Mass compulsory schooling.
Since we began considering full time homeschooling, I have been wondering about the origins of compulsory mass schooling. Increasingly, the more we set down roots as a family, roots to actively support one another and our needs, mass compulsory school seems like a foreign concept. It has become more of an anomaly the more I think about it, and the more I look into its beginnings. Since making the decision to homeschool, looking into the beginning of schooling seems important to me, as we consider its affect as we move forward with educating our children.
Schooling v education
Of course I have to say that when I talk of mass compulsory education, I’m talking about schooling institutions, rather than education in general. I appreciate the importance education for everyone.
Mandating school attendance
At a time when government is increasingly mandating school attendance, and dishing out more sanctions on parents struggling in this regard, I think it’s helpful to think about what is being stood for and why.
As always, this blog is not about everyone homeschooling, and it’s not against school. But it is written in mind with those how are considering homeschooling. Perhaps parents are noticing disparities in the language of their child,
or behaviour, educational experiences, neurological deficiency, increased anxiety, relationships – peer and staff, reliance on screens for long hours in the day, disconnect with family and with nature.
With so much prejudice against homeschooling, not unlike homemaking, this blog is written to encourage others in the validity of homeschooling. It is written to encourage that homeschooling can be an exceptional choice for those who are so inclined.
Origins
Mass compulsory schooling of the west has its origins only a couple of centuries ago in the industrial revolution and capitalism, and in the enlightenment. But there are the practical factors of the result of mass compulsory schooling to consider, that are also characteristics of capitalism, such as the time children spend away from their parents, a cultural and political shift of devaluing of family, creativity and time spent in nature, and sanctions put on families struggling with attendance.
Relevance of schools
I wrote a blog discussing the relevance of schools. https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/state-schools-are-needed/ And of course, there is great value and necessity for schools to lighten the load of child care for families, and for the safeguarding of children in certain family circumstances. Ultimately, these services serve the best interests of the families and of children. But mass compulsory schooling can also put stress on families with some children struggling to conform to the expectations of schooling, and with cuts and strains for schools, can also be a place that is likewise becoming a safeguarding hazard.
Birds Eye view – what does it look like from the outside?
I recently wondered, if I watched our society from outside, perhaps as film, or from another realm, what would I notice about it that I might find untoward? What might I find in our culture that I would be sure I would not succumb to, if I joined in and lived in the thick of it? – if I could look in from a fresh, birds eye view? It’s hard to imagine.
One thing we can be sure of is that systems and values that have worked for our species over the millennia, our ancestors, are values that we should not easily give up. Values such as faith, honouring family, securing our home and home work, working the land, providence – hunting and gathering, caring for weak and the elderly, and caring for our young ones, taking on the responsibility of teaching them the traditions from their generations.
Our teacher – the cave man
I can’t see that many of our priorities keep to these core principles.
Our connection with nature seems irrelevant.
Our sick and elderly have become the state’s responsibility.
I am lucky to have friends who value working and gathering from the land, but I certainly don’t have much success in this, nor manage to prioritise a close relationship with our food production. Nature is vital to good mental health, and this is becoming more and more remote.
Homemaking is not considered a career to suggest to aspiring young minds.
Our children spend less and less time at home, with one study showing that the average child has 30 minutes quality time with a parent per day. Many traditions that we are fostering that we pass on to our children are technological involvement.
We delegate our child care, our social narrative, and the teaching of our traditions mostly, on behalf of our children, to our (secular) state, a state that is on its knees for resources and staff, and therefore relying increasingly on screen and internet based learning.
And finally, far from unified in faith, now a few centuries following the aftermath of the enlightenment, we have moved through a phase of atheism to a cross between a mother earth, Athenian view of gods and spirits.
One thing is sure, the priorities we do have now, since the start of capitalism are far removed from those values that ensured the survival of our people the past many millennia.
Evolution?
I think it is important to recognise that we are not becoming more sophisticated and civilised by removing these primal values from our principles. As we move forward with considering the best education, we need to reconsider our values on behalf of our children. Today, as we studied in biology, we saw that lack of parental support is a characteristic of asexual organisms. Parental support and family values has always meant progress.
Capitalism
The more I look into our principles of capitalism, the more I realise how rooted our thinking, assumptions and lifestyle are in this new era. As an observer (via the passing nuggets of information that I come across, adding to my limited knowledge in this) it would actually seem that capitalism has little to boast about.
Of course, as a consumer within this system, (which is how the whole thing holds together) I don’t take my position for granted. And yet it is this position that capitalism relies on, and oppresses so many others.
While capitalism has led to significant economic growth, it can be characterised by the increasing division between the working class (globally) and private ownership. Where material wealth and living standards are concerned, (and not to be sneered at!), capitalism has seen improvements in our living standards. However, with respect to our social welfare, deepening chasms of inequality, exploitation, personal gain and environmental damage are widely acknowledged. And finally, the devastating effect that capitalism has had on the family unit over the last few centuries is hard to fathom, when previously it was this value that held together our race over the past hundred thousand years.
Mass compulsory schooling through capitalism
This topic of thought has been brought to the fore for me as I have been gradually trudging through The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in History of Education, edited by Gary McCulloch. As I said, I have been very curious as to how we got to a system such as ours. Mainly I have struggled to justify the disconnect that impact our children especially. And I have found this book particularly enlightening on this front. The book describes in one of its chapters how mass compulsory schooling came about following the enlightenment, and through capitalism. It describes three different strands from which mass compulsory schooling came about. …
Triumph of democracy and Enlightenment!
One strand from which mass compulsory schooling came about was the “triumph of democracy and enlightenment, a compromise between church and state or the diffusion of cultural ideas”. Initially, to integrate faith and knowledge based reason was the epitome of success. The compromise is well developed, with the leaning now mainly on the side of the Enlightenment. Some quotes that I feel sum up the enlightenment are;
“God is dead” – Friedrich Nietzsche, who recognised that people had lost their belief in God, contributed by the Enlightenment. Though Nietzsche didn’t believe in God, he recognised that people’s disbelief in God would ‘lead to the collapse of European morality. He also believed that the Judeo-Christian moral system was deeply embedded in Western culture…’
And with this breakdown of a unified belief and moral system predicted in 1882, the following quotes have a deeper significance.
“Reason is the only guide to truth” Voltaire
“The only possible basis for a sound morality is mutual tolerance and respect” A. J. Ayer.
Reason took precedence over a faith and moral system that western civilisation was built upon over 2 millennia.
Victorian children off the streets
A second strand of thought on the emergence of mass compulsory schooling was the need for a capable, unswerving, unquestioning workforce, to fuel the industrial revolution. Children were not required to think. They were required to follow instructions and leadership. Also, along these lines, the industrial era had created a “crisis of social order”. Unruly children were roaming the streets. “Mass schooling was almost ‘forced into existence’ as a means of ‘class cultural control’ of the urban poor, the immigrants, or the insurrectionary, undisciplined and disrespectful working class.”
I’ve heard it summed up as ‘getting the victorian children off the streets’.
Curiosity killed the cat
There is a third strand of thought on the emergence of mass compulsory schooling. Studies by social historians who observed lives of ordinary people – families. I wonder if this could be understood as a response to social welfare? “Even school children began appearing in the histories of education systems alongside the inspectors, legislators, reformers and headteachers who sent and kept them there”. Through this, later, links to “feminist concerns with gender relations and the position of women in society” were made.
On the cusp of a post capitalist era, whatever it may look like…
I found it interesting that these strands can be linked broadly to the breakdown, and the guarding of families by the government. As we draw on the cusp of a post capitalist era, I think we could consider that none of these aforementioned reasons apply to many of us.
In fact, as the pendulum swings, surely to its furthest extent, of high, unsustainable and fracturing stress within the home, it seems inevitable that we must make some changes on behalf of the family. I think it is fairly necessary that we take the initiative to prioritise connection within our families, also through education. As we enter into an era led by technology, it is particularly important that we maintain connection with nature.
This is the machine we have normalised
With this in mind, I return to my previous musing about what I would notice from a bird’s eye view. I think I am most surprised by the level of stress that I have allowed into our home. I asked the question, what would I be sure not to succumb to from an outside perspective. I’m afraid the answer is – stress. Stress built up by so much ‘should be’ – everything we should, and they should be achieving, with barely a glance at the value of the family and home affects my role enormously. We don’t live in a world that values the sanctity and security of the home, nor that values homemaking as a career. And yet men, women and children benefit greatly by the steady presence of a homemaker.
We live in a society that views homeschooling families with suspicion, and yet assumes that an unlimited digital babysitter, in school and at home, is perfectly adequate. We think that unsupervised socialising in schools is normal and acceptable, and that socialising in the homeschool setup is small minded.
Think
Well, here have been my findings on the emergence of mass compulsory schooling. I think it isn’t exactly a lighthearted topic. Hopefully you had a glass of chocolate or something a little stronger to add to your cheer – the effects of capitalism certainly wouldn’t have.
In this blog I am always considering how to continue to move forwards with my children’s education.
What systems should I implement?
What values should I protect, or rekindle?
Each week as I write this little blog I consider a new idea or approach, or my convictions deepen. This week I heartened to protect the value of family and our decision to homeschool, and also I feel challenged to reject stress, even with increasing government pressure on the homeschooling.
Capitalism was always acknowledged as unsustainable in the long term. Through this, schools required children to be educated as workers in industrial factories. Now as we are replacing the human cogs with ever evolving technology, we can reconsider how we choose to educate our children. Now, in times of exponential technological advancements, and the moral questions that come of these, children need to be encouraged to think more than ever. Our job as we move forwards in education is to awaken creativity, life and imagination in our children. I feel resolved that home education is a valid approach as we raise caring, creative young ones.