The National Curriculum and standardisation of learning *doesn’t* turn everyone out with a basic standard fit. Huge numbers of children every year fail to reach the minimum literacy and numeracy standards set, let alone achieve anything else.

I think that is EXACTLY what is happening in schools. The National Curriculum and standardisation of learning is aiming to turn everyone out with a basic standard fit for this country. That’s also what parents do, raising children to fit in with the smaller community.

At a higher level it is the reproduction of culture, that process that continues the social structures that we rely upon to be able to function in the world. Under the microscope it may not be comfortable but if we do not teach our children the same things we know then they will not understand when we talk to them, nor will we understand them.

But to my OUCH! I think education should be to take people BEYOND the current culture, to deliberately open up new knowledge links and deliberately create opportunities for children to generate new ideas, thoughts, social structures, understandings and to enable them to evolve the very society and culture into which they were born.

And I don’t think either of the 2 main schools I went to did much of a job of teaching anyone there that they were controlled by a higher authority! That’s certainly not the attitude I left with anyway.

It’s all speculation (therefore possibly not the most productive of activities ) and I’m not suggesting that all outcomes would necessarily be positive!

Or, looking at it differently, if we could offer _every_ child and family the choice to have schools, home ed, learning centres and everything, what would people choose?

This is probably me being far too much up my own backside, so no change there then ;-).

By the way, didn’t you mean “Isn’t working for whom?”

No, I don’t think so. Education is meant to fit ppl for a life in their community, without foreclosing opportunities (or at least, that is the standard home educators are supposed to work too) and I don’t see that that is happening with schools. The system was designed a long time ago, for a different age and different needs, and it hasn’t really changed all that much since. It doesn’t make sense to process kids in yearly bunches and give them long summer holidays to fit in with the harvest, but we still do all of that.

so there is no revolution of parents asking for change? was there a revolution of parents asking for a school system in the first place? I doubt it, but it didn’t stop it happening.

Coherence is still not my strong point at the moment.

So you enjoy working, that is great! What works for your family is all that matters. I think we all have to try to find what works for each of us, in our working or not, schooling or not, and it’d be better if no-one would pass judgement on other people’s choices.

Excellent post.