Wednesday, December 10, 2008

No schooling means lots of learning

"I have gone through a lot in my life. I have the stability but not the worry. I found that all the skills necessary for me to live a life and learn things did not come from the formal school. If I wanted to do something, I could learn it and do it myself. So, I believe humans have a great potential in learning, but the school system is destroying such potential. If we instead allow the children to grow naturally, they would not have any fear and will learn to be confident and respectful of themselves."

Those are the words of a Thai man who unschooled himself (no formal education) and his son. The man is not completely objective about all things, but he understands that children need their volition honored, and that a formal schooling system does not do that. To read the rest of the article in which the above quote came, read this.

I have written about unschooling on Objectivist lists and forums for quite some time (including a long letter in The Objective Standard earlier this year), but most Objectivists still maintain that formal schooling is a sine qua non of the good life. That is unfortunate -- especially for their children, but also for others looking at Objectivism and seeing that some of its adherents violate the laws of volition and values when it comes to children.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

Do you have a link to the letter you wrote in The Objective Standard?

Dave said...

I wrote about it on my blog in March. Here's the link: http://beerandmind.blogspot.com/2008/03/volition-vs-education.html