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Susan Sontag's radical vision for remixing education
- contingencies 14y agoThe connection between philosophy, communications, pedagogy, and programming is fascinating (and I say that as a programmer who dropped out of education, years later still a programmer, and writing my first history book). While this article is interesting... I particularly liked the phrase ''time-shifted retirement via distributed sabbaticals''... the proposal that Sontag makes regarding no school, free love and sex for 12-16 year olds is not only socially impractical (where is this supposed to happen?) but neglects some of the larger social benefit of an organized education system ... the capacity for children who may not be in a particularly nurturing environment at home (due to family issues, economic circumstance, etc.) to broaden their horizons as their minds reach their mental peak (~20 years old). All in all, a very "period piece" .. Sontag shoots for some great ideals, but the projected route seems today more than a little naive - a quaint '60s anachronism. How could we reconstruct some of the goals she's aiming for without the negatives? I think we could definitely work an option for children to spend part of their time in specific, opt-in, areas rather than in general schooling .. allow them to explore physical crafts, literature, art, computing in non-generic environs that provide ancient-university style rigid pedagogy-free environs to support individual speed, individual interest mutual learning. Maybe as a pilot 20% of school classrooms could be converted in to such areas? Having information on the internet just doesn't cut it for many subjects. We need a sort of Hackerspace-meets-teacher-available-meets-socialising place where young minds can flourish.