Is compulsory education really necessary?

Editor’s note: This post was born as a result of a #StuVoice chat that addressed the teaching characteristics most conducive to learning. In the chat I responded to a Tweet that stated, “If we're going to keep students in school, our technology needs to catch up!” I responded, “Why keep students in school if they can learn w/out it?” Elliot Hallmark had several insightful responses to that question. I asked him to expand on his thoughts and thus the following post was born. 

Guest post by Elliot Hallmark 
Staff member at Clearview Sudbury School in Austin, Texas 

There are many examples where compulsory education has been unnecessary such as un-schoolers, home schoolers, hunter gather societies, non-western modern cultures, and graduates of radical deschooled institutions. Yet the claim that school is unnecessary strikes many people as unfounded. After all, the circumstances of these various groups, privileged families and members of non-industrial societies, is not representative of everyone. 

So, the thinking persists that abolishing compulsory education would be ultimately abandoning most children, leaving them directionless and struggling fiercely to achieve even an adequate living. Underprivileged children especially would be left completely without the tools they need to succeed. Already, the correlation between family socioeconomic standing and success in school is striking. As funding to public schools decreases, the achievement of the underprivileged drops even further. To make attendance of public school voluntary would be madness! We must take steps to increase the effectiveness of schooling, which is surely the most influential tool we have to ensure the education of children. 

Right? 

Want to become a better teacher? Shift your focus from pedagogy to andragogy

A few months back I explained why I will no longer work to differentiate instruction because it really isn’t the teacher’s instruction that should be at the heart of the matter but rather the child’s learning.  I was recently introduced to a new term, “Andragogy” from the Mystified Mom blog which takes this concept even further.  She explains that someone shared with her that child led learning is basically looking at how adults learn and then applying that to children. This led to some research about how adults learn which resulted in the discovery of the term andragogy.


Mystified Mom (MM) explains that Andragogy is basically learning theory as it applies to adults. It focuses on the learner whereas pedagogy is learning theory that is focused on the teacher.  Some people say it applies to adult learning only and some people are trying to push for it to be used in all contexts to refer to any learning that focuses on the learner. MM explains that what’s important here is the shift in thinking about learning as that which focuses on the learner and what he or she brings to the table rather than focusing on what the teacher brings to the table.


Mystified Mom shares that Malcolm Knowles is the one that began using the term in an academic sense and shares his six basic principles of adult learning or andragogy which are:

Ideas for Leading Transformation in Schools from Alan November

While at the Building Learning Communities conference, Alan November sat with leaders from New York City schools to discuss ideas for leading transformation in their schools. Below are highlights from the conversation.

Kids Teaching Kids
->Switch the capacity of learning from the teacher to the student.
->Run a contest where kids create learning objects for other kids using screen casting.
-->Resources: PHPmotion, Techsmith, Camtasia
->Students can produce a video that welcomes other children to your school. This can go to all new students. Written, produced, directed by children in the school.
->Ask every teacher to submit the 10 most difficult concepts for students to learn in each content area.
->Challenge students to create ideas to teach the most difficult concepts.

Integrating Technology into the Curriculum
->Too many schools are doing cool things with technology but it is not aligned with the content area. Select 2-3 areas where technology will make a difference.
->Do not use technology just because you can do it. Use the tools (wikis, podcast, Twitter) but make sure they are strategic.
->Globalize the curriculum. We need to see the work of other kids around the world in every subject they teach. Find the award winning work from students around the world in each curriculum area.

Have a Family Plan->Create a Grandmother network.
->Get a grandparent to connect to through skype. Have grandmother read books to class.
->Create subject-area guides
-->Have teachers in each content area/department make cds/dvds for families that show the families how they can support their student in that particular subject.

Extend The Learning Time
->Provide opportunities for students to access their learning environment afterschool day, before school, Saturday,
->Think outside the box
->Open up the library beyond the school day and have an internet café.
->Can a librarian come in at 10 or 11 and work til 6 or 7 everyday, or a couple days a week?
->Can any staff members work Saturdays rather than Monday?

Roles of the leader
->Build Capacity
->Create Study Groups
->Develop great communication skills and express yourself using various channels: Twitter, learning networks, blogs, Skype
->Ensure technology is in alignment with strategic goals you set for your school
->The role of the leader is to build capacity (w/ specific tools, study group,)
-->Family capacity building group
-->Global connection group

Jobs of Student
Below are creative ways that students can make valuable contributions to their learning community. Click here for more details.
->Tutorial Designers: Students can document their learning by recording themselves solving problems based on material discussed in class. You can read how a middle school teacher named Eric Marcos is doing this here.
->Official Scribes: Use a collaborative tool like EtherPad or Google Docs to share responsibility to take perfect notes that can be captured, published, and used by an entire class. See how a teacher named Darren Kurpatwa is doing that with his calculus students here.
->Researchers: Many classrooms have a few computers sitting in the back that gets very little use. What if that computer became the official research station where one student each day was responsible for finding answers to all the questions in class – including the teacher’s? Once sites are found that give details about the questions being asked, you might consider adding it to your own search engine built using Google’s Custom Search Engine creator.
->Collaboration Coordinators: Using Skype (http://www.skype.com/), a collaboration team could be responsible for establishing and maintaining working relationships via the Internet with classrooms around the world. Find out more about how middle school teacher Andrea Trudeau did that here.
->Contributing to Society: Teach students about social justice and empathy using sites like Kiva a site that opens the doors of learning and gives students the opportunity to make a small but meaningful difference in the lives of others.
->Curriculum Reviewers: As the resources above come together, the curriculum review team jumps into action to create material that can be used for continuous review. This team combines visual and audio components into podcasts that can be posted online for individuals to download into their mp3 players. See how Bob Sprankle’s class did this here.

Safety Thoughts->Teachers should be wary of following students on public sites where the teacher subscribes to or receives instant updates of the students activities as we do not want teachers to become responsible for what students do 24/7.
->There are ways to friend a student without subscribing to their updates in some forums
->Family members should be following students, modeling responsible behavior, and should be aware and responsible for what students engage in online and offline.

Leading By Example - Transforming Education for the 21st Century

I’ve had the great fortune to spend a week at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities conference in Boston with a group of New York City school administrators who have made significant progress in becoming transformative leaders. I felt it was important during my week with these leaders for us not only to talk the talk, but to walk the walk and (even if things got messy) use a variety of the tools they were beginning to explore so that in addition to learning about theoretical implications of innovative practices, they would have hands on experience in discovering what it was like using these tools. During our time at the conference our group used a variety of technologies to enhance the way we were communicating and collaborating. To set the stage it was important to establish that our work together wasn’t around learning about things like wikis, blogs, twitter, and learning networks (which we did learn about) but rather about working in innovative ways that enhanced the work we were doing.

Sharing Knowledge with Google Docs

Prior to the conference we established a Google doc where we would each capture our Schedules to enable us to share our plans for the conference. This would serve a couple purposes. 1) It allowed us to be aware of the sessions one another was attending as it’s always great to be able to connect with colleagues who experienced the same learning as you, process, and extend the thinking. 2) It enabled us to capture the knowledge each of us set out to gain so we had an instant record of our group’s professional development experience.

Using a Wiki for Collecting, Capturing, and Accessing Important Materials

We also set up a wiki page for our conference experience. This provided a place for us to collect and access all important conference information such as the conference program, our daily reflection. It also provided a place where we could capture notes and materials shared at various presentations.

Tweeting to Follow Conference Activities and Share Reflections and Plans

School leaders set up Twitter accounts which they used to follow the goings on of the conference using the tag “BLC09” for the first two days. By day three most school leaders were also contributing tweets that included instant reflections of what they learned that they planned to bring back to their schools. This is now permanently captured and available for future reflecting and all leaders have access to see what their colleagues are thinking of doing allowing them to connect and collaborate. Here are some examples of their tweets using the tag 21cl.

· I plan to introduce digital writing portfolios through student blogs, expand use of wikis/blogs, expand our newspaper to be multi-media

· I will learn and share Google secrets by going to http://tinyurl.com/nwyeey

· Use twitter and google docs to promote a sense of community that can be extended outside of school

· Have staff tweet to share what is going on in school using a school tag

· Teachers can tweet homework assignments

· Have students create tutorials using Screencasting. (mathtrain.tv)

· As a leader I will model using tech tools in my practice

· Use Google Docs to construct grade level planning conference agendas and collaboratively write lesson plans

Using Google Graphs, Spreadsheets, and Twitter to Poll Participants

Our group was determining what our online brand would be. To do this, all members of our group were asked to contribute by tweeting nominations for the potential group name using the tag 21cl. I collected the nominated names and placed the 25 nominees in a Google Spreadsheet which we planned to use as a free polling tool. Our group members names were placed across the top of the sheet and each school leader used their five votes to nominate their top choices. As they did this we watched the graph rise and fall. The winner was Transforming Leaders for the 21^st Century.

During Conference Reflection Using Google Forms

School leaders completed a Conference Reflection Form a few times during the conference to capture what they learned and planned to bring back to their schools. These were captured as
conference reflections that were published enabling each participant to have the ability to access their own reflection any time as well as those of their colleagues.

Posting Conference Reflections Using a Blog

Each principal is going to write one reflection in response to the question, “What specific thing(s) will I do as a transformative leader in my school?” This will be posted on our newly created blog at http://ted21c.blogspot.com.

Connecting Across Schools and Across the Year with A Free Learning Network

Our group spent a session designing and creating the TED21C Learning Network which will be used across the year for schools to connect, communicate, and collaborate both within their schools and across schools. School leaders created groups and customized their home pages.

Capturing Memories Using Flickr

Photos of our experience were captured at Flickr using a new account we set up at ted21C (friend us). These photos are also posted on our learning network.

I’ve spent a memorable week working with school leaders who are thinking about ways they will bring transformation back to their schools. During that time we were Flickring, Blogging, Google Docing, Polling, Networking, Tweeting, Eating, Speaking and more. I can’t wait to see their plans for taking some of what they learned back to their schools as they continue down the road of transformation.