On alternative schooling
Since starting university, I have become aware of how much the traditional schooling system conditions us. I spent the first half of my education in Mumbai and the second half in Melbourne and although, the curriculum and learning methods may have been different, the techniques of disciplining and conditioning in both systems were vitually identical.
I’ve encountered a number of arguments against the traditional university system upon which even traditional schooling is based on. I’ve encountered people whose parents had alternative ideas on education and have thus been home schooled or have been sent to schools with an alternative education philosophy where the traditional “roles” designated to teachers and students are seen as limiting and thus, convention is broken.
A friend of mine recently did a teaching placement at a primary school which taught mythology and world religions as part of their curriculum, let the children plan their own camps, and didn’t undertake standardized testing. My friend described how there wasn’t a staff room but instead teachers and students mingled and ate together on breaks, sharing a common kitchen are where the children were even allowed to cook their meals. They placed great value on independence in the formative years of a child. To me, schools such as this poses a question that is largely overseen by the mainstream school system and even parents about the conditioning effects of the structure of a school on the child.