Excellent topic and investigation, and great insight on homeschooling as lindy. Apprenticeship as well, and both seem to be under discussion broadly from places of both rediscovery and pressure. You may know, but you're in dialogue with:
I also wonder what role you've give to place like my wife and daughter's school in Tokyo in the homeschooling & unschooling spectrum: https://www.montessorijapan.com/
Thanks Harold! Greatly appreciate the feedback and thoughtful response. I had read that behemoth review on Alpha, but the other was new to me. They provide a compelling counter-argument on why school is necessary for society-wide education, and importantly how complex the concept of scaling education is. However, a few issues I have with it: 1) It argues that school benefits high-structure learners most, and that no- and low- structure learners will probably be bored or not benefit from it in the same way, but we should accept this as a natural consequence of scaling education. I disagree this is a necessary compromise. It treats federal-scale schooling as the only way to reach everyone, but that's a design choice. Other domains e.g. healthcare, media, consumer goods have shown that when you loosen monopoly structures and allow for choice, you get pluralism and innovation. Better school choice would create a wider range of education options (incl. homeschooling and á la carte mentioned above), to ensure young people are not resigned to a school based on their geography but one where their needs, interests, and abilities are actually met. 2) I argue the taxonomy of no-/low-/high-structure learner frame is flawed and the wrong way to segment. The author does hedge by saying these categories aren't fixed, and that "motivation depends on context, so students may have a different motivation profile for a different subject or something outside of school." I'd go so far as to say that traditional school is largely to blame for these tiers, and that alternative schools like Montessori where children learn from a young age to become self-directed and motivated to learn challenge this.
I'm a former Montessori alum myself and owe a lot of my autodidact tendencies and love for learning to those early years. It's hard to place on that spectrum, though Montessori actually has much more structure than something like unschooling, but allows children to make more decisions within that structure. You'll often see more mixed-age learning and older children teaching their younger peers, and a sense of responsibility and capability not espoused in traditional schools. A Montessori education is often the perfect segue into self-directed learning in later years, including homeschooling!
I have a lot of experience with, and love for, Montessori, but it does seem from the large number of Montessori refections and dropouts and rarity of Montessori schools and Montessori school districts that a lot of kids don't adapt to Montessori classrooms. You're arguing (1) that a diversity of educational options would be better than a standard education for all of a society, and so it wouldn't be a problem that Montessori doesn't fit everyone. I tend to agree with all of this. (Practically speaking, I've seen much higher quality education in countries that have very standard education - but that could be just correlative.)
But that argument does imply that some version of the high-structure/ low-structure framework is correct; even if it's reframed as "fits-Montessori/ doesn't-fit-Montessori". How would you reconcile your argument (2) wiht the implied high/low-structure frame in argument (1)?
Excellent topic and investigation, and great insight on homeschooling as lindy. Apprenticeship as well, and both seem to be under discussion broadly from places of both rediscovery and pressure. You may know, but you're in dialogue with:
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-alpha-school
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-school (especially, interested in your thoughts on this: what works for society-wide education)
I also wonder what role you've give to place like my wife and daughter's school in Tokyo in the homeschooling & unschooling spectrum: https://www.montessorijapan.com/
Thanks Harold! Greatly appreciate the feedback and thoughtful response. I had read that behemoth review on Alpha, but the other was new to me. They provide a compelling counter-argument on why school is necessary for society-wide education, and importantly how complex the concept of scaling education is. However, a few issues I have with it: 1) It argues that school benefits high-structure learners most, and that no- and low- structure learners will probably be bored or not benefit from it in the same way, but we should accept this as a natural consequence of scaling education. I disagree this is a necessary compromise. It treats federal-scale schooling as the only way to reach everyone, but that's a design choice. Other domains e.g. healthcare, media, consumer goods have shown that when you loosen monopoly structures and allow for choice, you get pluralism and innovation. Better school choice would create a wider range of education options (incl. homeschooling and á la carte mentioned above), to ensure young people are not resigned to a school based on their geography but one where their needs, interests, and abilities are actually met. 2) I argue the taxonomy of no-/low-/high-structure learner frame is flawed and the wrong way to segment. The author does hedge by saying these categories aren't fixed, and that "motivation depends on context, so students may have a different motivation profile for a different subject or something outside of school." I'd go so far as to say that traditional school is largely to blame for these tiers, and that alternative schools like Montessori where children learn from a young age to become self-directed and motivated to learn challenge this.
I'm a former Montessori alum myself and owe a lot of my autodidact tendencies and love for learning to those early years. It's hard to place on that spectrum, though Montessori actually has much more structure than something like unschooling, but allows children to make more decisions within that structure. You'll often see more mixed-age learning and older children teaching their younger peers, and a sense of responsibility and capability not espoused in traditional schools. A Montessori education is often the perfect segue into self-directed learning in later years, including homeschooling!
I have a lot of experience with, and love for, Montessori, but it does seem from the large number of Montessori refections and dropouts and rarity of Montessori schools and Montessori school districts that a lot of kids don't adapt to Montessori classrooms. You're arguing (1) that a diversity of educational options would be better than a standard education for all of a society, and so it wouldn't be a problem that Montessori doesn't fit everyone. I tend to agree with all of this. (Practically speaking, I've seen much higher quality education in countries that have very standard education - but that could be just correlative.)
But that argument does imply that some version of the high-structure/ low-structure framework is correct; even if it's reframed as "fits-Montessori/ doesn't-fit-Montessori". How would you reconcile your argument (2) wiht the implied high/low-structure frame in argument (1)?
This was great Sam! I’m looking forward to the whole series.
Thanks so much Jeremy!