Democratic education

I was talking with a friend the other day about problems with our education system, and what a radically democratic (bottom up) form of education would like like.

• The fundamental foundation would be a learner's "enlightened" interests. All learning starts with motivation and motivation comes from interests and relevance. Some people will counter that this is self-indulgent and short-sighted, but only if we think of interests as fleeting whims. By enlightened interests I mean our real interests, when we take the time to think deeply about what really matters to us. I believe even small children can think this way.
• The teacher's job would then to be find ways to incorporate life skill lessons into the framework of the content interests of the learner.
• The skills and areas of learning would be broadly understood to be those things necessary for one to be empowered and active as an individual and a citizen of communities. (e.g. beyond reading and math to include public speaking, organizing, self-mastery)
• And finally, the PACING and scaffolding would be learner centered and highly individualized.

The last point merits some explanation because it is very important and not very well understood. I'm sure we all know from personal experience or from what others have told us that some subjects (in school or in life) were taught taught to us in a way that we couldn't get started. It was too foreign and it went by too fast. As a result we give up on those subjects and doom ourselves to a lifetime of deficiency in that area and skill imbalance. We can rationalize it to ourselves and say that we can't be good at everything, but I believe we CAN and should be good at everything. Our country would have so much more capacity if we took the time with people at the right moments to ensure they could learn. Instead we throw our kids in overcrowed classrooms and hope that they get something out of it. This is a huge waste of our human capital and and a huge underinvestment in our future. The costs of not taking this point seriously as a country and as a planet is that we have not achieve a fraction of what is possible...HERE and NOW.

This friend I was talking with had problems with math initially: the teacher did not take the time to present things to her in a way that she could absorb. As a result she fell behind, eventually gave up and now does not "do" math.

The same can be true for kids that are book smart but are having problems learning socially. Appropriately challenging social learning is particularly hard to structure, but it is possible. And very important because it is fundamentally linked to our happiness. We could be so much more advanced in dealing with conflict, negotiating difference, persuading and organizing others, and achieving happiness than we are now that it staggers my comprehension.

I also believe that this is about pacing, not about more remedial or more intensive classes: those that learn slow at one point will learn faster at others. In the end it is about individualization, taking the time where it is needed.

Taking these lessons seriously in education, for all learners would require a huge investment, but the payoff would be reaped many-fold...and sooner than people think, I expect. Take the time where needed would require faith, but only until people began to see that all learners can really learn all material when presented properly, and everyone can achieve much beyond what most people now think possible.