Want to Be a Scholar? Be a Scholar; You Don’t Need Academia’s Approval

The thing that really struck me about this question was the complete and utter lack of imagination. Actually, scratch that. It doesn’t even take imagination because the alternative exists and some people are doing it. It’s more like a complete lack of awareness of the world that already exists. Like the academic who proclaimed that the private maintenance of maritime lighthouses was impossible, while the lighthouse out his own window was at that very time privately maintained.

Implosion

Yesterday, I was an eyewitness, along with tens of thousands others, to the controlled implosion of the 48 year old Capital Plaza Tower, in Frankfort KY, a 24-story state office building, the former home of many government agencies, including the Department of Education.

The Propagation of Knowledge

People don’t pass you information because it is true, they pass you information because it benefits them to do so. People don’t study information because it is true, people study what information benefits them. This isn’t a slight at scientists. Few people would suggest that scientists ought to spend time studying information that has no benefit. Many scientists study information based off of flawed premises built within the culture. Few scientists get grants from disinterested parties. The force that links “knowledge” to accuracy or truth is incentives.

Watching Children Learn Naturally

Watching children learn naturally, while following their own interests, is nothing short of astonishing. It shouldn’t be, of course. We shouldn’t be surprised that giving children freedom and autonomy, and trusting them to pursue passions most meaningful to them, would lead to deep and lasting learning. But Self-Directed Education is so rare in our widely schooled society that most of us don’t get the opportunity to see what learning without schooling (including school-at-home) looks like. Self-Directed Education, or unschooling, is strikingly different from schooling–in all of its various iterations.