The public education system in many capitalist countries has been highly criticized for allegedly dumbing down students and/or killing their creativity. On the other hand, getting rid of schools would probably lead to a reduction in literacy and qualifications. Thus, it would be necessary to reform education somehow.

Here are some proposed options:

Socialist Values - Keep the current education system, but instead of teaching capitalist values, teach socialist ones. Grades, homework, tests, etc. remain a thing.

Montessori - Public schools all perform like the Montessori model: Students learn at their own pace, are encouraged to do student-led activites, and are guided by adults who act like mentors. Homework is minimal, if it is even assigned at all. Grades in Montessori exist but are done differently, instead of checking how well one has completed assignments, the mentor grades each student by how well they believe they are progressing.

Democratic Schools - Grades and curriculum are entirely abolished. Here, students are expected to be in charge of their own education and are even given the opportunity to decide many of the decisions made by the school. Children and adults are seen as equals to each other in this model. The most famous instance of this is the Sudbury School.

These are just the ideas I can think of right now. Which ones do you guys agree with, or do you have another idea not listed here?

  • mrshll1001@lemmygrad.ml
    2·
    2 years ago

    Ah thank you very much for your kind words, comrade!

    Definitely agree that any existing pedagogies would need to be rewrote with a proletarian pen. Love that imagery.

    I’ve not read Melissa Benn, no! But that sounds like a good place for me to start getting more up to speed with other material on the matter. Thanks for the recommendation :-)

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      You’re welcome.

      There’s only so much time to read, but if you’re interested in this area, there’s Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs by Paul Willis. That was recommended to me on here a couple of months ago. I found a copy, but I’ve not read it yet. So far as I know, it’s a Marxist analysis of British schools conducted in the early 70s.

      If you wanted some shorter things to read on the bus, etc, Michael Rosen’s twitter and blogspot blog is good (I’m unsure if he puts his political / educational critiques on his ‘main’ website).