Ending Dungeon-based Education

The Root of Openness Runs Deep; Ending Dungeon-based Education

By John Taylor; 2007 January 28

The roots of openness -- and by that I mean democracy and its "open society," as well as shared ownership and cooperative, volunteer labor, which in computer software is termed, "open systems" -- run deep. Ultimately, openness is an attribute of God. Consider the words of God in the Qu'ran,

"Lo! thy Lord is full of bounty for mankind, but most of them do not give thanks. Lo! thy Lord knoweth surely all that their bosoms hide, and all that they proclaim. And there is nothing hidden in the heaven or the earth but it is in a clear Record." (Q27:73-75)

To believe in God is to accept that somewhere in heaven or in the knowledge of God there exists a "clear Record" of our deeds, our thoughts and motives, of everything that is obscure even to our heart of hearts. That means that heaven is the most open place conceivable; only here in this dark material plane lurk secrets and obscurity.

This is why I feel troubled every time I enter a classroom. It depresses me that we have not come up with anything better than this confined space. It depresses me to think that anywhere you go, from the poorest African village to American private schools with virtually unlimited budgets, you still see the same basic thing, a teacher standing up in front of kids who are sitting passively at little desks. I remember my horrible primary years sitting in my hard desk, more a torture device than a seat of learning, feeling utterly claustrophobic in that artificially lit, enclosed space, watching the clock, praying that it would all be over soon. I hated it. Why can we not come up with something better than dungeons? Why cannot classrooms be more, well, open?

Hence my delight upon reading "Everybody in the Vegetable Patch!, No desks, no pencils: Welcome to the U.K.'s first outdoor preschool." (by Cynthia Reynolds, Macleans, Jan 22, 2007, p. 42) At last an answer! These new schools do the ideal thing, they put kids out into natural settings where they belong and where they are happiest. Rain or shine, warm or cold, the little nippers are outside, rooting in a garden, walking in a forest path, their only books, as Shakespeare put it, the running brooks. And they love it! (I mentioned this idea to 12 year old Silvie and she was horrified; I have to use all my ingenuity and force of character to cajole her and her brother to go outside for the recommended minimum hour and a half of fresh air daily. Maybe it would not be such a fight if they had gone to such a pre-school) The idea of outdoor classrooms started in Scandinavia, which,

"has a rich tradition of outdoor preschools and kindergartens, going back to the '50's. One study in Denmark, where most communities have at least one such preschool, shows that kids of outdoor schools suffer 80 percent fewer contagious sicknesses, such as colds, sore throats and ear infections. Studies in Germany have found that kids are less aggressive and suffer fewer injuries. More than 300 of these so-called forest kindergartens now exist in that country."

Let there be no mistake. If there were no other advantage to keeping kids in the great outdoors this is sufficient, the fact that outdoor schools do not spread disease. They do not mention this but not only kids but everybody who comes into contact with them, parents especially, get sick right along with them. This fall both Silvie and Thomas caught several severe colds in succession, and I did too, to my great consternation. These were no minor annoyances either, they were severe; less than a flu, perhaps, but I could barely breathe or exercise for many weeks. I love our kids but I hate the way they make me sick. Even as I write, I am coming down with another cold. For God's sake, keep them away from enclosed spaces!

In the US educators are devising what they call environment-based education, extending it further into older children as well. Local rivers, forests and mountains are used as object lessons where you stand in rather than before the object. A study of math problem solving among grade eights found that 96 percent of these students met or exceeded state standards, as opposed to 65 percent confined in dank, dark classrooms. Disciplinary problems dropped by half in some studies, in others almost to nothing. And why not? When standing under the open sky in a natural setting there is no need to vent frustration at being confined. The vault of heaven above, nature all around you, who can doubt but that heaven holds a clear record of all things, a God out there, hovering in every atom, and a God within, deed within one’s heart as well?

The bad news is that Canada, with our climate formerly known as cold, nothing is being done to liberate our children from the classroom. At best, some schoolyards are being turned into gardens, and that is a very good thing, but quite as exhilarating as studying in forest or in the open in a field or on a hill.

Since reading that article about the benefits of an open, outside classroom I have been thinking about how that could be integrated into my mound housing developments. Certainly outside classes would put local parks, woodlots and places of interest to use -- with relatively little harm -- if they doubled as classrooms during weekdays. This would provide an incentive for local planners to preserve green areas, to give good access to them from every habitable area nearby. With open revenue payments from the funds saved on classrooms it would allow nature and parkland to pay for themselves, and this would further benefit everybody in the community.

Nor do I think it is necessary always to be in nature. Why not have classes in local factories and workshops, or in homes and play areas? The important thing is that the surroundings change. Variety reduces and mitigates the terrible oppression that I remember feeling being confined in the same place day after day. Is it any wonder that suicide is the most common cause of death among young people, after car accidents? I know a high school teacher and he says much of his time is spent persuading these poor kids to keep from taking their own lives. One already did so, and he was an honor student, popular, the sort who has everything going for him. But he did not think so. I believe that confinement in a depressing room all day has got to be part why they lose a sense of purpose.

In the future the segregation of the young from the rest of the world in classrooms will be remembered as a root of barbarism, a sign of a closed society. Soon we will mix them into the wider world. There will be open, cooperative local workshops in the community where they will be apprenticed at an early age with master craftspersons making their living close to residential areas. Kids will not be stuck like convicts with other kids just like them. The worst thing for a child is to be restricted to others of the same age, where fancies and follies are not diffused but rather are reinforced and reflected back incessantly.

This innovation is also used to reduce the segregation, exploitation and disconnect between urban and rural areas,

"Budding research in place-based education shows that learning in the community and collaborating with local governments and farms also help small and mid-sized cities retain their young people. `It helps train kids to engage in civil society,' says David Sobel, an expert in place-based education. `It makes them better citizens.'"

I have no doubt that it would make them better servants of God as well, not the tortured and torturing psychopaths that dungeon-based education churns out today.