I’ve only made it through the first half of this video so far and have virtually no time to consider this post properly right now, so it’s inevitably going to come out as a brain dump, undoubtedly omitting important points in the process, yet George’s response to Robin Good (above and discussed here) has really set me off on a train of thought…
Referring to the notion of institutionalised schooling, George comments that institutional structures are everywhere in life, and indeed part of society’s fundamental framework, and as such you can’t …

[Image: cc licensed flickr photo shared by Izzard]
A comment Sinikka left this morning on my last post has really lead me to thinking. She comments that her experiences with fostering self-direction amongst students have been challenging in some respects, as there seems to be a lack of understanding or comfort with what self-directed learning is and how you actually pursue it. Moreover she points out that the nature of classroom structures, and the many-to-few ratio of students versus teachers, makes it quite difficult to give each individual sufficient attention …

Editor’s Note: At one stage this post had a point, but somewhere along the line it seems to have derailed into a rant against the establishment.
Criticism
The challenges and obstacles facing the evolution and revolution of education can be traced back to a few key ideas – those of stratification, hierarchies, institutionalisation, power, and control. Essentially, characteristics that have nothing to do with education and learning, but everything to do with how it is controlled, dictated and managed.
Schools have come to symbolise clearly structured environments where teacher presides over a …