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Thursday, June 11, 2009
A Canadian advocate for de-schooling: Matt Hern
If I lived in Canada, Matt Hern would be invited to play Exquisite Corpse for shots at my Freedom Salon. We might even hang out in the same homeschooling co-op. But I don't live in Canada, and the Freedom Salon is still in the "ideas" stage.
Hern's plans, on the other hand, have moved from the "ideas" stage to an active role in the world of ideas. In "De-Schooling Our Lives", Hern explains why he doesn't believe public education should be mandatory. In his words:
"If you think about the institutions that matter tremendously to us, and are the best of our common cultural life, most of think of libraries, museums or parks, or pools, or walkways, or bikeways. Even if you want to expand it to institutions like hospitals or bridges or roads, for example, those are good, but none of them are compulsory. None of them are required to go.
"I like libraries, but I would like them a whole lot less if people told me I had to go, when I had to go, what I had to do when I was there, and how to behave when I was in a library.
"So, the bulk of my argument, or at least the simplest part of the argument, is that I would like schools to look a whole lot more like actually public institutions--not mandatory, not compulsory, and not monopolizing institutions, but institutions that function in communities, for example, parks or libraries do."
You can watch Matt Hern share his thoughts on public education here, or you can purchase his book on the topic from Amazon. Alternately, you can start your own Freedom Salon and invite Mr. Hern in my stead...
Posted by Alina on June 11, 2009 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
If this sounds interesting to you read up on John Taylor Gatto. Good stuff. I like it.
Posted by: Sam T. | 2009-06-12 5:27:20 PM
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