How We Build Our World

Together we're a genius. ~Six Feet Under

If it were only about teaching famous three R's, then we wouldn't need schools, at least for most kids. There would be no need to come together every day if the purpose of education were strictly to learn academic skills, at least in the early years because, quite frankly, these are not particularly difficult things for humans to teach or to learn. We wouldn't need all those "instructional hours." In fact, if education were merely a matter of math and literacy, I can think of few teaching methods more inefficient than what we call school.

We need schools because education is much bigger than academics, something politicians of all stripes fail to comprehend. School is about learning to live in a community with other free and equal citizens. That's the reason we need schools. School is where we practice fairness, fitting in, standing out, forging partnerships, sharing, accommodating, tolerating, celebrating, and getting our own needs met, while helping meet the needs of others. School is where we learn what we need to know about building community, which is, after all, what human animals are all about.

I know a lot of homeschoolers read this blog. It was a choice we considered for our daughter, but rejected because I didn't think I was up to single-handedly cobbling together a big enough  "social life" for my child. I applaud those of you who manage it, but we chose school, not for the academics, but for the opportunity it offered to give our child practice in building things together.

And that's what we do all day in school, really, when all is said and done: build things together.

The first child arrives, drops to her knees and gets busy with her chosen work. This is perhaps no different than what she does at home. What makes it school is the arrival of others and the struggle and joy of figuring out how to make that work.

We build our school together each year, day-by-day and block-by-block. It's no accident that this is also how we build our world.

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