Breaking Free of Authoritarian Schooling

In the last few posts I've recorded some ways in which the state schooling system indoctrinates its victims to respect its authority, even when that authority is later abused. This system keeps most people subservient to government bureaucrats and politicians. Fortunately for you, now that I have pointed out only a small portion of the damage, you are ready to continue breaking out of their control.

Winston Churchhill

Schools have not necessarily much to do with education...they are mainly institutions of control where certain basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.

George Bernard Shaw

My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.

Today, we face an entirely different world than when government schooling was first invented. In fact, the primary reasons for its invention no longer apply, for the free market (as taxed as it has been for these last 150years) has delivered several mechanisms through which we can educate our children, each other, and ourselves. We can finally be free of the government lessons. We have the opportunity to think independently, and to nurture that skill in others.

John Holt

A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us.

For the parents of young children, I strongly recommend home schooling. There are many resources online that can help out. Using the internet for tight communication and sharing of ideas, many local communities have home schooling meetups. They trade off the burden of teaching and "socialization". They share learning techniques. It's an investment that pays off over time.

For example, I know one capable and self-motivated individual who learned his skills under the direction of his own parents. By the time he was in 9th grade, he could be told "write an essay on X" without any further direction. He'd internalized the self-correction mechanisms necessary for critical thought and independence. The government didn't hand him everything on a silver platter, or force him into maladaptive behavior like learned helplessness and fear of being wrong. Rather, he learned the most useful skill of all: how to self-educate.

Isaac Asimov

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.

I often feel rather hopeless compared to those home-schooled, equally smart and knowledgeable individuals 10 years my junior. But it's never too late! Even as an adult you can give yourself a remarkable education. You simply have to take advantage of the materials available. These are both more plentiful and more accessible today than ever before.

For example, Scott Young, did some self-study using MIT's OpenCourseWare. In one year he did their entire 4-year CS program, and motivated himself using a website about the MIT Challenge.

MIT's not the only one. Some of my friends are using Coursera, Udacity, and KahnAcademy, just to name the biggest names. The only drawback seems to be a lack of credentialism. But these educational pioneers are working rapidly to solve that problem (and make a profit doing so). With many of these courses coming from the big-name institutions, like Stanford and Georgia Tech, you have very little reason to pay both the quarterly admission and housing fees plus 4 years of your life attending a brick and mortar. You can get nearly 80% of the quality at home, at your own pace, provided you have the self-discipline and diligence.

And it doesn't matter if you don't have credentials for the stuff that you learn at home. You can ussing the same medium that you use to acquire those skills, namely the Internet, to make a page that advertises your abilities! What employer would turn down Scott Young, after they see his page? Surely he's worth more, after a single year, than an actual MIT attendee after four years!

Stanly Kubrick

I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.

So let go the statist mentalities that hold you back. Pursue the topics that most interest you. Set some plans for self-improvement, and work on your goals a little bit each day.

John Holt

Education now seems the most authoritarian and dangerous of all the social inventions of mankind. It is the deepest foundation of the modern slave state, in which most people feel themselves to be nothing but producers, consumers, spectators, and 'fans,' driven in all parts of their lives, by greed, envy, and fear. My concern is not to improve 'education' but to do away with it, to end the ugly and antihuman business of people-shaping and to allow and help people to shape themselves.

Self-realization, self-actualization, and self-empowerment are the goals of anarchy. And they all begin with self-education!