4 Ideas to Transform Learning

In her piece School would be ideal… if it weren’t school, Laurette Lynn provides four key points that help illustrate the ideal “Learning Center.”

1. It should never be called “School”.
   School is for training and indoctrinating, not learning.  Let us go with Learning Center or something similar.
2. It should never ever be compulsory.
   We should not be forcing people into pseudo academic situations that may not agree with personal desires and/or beliefs. Yes everyone has the “right” to education, and as such learning is something that is always freely available everywhere, all the time and can even be made more available – but having the right to do something does not in any way validate that it should be forced upon anyone - especially by any prescribed or predetermined means.
3. It should not be standardized or federalized.
   By allowing for one golden mean or ‘standard’ of education, we completely violate individual freedom by blatantly ignoring personal desires and restricting true freedom to learn (the right that everyone has, remember?).   Furthermore, who gets to decide what this ‘standard’ should be and why?  Why does a board get to represent me and what I want or need to learn to fulfill my personal aspirations? 
4. No Federal Funding.
   I’ve been known to say that such establishments should not be publicly funded, but funded by those who use it and perhaps philanthropic donation.   I will concede however, that learning centers can be reasonably publicly funded if they operated similarly to libraries and community centers.   Ideally these would be funded by local taxes in the county or city that they serve…. for the sake of those who depend on the existence of a safe place for their children to be during the day while society learns to transition to a more human educational system.

Lynn suggests we imagine county run,  independent learning centers that are not compulsory and are available to use by anyone who wishes to use them. Centers would have learning facilitators who were teachers,  parents, teenagers, industry leaders and other community members who use the facility.   Funding would come partially from local taxes (perhaps) as well as private donations and/or paid extra courses that are offered. Much in the same way community centers operate now. Lynn suggests this would be the ideal replacement for what we now know as school system that is outdated, dysfunctional and damaging to children.

What do you think?
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You can visit Laurette Lynn's whole post and read more about these ideas here.