only in the educational system are grades given supreme importance; objectively speaking, they are irrelevant to one's life and well-being An educational system that demands students' obedience to authority is primes people for accepting the principles of communism--even though Americans are taught, via statist propaganda, to see themselves as enemies of communism Around the world, it's the theme of statism that presides Virtually all monopolies are coercive (using the coercive tools of government), not natural monopolies, with government itself on the top of the sordid, unjust heap of protection rackets It's important to distinguish between what is unethical and what is unjust, as well as what is psychologically respectful (unschooling) and what is not (traditional, controlling, or teacher-directed, methods) The kinds of socialization that take place in the prison system, i.e., in the governmental schools, aren't good for anyone (Ayn Rand quote referenced in http://www.logicallearning.net/libertyeducation.html) In order to maintain its power, government must control money and schools (fiat currency and fiat education) The discipline and self-esteem movements as manifestations of the coercive system http://www.logicallearning.net/learnerdrivened.html To doubt students' capability and initiative to direct their learning processes does NOTHING to foster their growth, and it only perpetuates widespread self-distrust Students should be seen as consumers of educational services, not obedient servants It's important to distinguish between self-efficacy and self-esteem, and to define self-esteem properly--as well as to see it as impossible to achieve in a coercive educational system, which is always contrary to development of intrinsic motivation Governmental school teachers are conduits for implementing a command-and-control pedagogy The idea of change on a national and individual level is pretty disconnected Job tickets as main goal of "higher education" (John Hol