Cohousing-L Mailing List: Alternative education and cohousing

[biow (biow]

In <Pine.3.89.9410191056.A7779-0100000 [at] pacifier.com>,John Gear 
<catalyst [at] pacifier.com> wrote:

>I'm curious about the response of people in cohousing communities
>to the ideas in John Taylor Gatto's book _Dumbing Us Down_. 
>Although he is particularly taking aim at the institution of the
>factory-model school, he is pretty eloquent about children's (and
>everyone's) need for communities.  He differentiates between
>communities and "networks," which he defines as associations that
>are only relating to one part of you.  

I haven't read that book, but have seen lots of references to it. I 
would probably find myself in disagreement with most of his 
distinctions between "network" and "community." But.

I've wondered quite a bit why there is not more commonality between 
the cohousing movement and alternative education. Part of it may be 
political--coho tends to be left of center, while alternative 
education is primarily supported by the Religious Right. IMHO, both 
sides have compromised their appeal to the general public through 
association with political extremes.

Part of the answer might be found in a small subset of the 
alternative schooling movement that seems to revolve around Grace 
Lywellen's (name misspelled; I don't do Welsh) book 
Teenage_Liberation and a magazine called Growing_Without_Schooling. 
This movement tends to be left of center and occasionally even 
offers a glimmer of truth that does not require a radical political 
filter to be seen. Ms. Lly..., a former public school teacher, 
makes the point that, if one actually puts in three hours a day of 
honest learning, one will do far better than even the most 
dedicated public school student. Her book tries to sell teenagers 
on taking the initiative to leave school and arrange their own 
education (legal or practical in most if not all states in the US). 
In most cases, by maintaining official enrollment in the public 
schools, a teenager may pick and choose activities and even 
classes, while conducting the bulk of his education on his own 
initiative. If he wants to study chemistry, perhaps he finds a 
neighbor who is a retired chemist, and trades housework for 
lessons. Ms. Lly... also does an excellent job of arguing that most 
of what is wrong with adolescence in the US today is the fault of 
our schooling system, which forces adolescents into tight, one-year 
groups in a coercive atmosphere, cutting off as much as possible of 
their contact with other ages. It's a recipe for pathological 
extremes of adolescent rebellion.

This and other approaches to alternative education would seem to me 
to be a perfect match with cohousing. Students could cooperate in 
arranging instruction, and parents could efficiently participate. 
It might not be unreasonable for the community to hire instructors 
for a particular purpose, if that expense were spread across a 
dozen families.

The big, political obstacle that I see is that alternative 
education, being inherently an attack on public education, runs up 
against some of the strongest political feelings in our society. 
Particularly for the generation now in their 50's and 60's, public 
education is the sentimental equivalent of, say, civil rights for 
boomers. Criticizing it is unthinkable for people such as my 
parents. But could cohousing provide a vehicle, despite the 
political perceptions?

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Chris "not always on a rant" Biow
coho-l lurker and flaming political moderate