Jody Cooper

The Demise of the Nation State

NOTE: My intention for this blog was not to be highly political. However I believe this article provides background to the idea that schooling is suffering and needs to change to meet the needs of the changing world.

On Facebook, today, I read The Demise of the Nation State, published by The Guardian. I had recently come to a personal acceptance that the populist or nationalistic state of our current country is in sync with the state of many other countries and felt very alarmed. This article was long, and mentally taxing at times, but it woke me up to how I accept nation states as a way of life, a way of being. Contemplating the idea that nation states have a lifetime, that death may be part of their journey was alarming. However, this article’s claims seem plausible.

 

If one studies the history of education, one learns quickly that the purpose of most schools has been indoctrination: mainly of ‘country values’ (political), economic needs, or religious ideas. If nation states are failing, then educational institutions, tasked with creating citizens for that nation state, will become obsolete. (I was going to say quickly, but educational institutions never do things quickly.)

 

I am a strong proponent of alternative education. However, I also believe that traditional schooling has played an important role in our nation state. I am deeply interested in exploring ways that traditional educational institutions could be more flexible, change with the times and meet the needs of their growing population. But I can’t say I have any good ideas at present. I fear if I had children to educate today I’d flee to homeschooling or some form of alternative education.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/05/demise-of-the-nation-state-rana-dasgupta

Jody Cooper

Technology

If you want to draw a response of uncertainty, frustration, and irritation, just ask a parent how much screen time they let their children have. I believe that digital technology evokes very strong feelings in parents: feelings that somehow technology is threatening their children’s well-being.

Teachers react similarly when asked that question about their students. However, schools have certain barriers to technology use: cost, training, maintenance, expertise, traditional instruction and curriculum that doesn’t usually include substantial amounts of digital technology. Curriculum and instruction evolve slowly. Classes are generally age-defined so kids aren’t learning from older students. Change is much slower in schools.

I argue that technology has already impacted traditional schools in a big way and they are struggling to handle it. One area impacted by technology is content, or fact-gathering. Traditional curriculum and instruction generally included teaching information, facts about the Civil War for example. Kids may not need that anymore. They are usually quite capable of finding lots of fascinating information, maps, pictures, videos about the Civil War. Teachers still play an important role in enhancing and directing their learning, but acceptance of the fact that technology has replaced part of their job will become harder and harder to ignore.

Jody Cooper

Purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to discuss alternative approaches to education in light of traditional, cultural approaches.

I love to watch children learn, more specifically how they learn. For that matter, I like to watch anyone learn. I want to do everything I can to foster learning. I have been a fan of alternative forms of education ever since I stuck my neck out and homeschooled my fourth-grade son. I’m particularly interested in the role technology and the growth of the Internet will play in the future.

My dissertation focused on how technology was employed, or not employed, to learn literacy in homeschooling families. I interviewed twenty homeschooling families who held a wide variety of educational philosophies. I have continued to interview fourteen of these families for four years now and hope to continue for another six years. This longitudinal study provides lots of stories and data about alternative education.

The purpose of this blog is not to find the ‘one true path’. I believe there are and should be many paths. The families I interviewed have graciously given me permission to share their stories. I share these stories because they provide such a diversity of possibilities, so many different paths. Please hear these stories with care; questions and your own stories are welcome, but this is not a forum to harshly criticize what is shared. I intend to also post about articles and other ideas which would be open to more debate and discussion, but I will protect the sharing of everyone’s personal experiences.

My interest in alternative education doesn’t diminish the respect I have for traditional education, having taught in elementary school for eleven years and in college for three. I’m curious how traditional schooling will evolve in this digital world.