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Janice Campbell
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Articles:
Fictional Learning - Years of Labor in the Trash The next fictional aspect of modern education is the actual work we give our children to do. From the time a child enters the school system, public or private, to the time they leave, all work that they do, for all those long years, is thrown into the trash can as soon as it is finished. Why? A very simple answer. It has no value. We never throw away something that has value. Look through your kitchen trash. What is there in that trash that has value to you? That you would pay money to keep? Yet all the work a child does, all of it, is thrown away. No one uses it. No one benefits by it. No one values it. [And moms who stick it on the frig don't count.] The child sees this. They are told over and over that the work they do is "so very important [someday]." Yet, with their hearts, they cringe from its valuelessness. And it is the child him or herself who, in an act of revulsion and distaste (I watch it all the time) wad the work they have spent hours on and throw it into the trash, pushing it, at the same time, out of their mind. There is a deep sense of shame underlying that constant ritual and a knowing of how worthless one's labor really is. I jokingly say to my students, "Keep it for posterity, you may want to show it to your grandchildren someday." They laugh - and throw it away. We tell them that this is 'real,' and so they believe us in their minds. We don't give them any other experience or any other form of reality so they have no way of knowing - mentally - that this scenario might not be true. But in their hearts they look at their labor of many, many years, and they know that it is worthless, that not one person would ever put a real-world value on their labor of even one penny. This single act - of wadding up and throwing away one's labor - is a far greater teacher than those like myself who carry the title of 'teacher.' In the home school, we do not have to follow this approach to education. Sure, some things must be learned by rote and by application of the mind. But an education that is real will be wrapped around work that is real, that benefits others, that is needed and valued, that helps serve the real-life needs of the community or neighborhood. Help your child build his or her own business with Micro-Business for HighSchoolers, a nine month course that guides step-by-step in the creation of a real-world business, while learning a whole lot. This course could easily become a central part of your child's high school education. Check it out at http://www.YguideAcademy.com/MicroBusiness.html Copyright 2009 by YGuide Publishing. Freely use without changes, including links. http://www.yguide.org Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Yordy
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