Hall of Fame of Educational Liberation
This text is part of: "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)
Giants come and go
For many giants of the past, it was obvious that compulsory schooling is a grave mistake. They raised an alarm, they spent their life in combat, and they often died without seeing their ideas implemented (see: Giants keep reinventing the past).
When we see the end to compulsory schooling, kids will celebrate. 30 years later, their children will find it incomprehensible that little human beings could be locked up in the walls of school for most of their childhood. They will look at compulsory schooling as a form of slavery (see: Declaration of Educational Emancipation). The day that ends coercion will be seen as the day of liberation. Further future is harder to predict, but the end to the Prussian school model will be remembered no better than October Revolution.
Homage to the liberators
In the meantime, we should pay homage to the great minds who could see the future and worked relentlessly to change the present. I compiled a list of my favorite fighters with the greatest contributions. The list is entirely subjective. I am often blinded by love, bias for science, or sheer ignorance.
Here is my list:
- John Holt laid the theoretical groundwork for the unschooling movement. Holt himself was greatly influenced by another giant: Ivan Illich and his concept of deschooling
- Peter Gray: the avuncular and tireless advocate for children. He is the most influential living figure today: omnipresent, always academic, precise and polite
- Ken Robinson whose TED talks reached nearly everyone in the enlightened circles of the teaching community
- Danny Greenberg for years of free learning philosophy flowing from Sudbury Valley School
- John Taylor Gatto for his radical contempt for mind enslavement
- Prince Ea and Ted Dintersmith for the viral video watched and liked by millions: Prince Ea: What is school for?
- Cevin Soling for War on Kids and his call to radical resistance
- Sugata Mitra for a stunning demonstration of the power of free learning in the era of the Internet
- Alexander Sutherland Neill for his non-coercive philosophy of Summerhill School
- Seymour Papert for his philosophy of constructionism with Nicholas Negroponte for "One laptop per child"
Rules of fairness
It is a shame that many local efforts and sacrifice, e.g. like that of Dr Marek Budajczak in Poland will not qualify on the list only for being culturally confined to smaller spaces on the globe.
The list does not include the giants of the past, like John Locke. They did not have to combat the idea of compulsory schooling.
There are also inadvertent contributors. For example, Mythbusters sparked an incredible surge in the recruitment of young minds to the cause of passionate science. This often results in the re-awakening when the kids have a chance to compare the passion of the show with their own boring class in physics or chemistry.
The list is now awaiting a Greta Thunberg of education!
If you think I missed someone, please let me know.