In the short term, a monoculture can be easier to maintain. In farming, it offers efficiency, reduces the need for unique equipment, and when there are diseases, they can generally be treated with one solution. Anyone who has tried to teach a new concept to one or two children (let alone 30+) can understand why this approach has been applied to the education system.
It is a top down structure that in order to function, requires that it must be relatively immutable. It requires a lot of time and energy to maintain. Within those four walls we must…control the words, rhythm and timing, the food, the emotional expressions and movements of others. Individual questions and curiosities must be redirected back to the general path. The volume and energy of that landscape must be maintained. Day after day we must control ourselves and others. Like a monoculture, if one variable comes in, it tips and takes down the entire system.
But the forest...the forest is different. It has atmosphere. Storms make it stronger. Diversity makes it resilient. It is unpredictable, yet change and "mistakes" are integrated. It shifts colors, textures. There is room to grow, to fly, to rest on a soft bed of moss, to BE. It's a complex life-based system in which learning is inherited not through repression, but through connection.
It is overwhelming to think of how to change the culture of acres of corn fields in southern Indiana or wheat fields in Kansas, but it is a lot less daunting to plant a small food forest with our children composed of a variety of vegetables, berries, flowers and shrubs. This is more akin to the homeschooling approach I have created, Wildschooling. With this approach to homeschooling you can see an immediate impact on the family and local community. Wildschooling is a reflection of the forest floor and has the ability to make our children more resilient to change, welcoming of diversity, and curious. I argue that all of these attributes make them more equipped to thrive in our modern world than four walls ever could.
You can find more information on Wildchooling HERE and to join the free private Wildschooling Facebook group HERE.
The Modern Approach to Education is a Monoculture
May 3, 2023