I worry. I surely do.

I worry.  I surely do.  But that's just me.  I worry about everything.  My husband calls me The Worry Girl.  Now, I need to sleep nights so I try to behave accordingly (i.e. reduce my worry factor) -- which is why my sweet daughter is experiencing a relatively structured approach to education as opposed to an unschooling approach.

Just to clarify, we homeschool our now twelve year old and have done from the word 'go'.  For those of you who aren't intimate with homeschooling jargon, unschooling is a non-process approach to teaching a child.  One just lives one's life as normal and the child learns, naturally, the skills he or she needs to live well.  No books, no classrooms, no testing - unless the child asks for them.  Consider it the opposite to the current approach being used in group schooling, today.

And, for the article that inspired me to write this post, today, take a look at:  http://www.alternet.org/education/154849/Chomsky%3A_How_the_Young_Are_Indoctrinated_to_Obey/?page=1.  You gotta love Noam Chomsky.  This guy is my hero.

Chomsky is suggesting, here, that the current changes in education as predicted by many (we have long known that getting our children a university degree would be very expensive, compared to what the boomers enjoyed) are driven more by the desire to control the population than to allow the population to fulfill its fullest potential because its fullest potential is a dangerous thing.  So the prices are going up and the curriculum getting more restricted and the institutions more bottom-line driven.  Fewer and fewer folk will be able to afford a university degree...and those people will be rich.  The rest will be cowed and controlled, weeded out by frustration and apathy or lack of funds.

And, as the power of unions is systematically garrotted and political voices for the common man drift ever toward the centre (to get access to more political donation money), we know that honest labour will no longer be valued as it has been.  It will be harder and harder to live well on a factory job, for example, if no one will pay a reasonable wage -- and if some guy in Nebraska is willing to work for eight bucks an hour, one loses the job entirely.  Really makes me wonder who the rich think will buy anything at all, not to mention all the computers and trinkets and such.  Henry Ford would have asked the same question.

So, getting a university education may be critical in the coming decades if one wants to make a good living.  Even now, I understand folks are struggling to win jobs over others -- even after the proven competency of working in the industry for over thirty years -- because they didn't get a degree way back when.  Yikes.  But with the system becoming prohibitively expensive, how the heck are the average and poor kids going to aspire to even our slipping standard of living?

Now, I am not saying that a child has to go to university to live a fulfilling life.  Our current lifestyle seems to be producing folks who can't cut their own grass, clean their own house, cook their own meals, or change a light bulb.  So, anyone with a bit moxy and an entrepreneurial spirit who is willing to service these basic needs will probably be successful.  Again, another trend predicted decades ago.

Current group schooling approaches produce many things but moxy surely isn't one of them.   This is one of the reasons I homeschool.  However, if my sweet daughter ever hopes to go to university, she is going to have to be able ot prove that she can get grades.  I am currently researching the best methods to get homeschoolers into university - most involve taking online courses and tests.  Bleck.

Huh.  So how do you school a child so that she is an independent thinker AND capable of conforming in order to ensure that no doors are shut against her choice of lifestyle?  Well, everyday, we do a bit of book learning.  Everyday, we get a bit more under our belt.  I can only hope (as I am sure all parents are hoping in these uncertain times) that I am doing enough.

But I try not to worry.  :)


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

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