This is my UTNE reader discussion page.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1998

Answers

!Hola! My name is Cherese Pearson. I teach Spanish at Proctor High School. I am eagerly jumping on this magazine assignment to hurry up and cross it off of my things to do. That is the "J" in me. When I first glanced at this magazine the first thing that struck me was that with all the controversial stuff in it, it very well could have been written by guests of Jerry Springer. Then I realzied probably not many of them read many articles in education. Anyways, I gave it a chance. I realize this magazine is suppose to rub on educators nerves. Don't take it too literally.

The article I read was in the June 98 issue titled "How I got my DIY Degree... at the University of Planet Earth. It is about a guy who felt "School" was essentially useless to him. He refers to a book called "How to Quit school and Get a Real a Real Life and Education." That title in itself is enough to make teachers, adminsitrators and parents blow steam. Looking objectively though, he does have some valid points. (Not all of them!!!) He talks about self education techniques like recognizing self motivation, enjoying yourself, teamwork, courage, attending conferences and admiring mentors. All good things, right? So why would someone who speaks of such positive things have such a negative attitude toward what we like to call "School?"

He mentions that he had a friend who quit school. Instead of taking music classes she played professionally, instead of taking science class she worked with a botanist at a museum greenhouse, instead of taking social studies, she worked as an organizer for Peace Action in Milwaukee. Again, all wonderful things. But why quit highschool.

So what can become of all of this? I'm sure we are all in agreement that the majority... BIG majority of students who end up wondering off self-educating themselves would most likely end up "living in a van down by the river." But what can we as educators take from this article? Do you believe other students share this idea somehow? Do you?

Think about your undergraduate degree. How did you learn to become a good teacher? Was it from the books, overheads or lectures? ... So is it not reasonable for students to argue that they too can learn more on there own outside of class?

So the ultimate question stands, What can we as educators do to make our curriculum come alive? How do we make our schools relevant to life in the real world without neglecting the fundamentals?

It would be impossible to come up with a decison that would be in univeral agreement on this topic but I bet each one of us could figure out ways our to make our own subject(s) more practical to daily life.

What do you think?

Cherese Pearson

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1998

I enjoyed your comments.

As I read the article "How I Got My DIY Degree" I was in agreement with some of the authors' comments. However, I'm not sure it would work for everyone to drop out of school and travel around the country on their own with little or no money. For the creative, adventurous, and risk taking person it would probably be great. But many students would crash and burn in a short time unless they had a lot of self motivation and some street smarts to see them through their self-education. It seems to me Mr. Wimsatt is a very intelligent and resourceful person who probably has a personality conducive to surviving in the self-learning world. I admire him for what he has done but, it's not necessarily for everyone.

I thought the twelve strategies for pursuing a self-education were useful and could be good advice for anyone who is interested in learning.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1998

I agree with many of the arguments you make about how attending school is important. I also agree that we as educators need to figure out ways to make our own subject material more interesting. It reminded of how Glasser talked about choicet heory in the book "The Quality School". School needs to be need satisfying for our students or they will remove it from their quality world.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 1999

No student should quit high school in my opinion. Besides the core subjects, there are so many electives offered that there's bound to be something that interests a student, not to mention all the extra curricular activities that are available. Why isn't there an Honors Plus diploma or some such thing to encourage students to take extra credits if they've already met the required twenty-four? At the college level, however, I think it might be valuable for some students if they took six months to a year to do something different. (Few of them would have the finances, courage, and ability to live as Wimsatt did. I certainly would not want my son living as he did - its a scary world out there, not knowing who you can trust and who you can't.) Some students do need a break though, and hopefully, during that time those students would develop more motivation to finishing and enjoying their college years. A college degree still is important when it comes to landing a job and being promoted. I wonder if many companies would be impressed with Wimsatt's DIY education.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999