You can’t rely on a ‘default’ education

It’s no longer safe for your kid to do what the crowd says.

Not only were schools designed to create workers and soldiers (the Prussian model), but they were expressly (the creators left behind some pretty damning direct quotes) designed to crush students' will, reducing them to mindless and obedient workers and soldiers. 

Once you see it, you suddenly want to shout to everyone you meet about the dark origins of the school system. 

The question we've been trying to answer for the past year is, "What do we do about this?" And we're happy to say some surprisingly simple and practical steps you can take. 

Macro vs. individual choices

You’re not going to change the whole system. Don’t even try – you’re wasting your precious energy as a parent. Instead, focus on your choices and your child. It’s not selfish (link). 

Individual parents can choose something new and better for their kids. It’s not illegal, at least. We did just what we're asking you to do: focus on what's best for your individual family and child. We think that's the only real way to make meaningful changes in education. We don't want to waste our time shouting at lumbering bureaucratic systems that are accountable to no one. 

But you do have a choice. And you do have control. You can create real changeThe choices you make matter in the education of your kids.

For your kids, obviously, but they also ripple outward. Your choice stands as an example for anyone else considering the shift. 

Alternative education was, very recently, a fringe position. But that’s changing. The outcomes of non-industrial schools are objectively better than those of ‘default’ systems. At this point, it's not even a high bar to clear -- the model of the school system was expressly designed to limit the flourishing of your kids. By simply opting out of that legacy, we've already made a huge improvement. 

Now, imagine what we could do if we put whatever creativity and ingenuity our own miseducation left behind into trying to make something better for our kids. 

First, we have to define "better." 

What you want for your kids 

When asked, parents never say they want academic outcomes for their kids. They never say, "I want my kid to be proficient at organic chemistry." 

Instead, they say things like, "I want my kid to have a fulfilling life," or, "I want my kid to be happy," or, “I want my kid to do things that matter.” 

The school system as it's currently designed will never reliably produce those outcomes. Not because it needs more funding or better teachers -- but because it’s designed, right down to its core elements, to break the human spirit, not cultivate it. 

One adult lecturing at a uniform crowd of kids in the same age range, for example, isn't the most effective way to teach anyone anything. In that format are a few assumptions, one being that abstract "facts" are what kids need to thrive in the world. We know that's not the case, but we still struggle to shake the feeling that "school" can’t exist without an adult lecturing to symmetrical rows of chairs. 

You don't acquire true life skills by learning something in the abstract. You learn by doing things. 

Play and cooperation

In organic groups of people of various ages, humans are very talented at helping one another improve. 

We've all been in an environment where we’ve felt this happen, whether it be a sports team, a positive work environment, or just a good group of friends. A lecturing teacher doesn’t even come close to this effect.

Yet, most people spend a large chunk of their young lives effectively unlearning how humans naturally tend to learn. Play, for example, is the primary way humans naturally develop useful skills. Yet, the modern classroom practically bans play, especially collaborative, social play where kids learn the most. 

When modern students rebel against the lack of play, they are too often given amphetamines (focus drugs for ADHD), which are known to kill the play drive in mammals. This is not a conspiracy – you can read how these drugs reduce the drive to play in the papers paid for by the people who make the drug. 

All this combines to create highly dependent people who do not know how to live happy, independent lives. 

‘Adulting’ and deschooling

It’s not uncommon for 30-something millennials to complain that they “suck at adulting.” 

“Adulting” is only hard for a generation of people who were actively unlearning life skills by being forced to raise their hands to go to the bathroom.

They don’t need to learn “adulting,” they actually need to unlearn what the school system taught them – they need to be “deschooled.” They need to unlearn the bad habits of passivity, indifference, and acquiescence to authority.

We cover in detail how to speed up this process of "deschooling" for adults. Hopefully, one day, nobody will need to "deschool" themselves. For now, however, most of us could benefit from unlearning habits like deferring to authority or learning only to pass a test.

To us, it's amazing that people aren't screaming this from the rooftops. The standard school system tried to break you — and may have succeeded — and it will try to break your children. Pull them out. 

Which alternative is best?

As far as which alternative is best, we are agnostic. 

Some people will choose to send their kids to a forest school, some people will send them to a Socratic school, and some will choose to get a classical education. We think the options are lovely. 

Political division is a huge reason these failures and truths haven’t become  completely obvious to everyone. When you say you're pulling your kid out of public school, there is immediately a political implication to that. People want to know which side you're on. 

But both liberals and conservatives should easily agree that a Prussian military/factory education model from 150 years ago is not the way we should continue educating our kids. 

And the best way forward is to pry power from the teeth of bureaucrats and administrators and put the choice back in the hands of parents. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident

Parents all over the political spectrum are waking up to the frightening truth: school is broken by design.

People who opt out of a clearly unhealthy ‘default’ education system shouldn’t have to feel so strange or alone. We’re building a platform that makes "better" education the norm. We believe the 150-year-old behemoth will crumple if people simply see it for what it is. The emperor has no clothes. You see it, too, right? 

None of what we're saying is particularly hard to discover, and yet it's strangely missing from the public conversation. If that hunger for freer, empowering alternatives resonates with you, please share this post and our articles with families who need to know. 

Thanks for being part of the revolution to save ourselves and our children from the leviathans of the past. Let's build something new together. Now is the time to experiment — because we couldn't make a worse system than the existing one if we tried. 

The ’default’ option of the standardized education system is no longer something you can depend on. It’s failing millions of kids, right this moment, despite every attempt at reform. Make your own choices. Download our school guide if you need a place to start. Whether you’re dipping your toes into these waters, or you’re ready to dive in head first, subscribe to our updates.

Your children deserve the best you can give them — even if it gets you some funny looks from your book club.  Their future is at stake. 

Thanks for reading. 

Taylor + rebelEducator team