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Monday
September 16, 2002

The Self-Educated Soul by Matthew Graybosch

Labor Day has just passed here in the United States. Among other things, this means that children across the nation are returning to school for another year of "education". It is another year wasted; the schools attempt to accomplish the impossible by force-feeding knowledge to children unwilling to think while denying knowledge to children to whom thought is as natural and life-giving a process as breathing. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (21 messages)

Monday, September 16, 2002 - 11:30am

I understand completely. I estimate that about 75% of what I know, I learned through self-education. The rest is just garbage waiting to be hauled out :)

Monday, September 16, 2002 - 2:27pm

Thanks, Pianoman. A lot of the stuff in my head needs to be destroyed; unfortunately, my brain didn't come with a rm command for nuking worthless data.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 11:21am

In the process of moving my brain's operating system to Mac OS X, I'm still finding chunks of ProDos... (the Apple II OS not the philosopher for you non-geeky types)

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 12:05pm

My brain's still running 4.4BSD -- the only valuable contribution UC Berserkeley ever made to the world.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 12:47pm

Oscar Wilde said against Matthew Arnold's absolutist belief in public subsidized education: "Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught." from "A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated"

Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 1:29pm

I had that on a poster of Oscar Wilde's quotes that I picked up when I went to England 4 years ago. I'd still have the poster, but it was ruined when I moved to my current apartment. Too bad; I always enjoyed looking up from my monitor to see it.

Unix geeks have a couple of sayings that emphasise self-reliances: "Read the f---ing manual" and "Use the Source, Luke". I should mention that I am a perpetual student of RTFM University.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002 - 11:29am

Agreed - I learned far more from books off my own bat than I ever did in school. As I write there's a pile of books (fiction & non-fiction) beside my bed waiting to be read....... for me, school was a total waste of time

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 12:11pm

Ok so I didn't make it to California and the conversation around here (right now anyway) has quieted down. So, being the SOLO addict I am, I was browsing through some older articles and came across this one. Excellent! Well done Mathew. I was telling my younger boys something similar a few days ago on the occassion of getting them their first library cards. I told them that they did not have to wait on me, or a teacher, or a school or college to learn about the world, and that their library card (and the internet access at home) are probably the *most* important possessions they have.

John

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 5:05pm

John, I loved this article! This is one reason why my husband and I will never school our children. They will only learn what they want to know. The good thing about the knowledge that is really important (reading, basic math, whatever is required for the person's career) is that reality lets us know that we need it. I think I will write an article about why we are unschoolers. Thanks for inspiring me with your post!

Kelly

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 5:35pm

Kelly

I too am in full agreement with the waste of time nearly all formal schooling is.

Is it possible to "unschool?"

Looking forward to your article.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 8:10am

Do you mean legally? Homeschooling in some form is legal in all the states, and unschooling is in most. I will have to do some lying to the government to do what I think is right here in TN, but I don't mind doing that at all. There are unschoolers getting by in every state, so they would be a good resource on how to do it.

Kelly

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 8:18am

I've never seen the term "unschooling", what is it?

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 8:56am

Oh, sorry, it's easy to forget that other people may not be totally aware of the things that I am so into. Unschooling is letting children direct their own educations. Basically, they decide what they want to learn and when. If they ask for resources or teaching, etc, you help them, but they get to decide.

Kelly

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 9:22am

Thank you Kelly.

I've heard of this approach used by some homeschoolers, but didn't know it had an official name.

Sounds great to me -- I would have loved being educated that way.

Steve

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 9:27am

Kelly: I like the self-directed aspects, but I'm unconvinced that having it be purely self-directed is a good idea for all children (although I'm sure it's perfect for some children). E.g., what happens when a child decides he's not interested in learning how to read?

Also, I don't like the term "unschooling" to stand for "self-directed schooling", but that's a secondary issue.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 10:26am

Shayne,

A child uninterested in learning to read would, one day, come across something he needs to read (sooner than later, I imagine). At that point, he will see the necessity and learn to read. It's like asking, "What if a child doesn't want to learn to talk?" Talking (and reading) are so essential to living in our world that children will all want to learn to do them eventually. It would take serious irrationality to refuse to learn to read at all ever in our modern world.

Also, I agree about the name. I use it because it is so generally known. I prefer to stay away from the negative un and the negative school, but I do want people to know what I am talking about.

Kelly

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 10:45am

Kelly: I'm still not sure about it, but I will say this: if it can work that way, then that's the right way.

I'd say that parents should endeavor to do everything to help a child become the sort of person where the self-directed method works, but if ultimately, for whatever reason it doesn't, then at some point and for some issues, a young child should not be given the choice.

But probably for properly reared children this would never be an issue. The child will have had the value of education explained to him, and education will not have been a boring and painful experience, and so he should naturally want it.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 10:57am

Shayne,

I'm definitely talking about children raised rationally. I don't see any value for Objectivists in talking about what to do about children raised any other way. Of course, irrational children will make irrational choices, and not just about learning.

Unless a child has been truly psychologically handicapped, he will see the value of learning in the world and seek it out.

Kelly

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 4:26pm

Kelly,

I must admit I'm rather fascinated with this approach, and I'm interested to know how you progress with it.

I agree with Shayne's point that a properly raised child will embrace this method of learning. In fact, it eliminates the incessant question of the young student subjected to the folly that is modern education:

"When will I ever use this in real life?"

Please do keep us posted.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 5:35pm

I've never seen the term "unschooling", what is it?

Well, I like this girl's interpretation.