James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, spoke on the future of America to students at Lehigh University. Focusing on a depleting oil supply, he pictures the downfall of suburbia (and Vegas) and a revival of small towns.
And, interestingly enough, he sees a reversal of our current trend of centralization in education.
In the future, there will no longer be centralized school districts, or as Kunstler calls them, “pupil sheds.” Homeschooling will replace public schools, he noted. The Brown and White
I could do with fewer pupil sheds, even if that means changing how we “do school” rather than doing away with it, but I don’t see it. Everything is trending toward increased centralization at the moment, and the only people I hear talking about restructuring our living spaces are wanting more urbanization, not less.
What do you think? Do you see homeschooling replacing public schools? I can only imagine that if there is a complete collapse of our central government, in which case teaching our children to read may be the least of our concerns.
I do not see home schools replacing our public schools–ever. Too many things would have to change on a societal level. There would have to be one parent home, so a shift in marriage trends and economic stability of one wage earner would have to be the norm… just to start. Plus, even with a collapse of government, modern Americans are used to their children going somewhere each day; they rely on that, are accustomed to it, and honestly… probably wouldn’t know how to adjust to a house full of kids all day, every day in which they are completely responsible.
I know this isn’t a very nice commentary on the state of American parenting, but I think overwhelmingly parents don’t want the job nor responsibility of educating and preparing their children for the future. Some simply would be scared of such a responsibility. Some really aren’t capable of it. It’s easier to “outsource” that. And it is habit.
I agree that, short of a complete governmental collapse, it won’t be happening. Shawna above states very well some of the reasons why too. But I do see a continuation of the expansion of homeschooling families. I only hope that our numbers will be big enough to avoid a government crack-down of that freedom at some future point. There are lots of people who agree with Germany’s government, that all children should conform.
I think Shawna’s point is a good one – our society really does depend on the “ecosystem service” of childcare that the education system provides, and that would take quite a large disruptuion to changes. Perhaps not to one earner households, but certainly to much more family-friendly ways of working (4-day work weeks, telecommuting, etc.)
I do think that unbundling education from school makes a lot of sense these days; but I also believe that if “homeschooling” were to become the new norm, it wouldn’t necessarily look like it does now. I could see a system that involved libraries, community centers, alternative programs like North Star, and even more traditional schools, all linking together in a distributed educational system that would allow parents as much or as little direct involvement as they would like. The problem I see in getting there from where we are now (aside from fighting the vested interests of the education-industrial complex) would be reassuring parents & fellow citizens that changing the system is O.K., and that kids won’t be harmed or “fall through the cracks” more than they do now — indeed, that they may achieve better lives than under the current system.
Agree with CircleReader about how the changes will manifest.
I wonder if it will be like publishing and journalism, sort of simultaneously going in to opposed directions that pull against each other. Huge media conglomerates and fragmented specialized niche magazines (and the Internet of course) pulling all the old set models apart, all at the same time from both directions.
Education could be getting more and less centralized at the same time, iow.
No, homeschooling won’t replace public schools. Homeschooling will spread and grow though. What I hope is that public schools will move back from being centrally controlled by the Federal government to being controlled locally in communities. I hope that school districts will shrink and parents will have greater say in curriculum, teachers, etc.
I’m not even sure a situation where everyone homeschools would be desireable. Honestly many many people are not suited to educate their children because of personality, temperment, schedule or other circumstances. I would like it very much though if people who wanted to put their kids in school would pay for it themselves instead of expecting the rest of us to.
I agree with the increased and decreased centralization at the same time. I think we’re going to see more and more hybrid options, and more people fretting about the direction homeschooling is going.
The more centralized the system comes, the more people are left out. The more people are left out, the more people see a need to find alternative methods, because people are not quite as willing to sacrifice their own children to the system.
But these people coming out of the system now are not as interested in finding a new way of education; they want the education they had as children. They want the public education experience plus something, not a complete alternative. They want standards and certified programs and experts because they want their children to achieve on the same level and at the same game. So they put pressure on alternative programs to be a little more like schools.
At the same time, the system wants to bring us back to the fold, so to speak. They are under pressure to offer such programs, to insist on oversight of alternative programs and to bring homeschooling under the umbrella of public education rather than private.
Michelle: I would like it very much though if people who wanted to put their kids in school would pay for it themselves instead of expecting the rest of us to.
I think this ties to Dana’s new post about the purpose of public education. It was very much a founding vision that education was essential to sustaining the democratic experience. It isn’t ONLY a benefit for the individual, when as a community we choose to be an educated society and a modern economy, rather than say, Somalia or Afghanistan.