Schools are a tradition. No one remembers when
learning wasn't linked to schools. Those schools are a bunch of
buildings. The school building I visited for nine years still
stands. It now has dual identities. It serves as a house. Many
still know it as the "old Harrisburg school." Today a person
could easily learn more in that house-school than any of us ever
learned in it during its school days.
People seeking entertainment used to travel to the theater
or the band shell. Few could afford a command performance in
their own home. Some still venture out for entertainment.
Mostly entertainment comes to us by radio, television, Internet,
DVD, etc.
In today's entertainment a few exceptionally talented, and
often highly paid, performers entertain millions. In the old days
thousands of much lower paid, and often less talented,
performers each entertained far fewer people.
The technology that made the change possible
revolutionized the entertainment industry. As a result we all can
have far more entertainment, for far lower cost, and with far
greater convenience.
We no longer equate entertainment with going to the
theater. New technology is also beating on the schoolhouse
door. Millions still head to the schoolhouse to learn. Many of
them come away cheated and disappointed.
There is no more reason why we should continue
venturing out for education than there is to venture out for
entertainment. We have the means to bring quality education to
every home. That home education can be better than anything
ever provided in board and nails, or brick and mortar schools.
Education can, and will, follow the road of entertainment.
A few exceptionally talented people will provide education to
millions. Like the successful entertainers today, those talented
individuals will often earn millions of dollars by serving millions
of people. Not only that, the cost of education will decline.
What holds us back? Most people resist change. They
cling to the familiar. This is especially true for people who gain
their living from the old and familiar. You can be sure that
Vaudeville and touring theater groups weren't the force behind
the innovations in entertainment that wiped out Vaudeville and
touring theater groups.
Likewise the people who work at existing schools won't
be the moving force that will eliminate and replace existing
schools. School administrators, teachers and their unions, and all
others with vested interests in the status quo, aren't going to be
the movers and shakers that bring down the school houses that
we know. It will take revolution from the outside, not a palace
coup, to overthrow our archaic, obsolete school system.
No one in 1912 could have predicted the nature and
shape of entertainment today. Those who saw the beginnings of
radio and movies could have anticipated great change and
improvement. Some will argue that today's entertainment isn't
an improvement. They swim against the current.
We could go back to Vaudeville and touring theater
groups, if significant numbers preferred them. Technology
doesn't make the old ways impossible. It only makes them
unneeded and unwanted.
No one can predict the shape and nature of the
replacement for today's obsolete school system. We can be
certain that it will be more efficient and better. It will also
constantly change.
We can expect that everyone will learn more at home.
We can also expect that some will gather in groups to learn.
Spending four years at an education ranch will all but disappear.
Large schools will disappear, or at least become curiosities.
Most learning will be close to home, perhaps in small
groups monitored by learning assistants. Most content will be
provided by the talented few far away. The last school buses
will set in parks beside the last steam locomotives, or, perhaps in
the yards of schools turned into museums.
* * * * *
* * * *
* * *
* *
*
Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284
learning wasn't linked to schools. Those schools are a bunch of
buildings. The school building I visited for nine years still
stands. It now has dual identities. It serves as a house. Many
still know it as the "old Harrisburg school." Today a person
could easily learn more in that house-school than any of us ever
learned in it during its school days.
People seeking entertainment used to travel to the theater
or the band shell. Few could afford a command performance in
their own home. Some still venture out for entertainment.
Mostly entertainment comes to us by radio, television, Internet,
DVD, etc.
In today's entertainment a few exceptionally talented, and
often highly paid, performers entertain millions. In the old days
thousands of much lower paid, and often less talented,
performers each entertained far fewer people.
The technology that made the change possible
revolutionized the entertainment industry. As a result we all can
have far more entertainment, for far lower cost, and with far
greater convenience.
We no longer equate entertainment with going to the
theater. New technology is also beating on the schoolhouse
door. Millions still head to the schoolhouse to learn. Many of
them come away cheated and disappointed.
There is no more reason why we should continue
venturing out for education than there is to venture out for
entertainment. We have the means to bring quality education to
every home. That home education can be better than anything
ever provided in board and nails, or brick and mortar schools.
Education can, and will, follow the road of entertainment.
A few exceptionally talented people will provide education to
millions. Like the successful entertainers today, those talented
individuals will often earn millions of dollars by serving millions
of people. Not only that, the cost of education will decline.
What holds us back? Most people resist change. They
cling to the familiar. This is especially true for people who gain
their living from the old and familiar. You can be sure that
Vaudeville and touring theater groups weren't the force behind
the innovations in entertainment that wiped out Vaudeville and
touring theater groups.
Likewise the people who work at existing schools won't
be the moving force that will eliminate and replace existing
schools. School administrators, teachers and their unions, and all
others with vested interests in the status quo, aren't going to be
the movers and shakers that bring down the school houses that
we know. It will take revolution from the outside, not a palace
coup, to overthrow our archaic, obsolete school system.
No one in 1912 could have predicted the nature and
shape of entertainment today. Those who saw the beginnings of
radio and movies could have anticipated great change and
improvement. Some will argue that today's entertainment isn't
an improvement. They swim against the current.
We could go back to Vaudeville and touring theater
groups, if significant numbers preferred them. Technology
doesn't make the old ways impossible. It only makes them
unneeded and unwanted.
No one can predict the shape and nature of the
replacement for today's obsolete school system. We can be
certain that it will be more efficient and better. It will also
constantly change.
We can expect that everyone will learn more at home.
We can also expect that some will gather in groups to learn.
Spending four years at an education ranch will all but disappear.
Large schools will disappear, or at least become curiosities.
Most learning will be close to home, perhaps in small
groups monitored by learning assistants. Most content will be
provided by the talented few far away. The last school buses
will set in parks beside the last steam locomotives, or, perhaps in
the yards of schools turned into museums.
* * * * *
* * * *
* * *
* *
*
Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284
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