So many families, post pandemic, have elected to stay with home-schooling.
The forced homestay freed them -- exposed them to the freedom of un-schooling.
I rejoice, having freed my children when bullying tormented them, I found that nature, and small groups studying at home with friends and loving parents and people who loved learning gave them a new lease on learning.
Learning because they wanted to learn -- learning to love learning! Learning how to learn and research and be curious rather than learning to test. Now my daughter, as she and her kids work with others in an online school setting, are gradually rejecting what the teachers try to enforce, and are finding their way to the unschool atmosphere. I read that the numbers of homeschoolers grow yearly, as parents have the courage to speak out against the boredom, the tedium, the institutional violence against children. Tedium is not learning. Institutions are not learning. Creativity thrives in free environs.
I pulled my son out of public school for many reasons including the final comment his principal said to me, at the end of the school year: "Please don't let him learn too much over the summer! He will have learned everything that his teacher will want to teach him next year, and there will be nothing for him to learn."
Institutions can be great for manufacturing objects, not for growing humans.
When I left school at 17, I vowed I'd never take another exam. But went on to do a B.Sc then M.Sc then Ph.D ... that's how strong the indoctrination system is.
There are things to be learned from schools, just not what public schools think! I've a masters in family therapy and some good schooling in critical theory and along the way the best thing we're good MENTORS in how to think, research, find the truth under the bs, find what I believed, how to think Deeply! And so much more that can't be learned teaching to the test. Encourage your kids to question reality, even yours!
Critical thinking skills are indeed critical for any kind of sustainable life. Otherwise it's sheeple looking for a 'strong leader' to do thinking for them. It's my grandchildren I'm concerned about now.
Brilliant! One of my favourite poets! I memorized one of his poems and recited it like a mantra over several months which got me through one of my darkest periods.
This looks like Hell, but then we should think of an even worse hell of filthy bathrooms, toilets that don’t flush, office supplies that aren’t where they belong, or empty boxes because no one ordered any new ones. Desks piled with work that no one did that means lots of people aren’t getting the things they need. Boredom and tedium are bad things. Chaos, disorder, incompetence, indifference, dirt, the stale smell of urine no one mopped up, all this is worse.
Chaos and indifference are a worse hell than the inertia of a cold, shopworn, container of humanity. Why does this matter? Does the bureaucracy administer to lives or to parochialism. The units of meaning are the dust drenched lives moving through the monuments of efficiency. Remember that the matter is who we are individually and as a society. Society casts a shadow on our individual lives. Awareness of the stale, dusty atmosphere and forgetfulness of why institutions are needed, their raison d’etre that justifies their existence, may lead to renewal. “Renewal” -- another process word. See how hard it is to escape the paradigm.
The matter is that self pity about a boring and seemingly pointless job, and blaming the atmosphere at the office for the condition of the world, can lead to advocating things that cause even worse conditions. Or maybe it will lead to renewal and improvement. It is a good poem, most of us have been there. But we also see that simply knocking it all over is no solution, either.
"School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is."
Ivan Illich
So many families, post pandemic, have elected to stay with home-schooling.
The forced homestay freed them -- exposed them to the freedom of un-schooling.
I rejoice, having freed my children when bullying tormented them, I found that nature, and small groups studying at home with friends and loving parents and people who loved learning gave them a new lease on learning.
Learning because they wanted to learn -- learning to love learning! Learning how to learn and research and be curious rather than learning to test. Now my daughter, as she and her kids work with others in an online school setting, are gradually rejecting what the teachers try to enforce, and are finding their way to the unschool atmosphere. I read that the numbers of homeschoolers grow yearly, as parents have the courage to speak out against the boredom, the tedium, the institutional violence against children. Tedium is not learning. Institutions are not learning. Creativity thrives in free environs.
Homeschooling, for the win!
I pulled my son out of public school for many reasons including the final comment his principal said to me, at the end of the school year: "Please don't let him learn too much over the summer! He will have learned everything that his teacher will want to teach him next year, and there will be nothing for him to learn."
Institutions can be great for manufacturing objects, not for growing humans.
Brilliant! So happy to hear this Linda...what a boon to the children!
Thank you for pointing out the desolation we live with and the depression that is inevitable.
When I left school at 17, I vowed I'd never take another exam. But went on to do a B.Sc then M.Sc then Ph.D ... that's how strong the indoctrination system is.
There are things to be learned from schools, just not what public schools think! I've a masters in family therapy and some good schooling in critical theory and along the way the best thing we're good MENTORS in how to think, research, find the truth under the bs, find what I believed, how to think Deeply! And so much more that can't be learned teaching to the test. Encourage your kids to question reality, even yours!
Critical thinking skills are indeed critical for any kind of sustainable life. Otherwise it's sheeple looking for a 'strong leader' to do thinking for them. It's my grandchildren I'm concerned about now.
Now I'm a sculptor, weaver, poet, inventor, and cultivator of sacred spaces. 25 years in the system was enough for me, even as a slow learner. 😊
Creativity has its just rewards!
Excellent picture-poem pairing on this one.
Great poem and yes: dare to ask THE question.
yes
Brilliant! One of my favourite poets! I memorized one of his poems and recited it like a mantra over several months which got me through one of my darkest periods.
well said!
Had I known this in my youth. When I was sleepwalking through life. Permission to question, to notice.
The dystopia of life as a tool.
I always wanted to use the word “mucilage” in a poem. A great Roethke work. Chilling, in the original sense.
Typical
Heierarchael
Patriarchy
Artheritical
Pathological
Aches
Sounds like a mental ward! The dust and the images of those than come and go. Some return, others fade inside life’s shadows.
Great! Anti bigness. Long afternoons of tedium!
Lets be wise! Groups small around us, that suits us!
Small groups of common sense and humanely KNOW being listened to.
Then conclusions being presented brought to bigger group as we do but it fails too many times..
pressure from all sides, from ‘above’❗️
How to do it better for most, for all?
This looks like Hell, but then we should think of an even worse hell of filthy bathrooms, toilets that don’t flush, office supplies that aren’t where they belong, or empty boxes because no one ordered any new ones. Desks piled with work that no one did that means lots of people aren’t getting the things they need. Boredom and tedium are bad things. Chaos, disorder, incompetence, indifference, dirt, the stale smell of urine no one mopped up, all this is worse.
Chaos and indifference are a worse hell than the inertia of a cold, shopworn, container of humanity. Why does this matter? Does the bureaucracy administer to lives or to parochialism. The units of meaning are the dust drenched lives moving through the monuments of efficiency. Remember that the matter is who we are individually and as a society. Society casts a shadow on our individual lives. Awareness of the stale, dusty atmosphere and forgetfulness of why institutions are needed, their raison d’etre that justifies their existence, may lead to renewal. “Renewal” -- another process word. See how hard it is to escape the paradigm.
The matter is that self pity about a boring and seemingly pointless job, and blaming the atmosphere at the office for the condition of the world, can lead to advocating things that cause even worse conditions. Or maybe it will lead to renewal and improvement. It is a good poem, most of us have been there. But we also see that simply knocking it all over is no solution, either.
He nailed it!
That hurt. As the dust of my office [2 years in]seems to cloud my eyes.