Unschooling is the new norm
Unschooling is the new norm
It’s real. Education in the 21st century has gone smaller, digital and simplified. More importantly, it’s become in smaller clusters.
True, every version of education has meaning. From the earlier gurukuls to the Udemy(ies) of the world. No one form or platform can bridge the gap or quench the thirst. Yet, the more I see, the more I wonder if Unschooling is the new norm.
The age of super stuffed classrooms, lifeless assessments, dreadful discipline and ritualistic uniforms might make for an early grave. No don’t take my word as apocalyptic. Schools would continue to function, much like the totalitarianism and monarchist governments despite a mandate for democracy. Some will do exceedingly well too. Those are rare. Run by very passionate and purposeful people. Most are for profits.
So as a parent, Unschooling would mean smaller gatherings. Focussed task, an non classrooms, learning on the go, exams created by students and projects that don’t involve chart papers and thermocol, please!!
Taking a cue from one outstanding research done by Prof Sugato Mitra. Yes, the same professor who has one TED award, once and like most memories, the only one that has stuck. He has gone on to go better task too. His Hole in the Wall experiment and now, School in the Cloud are truly transformational.
From the Hole in the Wall talk, I took a lesson about SOLES. Self Organized Learning Environment. An experiment where students believe and indeed teach themselves to learn.Yes, this is possible.
We simply call it peer learning. Or push learning. Given the right tools, and words of encouragement, learning happens all the time.