Massive ed disruption foretold?
How much of this education disruption has been foretold?
Does it take a serious world health epidemic to turn schooling “upside down”. Decades of “reforms” have produced little rest from complaints about schools.
In 1971 UNESCO produced a report — Wastage in education: a world problem. Issues were identified: drop-outs, illiteracy, poor training of teachers, testing, the basics, etc. Recommendations were made. Results are unknown. But, UNESCO never again undertook such investigation.
In 1971 Ivan Illich published his book, Deschooling Society, stated: “The public is indoctrinated to believe that skills are valuable and reliable only if they are the result of formal schooling.” He proposed “learning webs” way before Internet.
John Taylor Gatto wrote his book: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1991. He complain about , “compulsory government monopoly mass schooling”.
With the corona virus entry on the world scene, New York Times, Feb 28, ’20 published this story: “Fear of Vast ‘Mass Home-Schooling’ Experiment, raising the fear that technology and stay–at-home- students would make schools expendable.
With worries that home education from the home would be unfair for those families unable to harness technology, how long will it be before calls go out for “Ed Relief”?
Time to talk also about family choice in education and ed funding to follow the child.