School Is a Prison — And Damaging Our Kids

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39. I don't disagree with his general points, but...

Despite his claim that he doesn't wish to present unstructured learning as a panacea, it seems that is exactly what he's doing. He seems a bit pie in the sky about the Sudbury-like schools he approves of while unfairly cynical about public schools in general. I think kids in school today enjoy quite a bit of freedom, certainly more than I had at my last professional job, which was basically in the mold of "Office Space." I also have to roll my eyes whenever I hear that improving schools has nothing to do with money. Of course it does. The more money, the more teachers, the smaller the class size, the more individualized the learning, the more creative the learning environment, etc. Teachers don't go into teaching so they can indoctrinate kids into either the 20th century industrial world or the strict religious environments of centuries earlier. And these notions about self-directed learning are not absent from teaching programs. And incidentally, the idea that kids will learn to read if you just stick a computer in their environment is about as silly as it gets. In general, though, I support the ideas that learning could be more student-centered and that grades should not be used as rewards and punishments. In fact, I'd support doing away with letter grades altogether since I don't think they convey any useful information.