Posts in Public School Issues
Moondoggle
Moondoggle

Amidst the remarkable singing, dancing, and music in the movie are the critical responses of people at the concert to the US putting a man on the moon, which occurred during the concert. One commenter at the concert made a point that rang particularly true to me: “You could have spent that money on earth and made a whole lot of people much better.”

That’s often how I feel about our never-ending school reform efforts: more technology, bigger schools, more testing, more theories and schemes about making children learn what schools determine they need to know so they can become the workers that science, business, and government want. Instead of focusing on the perceived future needs of science, business, and government, why not focus that money on improving the actual needs of local neighborhoods, family healthcare, salaries, and wages?

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Community, John Holt, Public School Issues, Ivan IllichPatrick Farengasummer of soul, Moondoggle, Criticism of space program, Illich, limits to developmentComment
Unschooled: A Movie Review
Unschooled: A Movie Review

I have two strong impressions after viewing the movie Unschooled. One because I personally know Peter Bergson and the second because of my experience advocating for unschooling and self-directed education.

I went to the screening already knowing that Peter was upset with his portrayal in the film and with the film’s over-riding narrative of “kindly white person saves inner-city minority youths.” . . .

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Alternative schooling, Homeschooling Films, Learner-centered curricula, Public School Issues, School reform, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaUnschooling movie, Natural Creativity Center, Peter Bergson Comment
My Friend, John Gatto
My Friend, John Gatto

John Taylor Gatto, a famous schoolteacher and author, died last week. I knew him first as a writer and ally of unschooling, and eventually got to know him as a friend. John Gatto passed away on Oct. 25, 2018, and I want to share some of my memories of him. I took this photo of John in a dressing room at Carnegie Hall before he took the stage for his event, The Exhausted School.

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Obituary, Public School Issues, School reform, John Taylor GattoPatrick FarengaJohn Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down, Teacher of the Year Comments
John Holt on Violence and the Democratic National Convention of 1968
John Holt on Violence and the Democratic National Convention of 1968

August 28, 2018, is the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Though not present, John Holt supported the students and was highly critical of the police. John adds some thoughtful commentary and advice about being careful not to turn just anger into blind hate in this previously unpublished piece.

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John Holt, Legal Issues, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaDemocratic National Convention 1968, John HoltComment
Elders Impugn The Young After Gun Massacre
Elders Impugn The Young After Gun Massacre

After news of the Parkland gun massacre came out, “Jack Kingston, a former United States representative from Georgia and a regular CNN commentator, asked, “Do we really think—and I say this sincerely—do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?” Why can’t we just support and encourage these young people in their single, clear goal of banning assault weapons instead of assimilating their effort into the conventional, adult-driven, conservative/liberal battle narrative?

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Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaYouth vote, Young adults, Gun massacre, school violenceComment
Our School Choice Is None
Our School Choice Is None

Now, there’s no doubt that homeschooling is a choice, but for me and other homeschoolers I know, it was not a choice of schools, it was a choice for our family to avoid the rat race of school: its busy work and pressure for labels, grades, class status, and homework. Our choice was not to go to school and to not turn our home into a school—and that’s a choice I never read about in the school choice literature . . .

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Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Legal Issues, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaSchool choice, vouchers, charter schools Comment
You Do Not Need a PhD to Look at a Child and to Think About What He is Doing
You Do Not Need a PhD to Look at a Child and to Think About What He is Doing

From John Holt's reply to Dr. Jerome Bruner's letter to the NY Review of Books: "The proper business of the intellectual is to make complicated ideas more simple, not simple ideas more complicated; to make the real world more comprehensible, not less so." Read more about this sharp exchange . . .

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Book Review, John Holt, Learning and Teaching, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaDr. Jerome Bruner, John Holt, NY Review of Books, Toward a Theory of InstructionComment
Escaping the Education Caste System
Escaping the Education Caste System

Some Indian parents help their children cheat on exams to get ahead, and treat children harshly to make them study, in what they perceive as a dog-eat-dog world of education. Is conventional schooling the only way to help people learn and grow into good citizens?

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Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and Teaching, Parenting, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick FarengaSchool cheating, Schooling the World, education caste, Standardized testingComment
Unschooling and Social Change
Unschooling and Social Change

Many educators grasp the importance of letting children learn through their own joy and passions, but almost none recommend that unschooling can be a sound way to do so. Even fewer dare to be education heretics and question why we need to box children into schools and how else they might learn and grow in today's world . . .

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Children's Rights, John Holt, Ivan Illich, Learner-centered curricula, Public School IssuesPatrick FarengaJohn Holt, Social Change, Jeffrey Nall, Jennifer VadeboncoeurComment
The Protect Children Project
The Protect Children Project

Empowering children to question authority and become active citizens rather than passive students is not high on the agendas of religious and educational institutions, since they consider physical and psychological punishments to be necessary components of their teaching processes. This is why I’m writing about the Protect Children Project—its primary purpose is to end corporal punishment in school—and they have declared May 15, 2014, as Protect Children Day.

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Children's Rights, Legal Issues, Public School Issues, School reformPatrick Farengaprotect children project, corporal punishment in school, Children's rights, child abuse Comments