quote of the day and more on unschooling

"What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent - in the broadest and best sense, intelligent- is not having access to more and more learning places, resources, and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgment, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of people around them."  -John Holt

I read this great article today called Generation Z will revolutionize education. It talks about how Gen Z will change the workforce related to how they have been educated. The following excerpts in green are from the article.

"A huge wave of homeschooling will create a more self-directed workforce.

Homeschooling is going mainstream. We have known for a while that public education in the United States is largely terrible. Yes, there are pockets that are exceptional, but for the most part, we have an education crisis on our hands.   

...we will have a generation of kids who grew up with largely a self-learning, self-directed model. They are more accustomed to figuring out what they like to do, and doing it on their own. The crisis to figure out what to do with one’s life will not last so long because Gen X will raise more independent and self-directed kids."

With my own generation I think that is such a typical topic; what am I going to do with my life, what am I going to be, then the guilt of having spent so much money on college only to never use your degree. No one ever said, "oh you want to be a farmer, a stay at home mom, work in construction, be a musician, an artist, a carpenter, a mechanic, that's great, go for it!" We all had it drilled into our heads that we were supposed to go to college and that's the only way you would ever make something of yourself. It wasn't long after Jimmy and I started college that we realized our friends in high school who went to votech to learn a trade actually had the right idea! Don't get me wrong, I loved college. It was the first time in my life I actually felt like I was learning something. I soaked it up, made good grades, and graduated with an accounting degree. At the time I was working at the dairy and was already a mom so I never had the desire to go get an accounting job and sit in an office for 40 hours a week away from my baby. Yet I still felt like I needed to wear a t-shirt around that said, "Yes, I'm a dairy farmer and a SAHM but I DO have a college degree!" Like it made me a better person or something. Well it doesn't. What matters is that you have a willingness to learn and to contribute something to this world, even it's just beautifully happy children! 

"Homeschooling as kids will become unschooling as adults.We have established that school does not prepare people for work. In fact, Gen Y has been very vocal about this problem because a) they did everything they were told to do and it didn’t help them get a job and b) we have a national crisis because gen y has huge debt from college and little ability to pay it back.

With alternative schooling and an emphasis on independent investigation, Generation Z will be the first group of knowledge workers who were trained to do their job before they started working.  For example, Generation Z will be great at synthesizing information because they will have been doing that—rather than memorizing—the whole time they were in school.

The workplace ramification of this shift in learning is that Generation Z will have no problem directing their careers. They will know how to figure out what skill to learn next, and they will have more self-discipline to do it on their own.

When Gen Z enters the workforce, the older people, Gen X and Gen Y, will work to live, not live to work. This will be something Gen X and Gen Y fought hard for. To Gen Z it will be easy to do and self-learning will take center stage in their work day. So, as qualifications for the workplace will rapidly change and older people who don't keep up will be outdated, it will be Generation Z that is best at keeping up. Not because they are young, but because they understand that unschooling is not a movement for kids, but a way to live a life, and it doesn’t stop when you start getting a paycheck."

Unschooling IS a way of life. It is freedom, the ability choose what you learn, and the confidence that you are capable of learning all you really need to know through the natural process called LIFE!    

"The college degree will return to its bourgeois roots; entrepreneurship will rule.The homeschooling movement will prepare Generation Y to skip college, and Gen X is out-of-the-box enough in their parenting to support that.

The entrepreneurship bug will be in full force when Gen Z comes along. They will feel they have no choice but to do that or weather an unstable workplace with huge college debt. People will trade in a college degree for on-the-job learning. The result will be a smarter workforce and the end of universities as a patronage system for philosophers."

I do not have the plan for any of my children to go to college. If they choose to than I will fully support them and fully pay for it but I just don't think it should be expected of them. My view of the future doesn't really include the luxury of college anyway. I think the future will be more about survival due to the shrinking availability of our natural resources and the food crisis but that's a whole other subject! Regardless, my plan for my kids' futures is letting them choose their own plans and encouraging them to explore different paths. Failure is not starting a business that doesn't work out, failure is being part of the machine (another brick in the wall) and being unhappy for the rest of your life.   

Like I said, everything in green is from the article Generation Z will revolutionize education. Go read it!