I’m upgrading Sam Rose’s contribution to our previous debate about unschooling, as it exemplifies the transformation of our school system through open and free modes.

Sam Rose:

“John Taylor Gatto explains the history of forced schooling, and the attitudes that extend into Universities, in The Underground History of American Education where he argues that education in the US is largely meant to create a caste system, and has largely succeeded in doing this.

This 2 page sumarry from Digital Youth Research by Mizuko Ito et al also outlines the problems with coercive education, based on research about how kids actually go about learning.

Some of this education is already shifting to smaller networks of mutual mentors, open research and development enthusiasts, and others. I am directly involved in forming mutual mentoring for people interested in creating commons-based and networked business systems. We are also engaging youth by creating a mentoring network where youth realize their possibilities beyond “jobs and careers”, and realize how to employ open knowledge networks, open license design, and open source software to create new form of youth self-employment, rapid decision making, collaborative intelligence and civic engagement. Adults mentor, but projects and energies are directed by youth.

While traveling around and taking to students and teachers in schools, we discovered that youths often have little awareness of their possibilities. And, we discovered that teachers and administrators are focused on antiquted problems, like “declining enrollment”, and the assumed need to close schools, cut back on “costs” etc. Our proposal to schools is to do exactly the opposite of what they are currently doing:

* Instead of closing and demolishing unused schools, use the spaces for indoor hydronic and aquaculture food production, and flexible fabrication. Students can use the spaces to found businesses.

* Switch focus from training students for careers with corporations, and compliance, to giving students liberty to learn from each other, and from innovators in their community.

* Destroy the misconception that the only way to make money is to charge people for abundant goods that can instead be released under an open license, and exponentially innovated upon. Instead, help students to learn how to innovate, to find and serve ever-emerging niches within their local systems (whatever local means to them).”