reply to post by ludaChris
This has been a good thread. Lots of thoughtful posts.
king9072, truth_seeker3, vonholland, even Cthulwho. Great observations and ideas.
What's appearing out of this discussion are several different factors, some pushing kids to stay in school and others pulling them away from it.
The only way I know to understand what's going on is to separate the subject of learning from the subject of school.
The first time this idea was presented to me was in the book "Deschooling Society" by Ivan Illich. Illich had a lot of deep points to make in this
book, but one of the simpler ones was this distinction: "school" does not necessarily equal "education" or "learning." This is actually quite
obvious, right? How did most of us learn the basics of the language we speak? By going to school?
School is a cultural institution. Schools have been used to make slaves and they have also been used for the cause of freedom. A school, if it can be
honest enough to state its true purpose, still has the problem of working out how to achieve that purpose with its students. And even if its purpose
is quite admirable, it may have difficulty being successful. This is a whole set of subjects: how to make a school effective in achieving its purpose,
whatever that might be. There is a lot of data out there on this. I like the edutopia site. But it's just one brighter example.
Then there is the whole question of what an individual wants to achieve and how he or she goes about it. The same observation can be made here: Some
people find ways to succeed routinely, while many experience both successes and failures, and others almost never seem to win. What you can ask
yourself regarding this is: "Have I ever decided to learn something, and started, but then decided that it was too hard or I just couldn't seem to
follow through?" This is a subject that has been studied. Causes for problems in learning have been identified, and technologies have been developed
that reduce these problems. Most of the academic world ignores these technologies because they were developed by a non-member. However, that hasn't
stopped a lot of teachers from learning how to use them.
I am a student of (among many other subjects) Scientology. Scientology has been rejected by a large portion of the academic and internet community due
mostly to a concerted and vicious campaign aimed at discrediting it. However, it continues to have a presence on the web and in society. I invite
anyone interested to look into it. Membership is not required to study it, or to find secular applications for it. I personally have found it
extremely useful.