How Did We Get Here?
When did school become so “terrible?” I personally loved school. I played sports, had good friends, great parents, and never felt overly beat down by the day to day. But, what a different world school is considered today. It wasn’t until I was a teacher that I realized that was NOT everyone else’s experience. When I reflect, I had no idea what my friends were doing every second of every day based on social media updates, I barely knew my teacher’s first name—and definitely did not know what their sexual preference was. I didn’t realize until now, that I only learned things because of a test I would be forced to take for a grade that would determine my future. (Don’t get me started on grades).
So, when did school become so terrible that families are leaving in droves to find alternative ways to educate their children? I was previously a history teacher—so let me tell you a story.
Let’s start at the beginning, for the first 200 years of American history there was no system of education. It was the family, the community, the village that raised and educated their children. This environment created some of our world’s greatest leaders, thinkers, and creators of our time. With such results, how did we stray off this course? The American people had a 90%+ literacy rate! Why is it today that most seniors graduate high school with a 6th grade reading level?
Specialized schools began to pop up in colonial America as independent institutions that were financed by the local townspeople and created to serve the people and families of that area. It was the families and community that were responsible for feeding the intellectual appetite of its children—not the government. They chose the “standards,” the teachers, and the textbooks that would shape the minds of their children. There was ashared ownership of the education of their children.
Fast forward to Great Britain at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Steam engines, coal dust, and children billow out of the work day ready to washup, eat, sleep, and repeat. Poverty and challenges force families to send their children to work to scrounge up enough cents on the dollars to put a loaf of bread on the table. The Industrial Revolution was revolutioning and the demand for skilled workers was increasing with a supply that was stagnant. The solution: Give the middle and lower class a basic, compulsory education to teach practical vocational skills to provide a workforce toward economic prosperity and security.
The industrial revolution didn’t want a workforce of individuals and critical thinkers, they wanted conformity of behavior, discipline, and obedience. But, you’re thinking, across the Atlantic—the land of the free & home of the brave stood against all of that. America shocked the world in 1776 by breaking free of British control—the world dominator of military endeavors—no way, could we ever give up our individuality and free thinking! Well……..Enter Horace Mann.
Horace “The horrible” Mann proposed “The Great Experiment” to Massachusetts legislature. Duplicating the Nazi adopted compulsory schooling model of Prussia in the 1800s, he proposed to establish teacher training programs to disperse desired content, values, and pre-determined ideologies to students. Fast forward 100 years, John Dewey, a socialist and father of “progressive” education, was electrified after a visit to Joseph Stalin’s communist Russia. He observed absolute obedience and conformity from the Russian people. He argued that children need to develop a more “holistic, communal view of the world” through our education system. Which, in retrospect, was the desire to imprint on students not how to think, but rather what to think.
Who would want this? Who could support this? Who would want thousands upon thousands of robots to just do what they're told? Billionaires. John D. Rockefeller to be exact. He wanted a workforce that would do as they were told and ask no questions. He said, “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”
Our schools were never designed to provide the best education possible. They were designed to conform as many individuals into a “one size fits all” approach—through state standards, government controlled teacher credentialing programs, curriculum, and the political and social agendas of those in power.
What a depressing article. But, there is hope on the horizon. The light is getting brighter and brighter and stronger and stronger. You’re probably part of this underground revolution to embody our 1776 selves. Where we as the parents know what’s best for our children, not the government. Where we have the freedom to foster critical thinking skills, expose our children to different crafts and trades, and ultimately create strong, independent, and secure citizens of the greatest country to ever exist.
Starting a pod takes us back to the 1800s, where the parents partner with educators that embody the values they wish to see in their children. Together they choose curriculum, activities, and “standards” they want upheld and imparted to their children. The power is back in our hands when we decide to homeschool and the pressure is relieved when we do it together.
Welcome to The Hive Method.