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What to teach?
Existing alternative schools vary greatly in their approach to teaching, but their curricula are often very similar.
We want to rethink education from the ground up, asking not only how we can teach more efficiently, but also what is actually worth teaching. Our preliminary answers to these questions inform not only the curriculum we envision, but also the organizational structure we are developing for our school.
We want to rethink education from the ground up, asking not only how we can teach more efficiently, but also what is actually worth teaching. Our preliminary answers to these questions inform not only the curriculum we envision, but also the organizational structure we are developing for our school.
What is the purpose of education?
If we assume that education should provide a net benefit to humanity while enabling the individual student to lead a fulfilled life, it seems to follow that we need to help young people identify and strengthen their own talents and interests. In order to do this, students will need to learn how to discover and reflect on their own preferences and make informed decisions.
What role should schools play in education?
What can schools do for young people that they can't do for themselves and their parents cannot (or should not have to) do for them? If we accept the goals outlined above, schools could benefit students by bringing them into contact with a broad range of human endeavors and ideas, ideally bringing in professionals from diverse fields for workshops and arranging for students to gather experiences and skills in non-school contexts. After this orientation phase, the main function of schools would be to provide a supportive environment for students to develop their individual talents, which poses many challenges but may be worth the effort.
To what extent should we try to change people?
The line between education and manipulation is anything but clear (hence the quip that "education is just manipulation that doesn't really work"). If we try to make education more effective, we need to ask ourselves in what ways we are actively trying to change our students, and in which cases this is legitimate. Because we value freedom of choice both as an end in itself and instrumentally, we assume that teaching young people to make rational decisions and broadening their horizons are both legitimate and necessary.
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