The heart of the ongoing project to promote non-school learning is the Internet. The Coalition’s own website is just one part of the growing interest in using the Internet for learning. Brain research has shown that learning is not only different for each individual, it is also a non-linear continuous process. That is, we do not learn and store a set of facts or a discipline in one part of the brain. But that new knowledge is taken all the time and harmonized within the unique existing holistic neural network of each person’s brain. This individualized non-linear learning cannot be efficiently imposed on a group of students at the same time in the same location using the same technique. Learning is a unique experience for each person.
The Internet provides a radically different mode of learning. It can be quickly transferred between knowledge areas as needed and desired by the individual. To emphasize non-linear learning, the Coalition’s website is designed as a mandala. That is, your cover presents a series of options for the reader, not a linear index. A reader can start with the philosophy, practical examples, resources, general discussion, or other entry points. Internal links will take the reader to other areas within the Coalition website or to other websites without interrupting continuity. Claudia L’Amoreux and Ib Bang are coordinating efforts to make the website a model of what the Internet can become in providing learning experiences.
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Community learning
But we recognize that the Internet cannot replace parents, family, friends, teachers, the community, or other means of learning and social relationships. Therefore, the website places great emphasis on collaborative learning and the development of local learning communities. A special section is dedicated to “New Chapters” that provide guidance to the self-taught and their families. The subsections will be on how to form local communities, how to organize cooperatives, how to become a self-taught person, social transformation, learning libraries and other topics necessary for collaborative learning programs. Merrill Tew, a Ph.D. student in education, and Laddie Lushin, an attorney with 25 years of experience in food cooperatives, have provided “New Chapters” and are leading the development of these concepts.
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From teachers to mentors
We believe that the role of mentors, learning coaches, counselors, and learning guides is equally important. “Transforming ‘school teachers’ into ‘community mentors'” is a topic of particular interest that we are discussing on the roster server. We plan to develop “New Chapters” on the future learning profession for the website. As the effectiveness of self-learning or child-centered learning is better recognized, a new profession may emerge for teachers. Mentors will be used to help people of all ages plan their own learning programs. This will require not only a professional understanding of how an individual learns, but also an understanding of how to provide learning opportunities within the community. Libraries and museums will play an increasingly important role in future learning. But so will factories, farms, businesses, streets, and nature.
Future community learning professionals cannot be isolated in schools any more than future citizens can be so isolated. As learning becomes more enduring and individual-centered and community-experienced, learning professionals will have an increasingly important role to play in the life of the community. Libraries may be a better model for the learning centers of the future than the schools of today. Member Charles Willets, editor of Counterpoise, is facilitating cooperation between this Coalition and progressive librarians.
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Cultural transition
The community, not education, is the central concern of many members of this Coalition. We see the global and local social problems facing humanity as inherent in the social structure and educational system that shapes the citizen of the future. Diminishing concern for family values and community solidarity leaves older and younger citizens without a sense of belonging. “Belonging” is a fundamental need, if not the most, of human beings. If family, neighborhood, and community do not provide healthy outlets for this need, individuals will satisfy that need by joining cults, gangs, secret societies, and other forms of antisocial organizations. Violence, such as that of Columbine, as well as the general alienation of youth is a clear indication that schools do not meet this social need.
Many members of ‘A Coalition for Self-Learning’ see strengthening communities as the purpose of the Coalition. One of our core members, Bill Wetzel, upon graduating from high school two years ago, took a year off to cycle around the country and visit other schools to talk with other young people. He found that, like him, youth generally get bored and withdraw from schools. Now she has organized “Power to Youth” to help high school students and other young people organize and take control of their own learning.
Another member of the Coalition, Rick Smyre, consultant and president of CCOF (Center for Communities of the Future) recognizes the crucial impact that the education system has on community development. Its programs to develop the capacity of local citizens to prepare for the future emphasize the need to engage youth throughout their lives in community activities and community governance.
The sense of community and belonging is also the subject of Michael Cohen in his “New Chapter” in the online book, “Educating and Counseling with Nature: A Natural Systems Thinking Process produces ecopsychology courses and degrees that allow students to increase their Academic Skills, Resilience, and Responsible Relationships “. Cohen has been conducting non-school wilderness learning sessions for several decades. His natural systems thinking process is based on developing a practical understanding of the critical place that cooperation plays in nature. Nothing can exist without an extensive system of others to maintain it. Communities are a crucial part of the life support systems required by humanity.
This same theme is repeated in the theoretical studies of Kathia and Alexander Laszlo in the field of the Theory of General Evolution. Its Evolutionary Learning Centers (ELC) are based on ideas similar to those of Paulo Friere that learning should be a preparation and participation in the continuity of change. The new theories of chaos, complexity and gaia show the interconnectedness of all life. They imply that learning communities must become the foundation for a sustainable future. Kathia and Alexander are now leading a task force to coordinate an online conference, with other community development leaders, on the Internet and plan a future larger international conference on building learning communities.
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Collaborative Homeschooling
The proof that schools are unnecessary is perhaps best attested by the success of homeschooling. Average SAT scores, the success of homeschoolers at top universities, the long history of leaders like Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and other self-taught, as well as the learning systems of many other cultures, is a proof that it is promoted in an increasing number of publications. Many advocates for homeschooling, including Ann Lahrson Fisher, Patrick Farenga, Jerry Mintz, Katharine Houk, Linda Dobson, Mary Leue, and others, are active participants in the Coalition. Long before the Coalition was formed, they were recognizing the emergence of “homeschooling support groups” and other forms of collaborative learning.
The concern that homeschoolers dropping out of schools will detract from public education is a legitimate concern of many educators. Other critics have suggested that homeschooling is one element of the “bowling alone” tendency of individuals leaving the community for their own individual interest. Some see the charter school movement as a solution to bring more information and flexibility to the current education system.
All of these concerns and developments are being taken into account in the Coalition’s programs. We recognize that not all parents are capable, willing, or willing to homeschool. We see homeschooling as the most successful experiment on the path to more open, progressive, and flexible education. lifelong learning system. Our experiments aim to use the best of these practices and overcome the worst of the current system failures. Our goal is to go beyond education and beyond homeschooling into a learning system and society that values the individual, community, society, and nature in new ways.
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Table of Contents
© Copyright 2000. William N. Ellis – All rights reserved.
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