It has already been several weeks since my daughter started going back to school in this new online environment. She is doing the best that she can with her teachers and other students. The systems the school is using were created only a few months ago and it was not developed to be a full-time replacement for the in-school experience we've had for almost a hundred years.
This new approach is completely new to most of the teachers and they are still on a learning curve when it comes to assessing what a child needs and what they themselves can offer.
Another interesting fact that I learned through the school's new year kick-off Zoom conference was that the average length of time these teachers have been around 28 years. This gave me pause as most of the teachers using this new technology grew up using things like text books and pencils and the occasional calculator. The idea that they have had minimum exposure in video production (Zoom), application support (when the app doesn't work) email production and distribution (communication), and online tool Q.A. (quality testing for usability) makes me wonder how we will adapt.
This is not a bash on teachers but it is a perspective on the expectations set on them and the student by some system that was not prepared for the future of learning.
I'm lucky as I have my own business and can set my hours according to the needs of my daughter. I also have plenty of space for her to move around based on the class she is watching/participating in. I feel for the moms and dads who don't have time as a luxury or large spaces to accommodate their kids daily movement. Let alone help them with their homework load.
This is where the idea of old energy comes from. The school system that we know of today started about 200 years ago. Before that, it only existed for the wealthy elite. The system we have for the rest of us (non-elite) was developed by businessmen or more accurately factory owners like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie, so that they could train children to become better factory works. What skills did they require? Docile, agreeable workers who would show up on time, shut up and do what their managers told them. They found that a child sitting in a classroom all day with a teacher giving out instructions was good training for their needs.
Now you may say well that was what they required in the industrial age but now that we are in the service/tech age we don't need to do this type of indoctrination. Rally? Let's take a look at the school system and curriculum as it is built for today.
Currently we use the “Factory schools,” model as they are now called, which started in early 19th-century Prussia (Germany). For the first time, education was provided by the state and learning was regimented. Dozens of students at a time were placed in grades according to their age and moved through successive grades as they mastered the curriculum. They took an industrialized approach to education: impersonal, efficient, standardized, and measurable. Let's reward the best fitting children with a paycheck or in the schools case an A or A+ for doing exactly what we asked of them.
This approach is basic human conditioning in its simplest form and worked on the majority of children and adults. However, something happened along the way. Some children were free thinkers and didn't fit in the system. They would have "mental" health issues or fits of uncontrollable movement during class. This was a problem for maintaining order as it disturbed the natural structure of the obedient class.
So, in 1902 a British pediatrician, Sir George Still described “ an abnormal defect of moral control in children .” George found that some affected children could not control their behavior the way a typical child would, but he did note that they were still intelligent.
Fast forward 40 years and meet Novartis chemist Leandro Panizzon. He is credited with creating Methylphenidate in 1944. He would later name it after his wife Rita, or as we know it today, Ritalin. She used Ritalin to compensate for low blood pressure. We have and continue to use it to make our children more compliant and docile for the sake of a controlled or obedient classroom.
Why am I bringing this up now? I want you to know that all things have a life span. This is basic quantum physics, there is always birth and death. It could be a human, a star, or even a galaxy. So, why not a school system. A system that was designed to meet the needs of businessmen who wanted a controllable workforce at their disposal for their needs.
I suggest we start to embrace the fact that our children are programmed differently. They no longer want to be compliant robots. They want to create and explore. Not be told to memorize or push the "correct" buttons. Our old system taught efficiency, obedient behavior and standardization. Our new system can teach a more social and moral approach to living and creating.
We, the moms and dads, have to sponsor this new approach as the captains of industry did back in the 1900s. We will be the champions of our children and will help to create a more holistic approach to learning and creating.
As we look at our lives and determine our resolve we have the moral obligation to support our children to be more than just a servant to a nameless corporation. You must ask yourself how it has worked out for you. What could you have done with more support and understanding? Who could you have become with a true knowing of your specific gifts?
If you want proof of the new order coming in just look at the social media creators. They are mostly college dropouts and created their application to fill a need they had.
I encourage you to continue this conversation and let me know how you want to be remembered.