Outgrowing Asimov

Freedom in learning, right from the start

A free school in New York believes that students, right from grade school kids, should be the one designing their own curriculum. Link

Coming from a country where rote-learning is highly emphasized and even celebrated, this came as a pleasant surprise. Yet, as I think deeper, my brain shouts "Illogical"!

Are we born with self-motivation? Are we born knowing what we want to know? Even though I celebrate the American college system where students have the autonomy to learn what they want to learn, to specialize in what they choose to specialize, I am not sure how this could be extended to kids. Granted, there exists kids with strong innate interest in a particular field or just strong plain curiosity, they belong to the minority. When we are young, we are probably still in dreamland, eating candies, playing with other kids and talking about the latest kid shows. I know I didn't care about school back then. Who need all the boring Math, Science that seems out of this world, and language... as long as I can communicate with my friends, isn't it enough?

I only truly appreciate all this later, much later. It is only through testing and trying in this huge world did I finally manage to find out where my interest lies, what my beliefs are. It is like standing in front of a ice-cream store and gotta keep trying the different flavors before one could figure out which is the personal favorite. Except, I needed much prodding before I step out and explore this world, unwillingly. If not for the enforced school system, I think I would be wondering on some streets and still dream the same old innocent dream of bright blue skies.

Of course, this is so subjective, I shouldn't even post here. But this seems like a good topic for discussion. Anyone?

posted by iadk @ 5:51 PM