Discuss: Unplugged Schools
Lowell Monke has sketched out his framework for the kind of schools that would counterbalance society's growing disconnection from nature and reliance on media and technology for learning. Monke's schools would, among other things, bring nature back into the classroom; investigate the "black boxes" that so dominate our understanding of the world; bring senior citizens together with students in meaningful projects; and create spaces where kids could have unstructured time to explore and imagine. What do you think schools need to do to create active, enlightened citizens and rebuild our relationship with nature?
35 comments
33 david oftelie on Jul 15, 2010
34 Joy Gabbard on Feb 06, 2011
I think this is a great article I enjoyed reading it.I really never put much thought into the benifits my children could gain by not using computers as much.I really think this is a good idea,I mean if a child can look at a picture on a screen and get excited then just think how interested they would be to see it up close and personal.I myself have gotten my children their very own computers thinking I was helping them through school.I did’t think about what it was they could be missing out on.Technology has made life so much “easier”.People don’t speak face to face anymore.Everthing that you need to do can pretty much be done from home these days.I want my kids to have the same experiences I had when I was young.I want them to know the world around them,not just look at pictures of it.
35 Cindy Frazier on May 05, 2011
The author says he doesn’t know of any programs that deal with hands-on experiences on which symbolic work is built (beyond Waldorf education). I have been reading a blog by Doug Stowe who created and teaches a wonderful woodworking program at Clear Spring School in Arkansas. The school is private and progressive. It was started to act as a model for other schools. Stowe is a published designer of woodworking books and runs his own craft business as well as teaching. His blog posts regularly include historic information about hands-on learning and a variety of school models as well as descriptions of his classroom experiences and how he relates his woodworking projects to what his students are studying in other subjects.
Stowe’s most important focus is probably the Finnish woodworking model, Sloyd, still in use in Finland where the schools rate among the highest in the world.
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Tom and others who are so upset with Mr.Monke’s article. He is not saying that technology is bad. He is saying that it is instituted so heavily and completely that children are not taught alot of basic skills that will make them a more fully developed human. When technology is used in schools from a young age up through graduation
students do get less face time communication and learn less about how to work with their hands in tactile ways constructing and understanding our world. Children need to have these skills developed first and foremost and then they will understand technology for what it is, a tool, not an entertainment device that is just another means of escape.