From Turning Points' to 'The Self-Organizing Revolution'

I am almost finished with reading 'Turning Points' and started another book on my way to the Paris city centre today: Ron Miller's 'The Self-Organizing' Revolution. In it, he outlines alternative educational movement and argues that, however different they might be, they also have a lot of things in commong and that the best way forward is to adopt a holistic world view which embraces all of the proposed education forms and see what is best for every individual child. I could not agree more.

Although I understand that there are long not enough schools to offer a proper 'choice' to parents and students, in my opinion the main problem is the publicising of education alternatives. There are way too few people who actually know that the possibility that their child does not need to go to a state school. Only by showing people what is available to them will they be able to make an educated choice- for the best of their child as Ron argues above!

The most amazing thing for me about the AERO conference was the fact that all of these different groups, Montessori, Waldorf, homeschooling, etc..., attended and were not inetersted in promoting their own way of educating, but rather came together in order to create a better education future for society with everybody's contribution! Something like this does not yet exist in Europe but I cannot wait to learn more and maybe one day get involved in building an organisation that brings the whole of the european alternative education together- a kind of AERO Europe project.

I also asked myself for the first time what exactly I would like to to teach. It's funny that it has taken me this long to think outside of the box! I would love to teach cooking and baking for example. And organising. And dancing. And reading out loud. And I bet this is just the tip of the iceberg and I am just too ignorant at the moment to think of more. Teaching languages is also something I like doing, but rather as a means of communicating that remembering vocab! I have always asked people what they enjoy in life, what they want to do, but I never imagined that it would be possible for me to teach things outside of the state corriculum!

So, this brings me to my first ideas for my own school. I am going to start a little section on the left where I am going to collect bits and bobs for my ideal school.

Some time in the last days, I read about the importance of the teacher in the development of the learner and it struck me that I actually really remember my teachers from my school time and not the 'facts' they taught me. Teachers should teach what they are passionate about- and if it is cake making in my case :-) Every human being has so much he/she is passionate about and inspiring someone else to love the same thing is something truly amazing!

When I talked to my (very conservative) dad about education the other day, he argud that it will never bee possible to have all of these different way for children to learn different things and still 'compete' for the same jobs and universitty places. There is already a huge problem (ever within Europe or one country!) to transfer from one school or one university to another. German universities would not consider me for a BA Film course because I had taken media, film and photography in my final year and not maths, science and another foreign language (!). So how is it possible for everybody to learn what they want to and still get on in the 'system'? What if you want to be a lawyer but can't attend uni in Europe because you went to a Montessori school?

There were also some other questions I want to think about:

What do children need to learn? (Truth, goodness, wisdom, love and others come from withine the person!)

Do they need guidance in 'developing' the above abilities?

How do we identiify ourselves? What do we need to learn in order to 'be' ourselves?

Do I want to change the (national or international) educational state system OR do I want to advocate educational alternatives as a way to escape the system?

In the talk with my parents, it also became clear that they see my 'career choice' as a possibility to work in private education and, eventually, earn a lot of money. I am still very confused about where I stand on this. Yes, I grew up in quite a consumerist household and society (my dad is a banker) and I like clothes and shiny things, but I also feel that everybody should have the same right to free education and that I am responsible for fighting for that believe. Opening a private alternative education school for 'rich' kids and support the poorer ones with scholarships will benefit the school (better materials) but might also drive a lot of students away. I will have to think more about this.

Lastly, Ron also placed the alternative education uprising as part of the civil rights movement. And then came the question: Do children have human rights? Oh, that made me think. Of course they do. But they also can't do everything, adults can do and many decisions are made for them. is that good or bad? Should parents choose the way of 'schooling' for their child? According to the United Nation's article 26: yes. But what if the child would like to chose him/herself? And what if the state interferes? (On that note: I can''t believe that homeschooling is still illegal in Germany!)

He also used a great word- philanthropy (love for humanity). I do agree that children need to be educated to build a better world as part of a community. My friend Michael, who I met at the conference, told me about his vision to open a small community village in which every member of the group educates the children together and in a democratic, free way. Believing in the good in human kind is so important and I really hope that Ron is right when he is predicting that this is the way humanity is developing.