How We Encourage Children to be Stupid (Fear-full)

Maybe education is unsure how to deliver its promises at this time of systemic overhaul (technology leaps, financial divides, cultural tensions ...). It takes collective bravery to de-colonialise a whole schooling system. There are pockets of progressive independent schools, and I know families where their chosen homeschooling tries to tap into the idea of "tech kids to think independently and creatively" VS indoctrination of selected knowledge (deemed important for a neo-liberalistic, capitalistic system). The early childhood programmes in Australia are very much focused on child agency and exploration, questioning the world, collaboration, etc. But then all that good work falls away in primary education when maths and writing become the focus - and the child is being reared for the adult world where is has to 'know stuff like everyone else'. And hence the fear of NOT achieving, NOT living up to and NOT being seen (think assessments, grades, social comparisons, parents' expectations, schools pivoting against each other) becomes just way too real.

I disagree with the sentence that technology is becoming the new church. Capitalism and marketing (or the attention industry) has long taken that spot, and technology is merely the new tool for it. Let's not forget that religion used to be the main framework responsible to instil fear for centuries to keep people in line with certain rules and values (e.g.: afterlife, social norms). As in response to the child-question about death, my step-daughter said a few weeks ago after her grandfather died: "I am not afraid of death anymore, because I will meet Papa in Heaven when I die." Whereas my birth-children don't know the concept of an afterlife as a certainty, and have to grapple with the bigger existential questions surrounding such big life events.

Also, childism: a social system in which dominance and privileges are held by adults, including discrimination and prejudice against children.

We would need to take a look at childhood throughout history and how it has changed and evolved (in different cultural contexts). And the relatively new emergence of child agency and rights of the child. Here I see a whole new field opening in how children today are exposed to online worlds/technology worlds/social media/gaming and technology being used in education - whereby the content of which is mostly created by adults, sometimes for children but a lot of times not specifically with a child in mind - yet children are consuming the content actively and passively, are otherwise exposed to it, basically being socialised by media.

I am one who is not giving into the fearmongering (Haidt and anxiety) just yet, but am interested in the social psychological impact on our growing-uppers. What concerns me is that (generally) children are not being taught how to creatively and constructively contribute to the media they are exposed to. As such actions would indeed give them agency. At the moment we have an online-child concept called "The out-of-control child" where children apparently have lost the control over themselves and adults feel powerless as to how to respond. Social media is also creating "miniature adults", depicting children with adult like products (excessive make up, weapons etc..), and parents are increasingly worried about online safety (the child as a victim, but also the evil other-child, cyber-bullying).

In the pedagogy of the oppressed, it states that:

"The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion."

Here I would like to close the circle and say that FEARLESSNESS for me resembles that human quest for completion, the realisation of our full potential, reaching that destiny (one we either feel is right for us or choose to attend to). And education is one social experiment and container that can teach children autonomy and responsibility, among many other things - but surely has to do so in an authoritative way, a collaborative way, with mutual respect.

As for how children are indoctrinated politically these days, depending on their cultural contexts, I can only hope the kids are allowed to reflect and at least question at home or other environments what certain schools teach them about what to fear and what makes a "good citizen". I honestly doubt that most adults these days really know what that is in a decade from now, and project all their fears straight into other people's minds ... Take climate change science at schools and the global dilemma. Children are being taught the science, effects, consequences, yet see most adults taking no action or not enough action, and governments fuddling back and forth... What does that teach them? And how exactly are we teaching history? Colonialism here in Australia, for example? There are so many existential questions. Should we teach philosophy in school instead? And let the children figure out their own answers? And just listen?

The purpose of this post is to give a general overview of and explanation about Acton Academy, in order to provide the broader picture before you dig…

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Christina July 23, 2024 at 11:48pm

Maybe education is unsure how to deliver its promises at this time of systemic overhaul (technology leaps, financial divides, cultural tensions ...). It takes collective bravery to de-colonialise a whole schooling system. There are pockets of progressive independent schools, and I know families where their chosen homeschooling tries to tap into the idea of "tech kids to think independently and creatively" VS indoctrination of selected knowledge (deemed important for a neo-liberalistic, capitalistic system). The early childhood programmes in Australia are very much focused on child agency and exploration, questioning the world, collaboration, etc. But then all that good work falls away in primary education when maths and writing become the focus - and the child is being reared for the adult world where is has to 'know stuff like everyone else'. And hence the fear of NOT achieving, NOT living up to and NOT being seen (think assessments, grades, social comparisons, parents' expectations, schools pivoting against each other) becomes just way too real.

I disagree with the sentence that technology is becoming the new church. Capitalism and marketing (or the attention industry) has long taken that spot, and technology is merely the new tool for it. Let's not forget that religion used to be the main framework responsible to instil fear for centuries to keep people in line with certain rules and values (e.g.: afterlife, social norms). As in response to the child-question about death, my step-daughter said a few weeks ago after her grandfather died: "I am not afraid of death anymore, because I will meet Papa in Heaven when I die." Whereas my birth-children don't know the concept of an afterlife as a certainty, and have to grapple with the bigger existential questions surrounding such big life events.

Also, childism: a social system in which dominance and privileges are held by adults, including discrimination and prejudice against children.

We would need to take a look at childhood throughout history and how it has changed and evolved (in different cultural contexts). And the relatively new emergence of child agency and rights of the child. Here I see a whole new field opening in how children today are exposed to online worlds/technology worlds/social media/gaming and technology being used in education - whereby the content of which is mostly created by adults, sometimes for children but a lot of times not specifically with a child in mind - yet children are consuming the content actively and passively, are otherwise exposed to it, basically being socialised by media.

I am one who is not giving into the fearmongering (Haidt and anxiety) just yet, but am interested in the social psychological impact on our growing-uppers. What concerns me is that (generally) children are not being taught how to creatively and constructively contribute to the media they are exposed to. As such actions would indeed give them agency. At the moment we have an online-child concept called "The out-of-control child" where children apparently have lost the control over themselves and adults feel powerless as to how to respond. Social media is also creating "miniature adults", depicting children with adult like products (excessive make up, weapons etc..), and parents are increasingly worried about online safety (the child as a victim, but also the evil other-child, cyber-bullying).

In the pedagogy of the oppressed, it states that:

"The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion."

Here I would like to close the circle and say that FEARLESSNESS for me resembles that human quest for completion, the realisation of our full potential, reaching that destiny (one we either feel is right for us or choose to attend to). And education is one social experiment and container that can teach children autonomy and responsibility, among many other things - but surely has to do so in an authoritative way, a collaborative way, with mutual respect.

As for how children are indoctrinated politically these days, depending on their cultural contexts, I can only hope the kids are allowed to reflect and at least question at home or other environments what certain schools teach them about what to fear and what makes a "good citizen". I honestly doubt that most adults these days really know what that is in a decade from now, and project all their fears straight into other people's minds ... Take climate change science at schools and the global dilemma. Children are being taught the science, effects, consequences, yet see most adults taking no action or not enough action, and governments fuddling back and forth... What does that teach them? And how exactly are we teaching history? Colonialism here in Australia, for example? There are so many existential questions. Should we teach philosophy in school instead? And let the children figure out their own answers? And just listen?
- R.Michael Fisher > Christina July 28, 2024 at 4:09pm
  
  All thoughtful commentary and good questions to ponder. Thanks Christina. I so agree, we ought to have children working with adults in open 'democratic' settings where children can, with assistance, design-sensitively and influence curriculum and pedagogy. I can't say I know where that is actually happening, other than the odd rare independent schools, homeschool (private cooperatives, etc.). A recent discovery I am snooping into locally where I live on Vancouver Is. is part of homeschooling plus collective facility (teacherless) schooling: see Acton Schools
  
  Acton Academy – The basics
  
  The purpose of this post is to give a general overview of and explanation about Acton Academy, in order to provide the broader picture before you dig…

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