6.29.2006
No More Teachers!
Rather than playing my usual role as contrarian curmudgeon, I'm going to give this one my unabashed support. I would have loved to attend Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts, which abandons "teaching" and "encourages play, as well as other activities that facilitate children taking control of their own academic destinies." The unconventinoal school's results so far seem extremely positive, with a disproportionately high amount of whiz kids and community leaders graduating from its halls. Now that I'm writing my dissertation, and forced to completely self-motivate with little experience doing so, I really recognize some potential advantages of doing away with "teachers, classes, homework, and grades" at an earlier age. SVS leaves learning up to natural processes without necessarily being able to explain them. How cool is that?
