Last week I had the pleasure of screening the documentary, Class
Dismissed. I didn’t know much
about it, just that it explored education reform. That was reason enough for me to call for a dinner and a movie. Once we arrived I became a little
concerned. The theater was filled with
families – not the normal documentary crowd on a weekday night. It turns out
the movie is not just about education reform, but specifically about homeschooling as an answer. It seems that
the local homeschooling community is a tight-knit bunch and they showed up in
force to support this film.
Taken in conjunction with Waiting for Superman and Race
to Nowhere, we have three very interesting and somewhat contrasting looks
at what is wrong with American education today, but three different
solutions. Class Dismissed introduces us to a few issues that some people have
with school as we know it – a focus on grades and test scores at the expense of
authentic learning, an inflexibility with the variety of children and their
learning styles and interests, and modes of instruction and curriculum suited
for a by-gone industrial era. The film
introduces us to John Holt, a critic of mainstream education from the 1970s.
Listening to old interviews with him, I found many of his complaints are the
same as mine, a generation later. While I would like to see schools change,
Holt’s solution was to withdraw from “schooling” and home-school.
I am guilty of many assumptions about home schooling. Kids will lack social skills. Colleges will not know what to do with them,
if they can even get admitted.
Instruction, if any, will lack depth and challenge. Kids will not know how to work hard because parents
will go easy and instruction will look like play time. Parents lack the content knowledge to
appropriately instruct kids at higher levels.
Class Dismissed took each of
these concerns and dismantled each and every one rather convincingly.
Following a Los Angeles family through their homeschooling
process, the film introduces us to a few models for homeschooling, honestly
exploring potential failures of each and acknowledging that there is no perfect
model (and isn’t that just the point?).
By following one family for two years, we also get to see that some
models work for a time but that as kids mature, some models become ineffective.
In the end I must confess, I am now much more open to the
possibility of home schooling. However,
it certainly is not a solution for the masses.
I continue to struggle with how most families could manage this in the
current economy. How many families can
make ends meet on one income? Let’s face it, home schooling is a full time job
that does not provide any income.
Homeschooling does have something to teach the rest of us,
though. When we try to figure out
individualization, learning styles, exploratory learning, constructivism and
other “outside the box” ideas, we should open our minds and see what the home
schooling community is up to. They are
pooling resources, experimenting, and exploring – and they have something
useful to share.
If you are concerned about the state of education and
looking at solutions, either as a parent or an educator, do yourself a favor
and see Class Dismissed. You will be provoked.
