From: Mati Palm-Leis (mpalm@merr.com)
Date: Sun Jul 31 2005 - 15:41:55 BST
Arlo & Platt continued,
Arlo:
Also, do you think the MOQ supports compulsory attendance? Public and
compulsory have been historically developed as synonyms (at the K12 levels),
but do they have to be? Should we offer a community supported education in
these basic skills, but leave attendance optional? Or should we continue to
force attendance? Why?
Mati: I sense a feeling of animosity toward compulsory attendance. The
point is compulsory attendance is part of the social contract that children
will be provided an education. Not to educate a child I would suggest is
immoral act. Does it mean public education is the only way? Nope, home
school is one example in which parents are taking an active role in the
educational preparation of their children. This requires a tremendous
amount of dedication and sacrifice on the parent's part to make it work, and
in some cases it has worked wonderfully other not so well. Ok make
attendance optional and see what happens. Given today's community
structures, the picture would not be pretty. Kids would most likely either
find dead end jobs, or become a public nuisance.
Arlo:
Finally, you seem to support the idea of "intellectual" over "vocational".
That is, publically funded education should focus exclusively on academic or
intellectual areas, and leave job skills, life skills (balancing a
checkbook)out. That is, MOQ public schools would have no connection with
"getting a job"(other than a tangental one). Is that right?
Mati:
K-12 Education, I think you need to understand that because one has had an
education that they are not experts in what is required in providing an
education. Yup, your input is certainly important but what is equally
important is that you taking the time to explore your public schools and
what it takes to educated a child. Child development and education are
strongly aligned. And your previous statement is a common one that fails to
understand this point. I find it interesting when new local school board
members are elected that they go through a steep learning curve to begin the
process which I have worked a lifetime to understand. What these board
members begin to learn is that they shoulder a tremendous amount of
responsibility and each decision has ripple effects throughout a school
system.
Arlo:
You see, what I am trying to do is establish first what educational goals a
MOQ society would have, then draw funding and attendance from that. If the
goalswould be basic skills, we can make the cut-off say around 12 years of
age. There is no point to continue to 18. If the goal is an informed
citizenry to vote (for example), then we'd likely continue longer and offer
a great deal of history (as opposed to vocational education, hygiene, etc.)
Mati: "MOQ Society"? I think this a dangerous way of approaching education
or society. MOQ is a tool of understanding not a doctrine in which to
shape society. Understanding that intellectual values and their development
in children are our greatest purpose we can attain and is vital in our
renewal of understanding of our meaning of education. You have some
interesting ideas about attendance and I would like to suggest they are
somewhat short sighted and fails to take in account the broad scope, purpose
and funding mechanisms involved in public education. But your interest in
this topic is important one.
If you have any other questions let me know.
Mati
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Aug 04 2005 - 01:55:31 BST