The Pioneers of Education

There is so much to learn from the earliest pioneers of the educational systems. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Swiss-born French theorist who lived during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and he believed in the following tenets of pedagogy:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1. childhood is the natural foundation for future human growth and development;

2. children’s natural interests and instincts will lead to a thorough exploration of the environment;

3. human beings go through necessary stages of development in their life cycles; and

   adult coercion negatively impacts children’s development

Rousseau believed that children were naturally curious and had an instinctual desire to learn. This was in the 1700s when he stated this! If you are wondering why the system has not changed, check this out.

Rousseau was suspicious of schools, which he believed taught children to conform to society’s artificial rules rather than live spontaneously according to nature. School-induced socialization forced children into the routines and the roles adults preferred instead of letting them follow their own natural instincts, interests, and needs. By forcing children to memorize books, traditional teachers thwarted the child’s own power to learn from direct experience (Ornstein, 2016, p. 93).

Seriously though, how is this possible? Three centuries ago, a great thinker brought about the argument that children should follow their natural instincts, interests and needs, yet here we are. But wait... there is more!

The Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1747–1827) lived in the early stage of Western industrialization and he believed "that traditional schools imposed dull routines of memorization and recitation, and that educational reform was needed to improve society" (Ornstein, 2016, p. 93).

Oh my goodness!! This isn't a new concept. So many more pioneers of education agreed and led the charge in reforming the educational system including Froebel 1782–1852, Dewey 1859–1952, Addams 1860–1935, Montessori 1870–1952, and of course the incredible Jean Piaget 1896–1980 who asserted that children need individualized programs; exploration and experimentation with concrete materials for effective learning. Piaget's theory of cognitive development is still utilized today in our system and often serves as a guidepost for many teacher's development programs.

So my question here is... HOW? How do we know all this and still remain so rigid in our systems for students in the 21st century? We are a quarter way through this century and we have yet to apply these ideologies from the past. Why is it so difficult to make the transition from traditional, oppressive, prohibitive and

compliance-essential education to a more choice-oriented and interest-based learning environment for children to thrive?

Here is what I know and it may be the response but then again, it is only my thought on the subject.

1. It is difficult to change and amend a top-heavy system laden with bureaucracy and political involvement within a dedicated society that only values pure academic knowledge over life-skills.

2. We are a culture or comparisons and in our fear of our child being left behind or not given the same opportunities as others, we impress and overestimate the value of academic knowledge, often times, over the pragmatism of interest-led learning.

3. We don't trust our children nor imagine that they would develop an interest that would lead them to a future skilled career so we treat them as blank slates (tabula rasa, John Locke theory that they are empty vessels).

4. Changing the educational system will take money and training and it is far too established for it to change.

In the meantime, what can we do as parents of exceptional children who need to learn a certain way and at their own pace? What if our child is gifted or bored at school? What if our child is an immaculate artist or musician, but they are struggling with reading?

Our only option is to pursue expensive, specialized private education that can provide what our child needs. Agora Prep Academy was developed to apply the interest-led, Socratic method in order to fulfill the gap of learning but it does come at a cost to the families and it is self-funded by the founder who wishes to receive financial support from the government in order to alleviate the cost pressures off the young clientele who really need this type of environment to thrive.

I am appalled by the level of hostility our academy receives from government bodies and funding sources. We are told that we can receive more funding if we become a nonprofit- absolutely not true! We switched over our business operations to a nonprofit in 2023 and have yet to receive any government financial assistance whilst public education receives millions of dollars in support of an archaic and outdated system.

This blog wasn't intended to arouse dissent nor is it political but I wonder if all these incredible, famous pioneers of education were strongly in favour of progressive education, why are we still stuck in the ways of education from the child depravity theory:

Claiming that children are born with an inclination to evil, led to authoritarian teaching methods in which teachers used psychological and physical coercion to exorcise the child’s presumed willfulness and laziness. In contrast, the educational pioneers asserted the naturalistic theory that children are naturally good and that teachers should base instruction on children’s natural development, interests, and needs. Educators such as Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Paulo Freire, in contrast, asserted the naturalistic theory that children are naturally good and that teachers should base instruction on children’s natural development, interests, and needs (Ornstein, 2016, p. 86).

It is very interesting that we have yet to modify our thinking because of the immense pressure that society and post-secondary educational institutions place on competitive and performance-based testing for admissions. We are always struggling, as parents, to make the right decision for our children that will optimize their full potential. We don't know what that potential could look like and we are not taking chances with the possibility that one day, our child will come back and say "Why did you force this on me? I could've been so much better off if you just let me stay in school and forced me to go to University?"

However, ask yourself this, what if that same child comes back and tells you that "traditional schooling has abolished any reasonable capacity for me to become the next great artist, craftsman, theorist, philosopher... because I wasn't able to explore, follow and strengthen my natural gifting and talent."

Are we truly giving them what they need or what we think they need?

Here is a complete list of people who dropped out of school and still became successful in their own right:

1. Albert Einstein – Although he struggled in school, Einstein dropped out of formal education in his teens and went on to develop the theory of relativity, transforming modern physics.

2. Thomas Edison – The prolific inventor, who held over 1,000 patents, dropped out of school at age 12 after his teachers thought he was "difficult." He is best known for inventing the electric light bulb and the phonograph.

3. Michael Faraday – The British scientist, famous for his work in electromagnetism and electrochemistry, had little formal education but became one of the most important experimentalists in history.

4. James Clerk Maxwell – The Scottish scientist who developed the theory of electromagnetism attended formal schooling but faced academic challenges early on, eventually dropping out and teaching himself. His work laid the foundation for modern physics.

5. John Dalton – The English chemist who proposed the atomic theory of matter and discovered color blindness, had a limited formal education due to financial constraints, but his groundbreaking work in chemistry made him one of the most influential scientists of his time.

6. Henry Ford – The founder of Ford Motor Company had minimal formal education and left school at age 16. His work revolutionized the automobile industry with the introduction of the assembly line.

7. William Shockley – The co-inventor of the transistor, Shockley is often cited as a pioneering physicist and engineer. Although he completed university education, he was known to have left certain traditional academic paths and became a self-directed researcher.

8. Frank Lloyd Wright – Though known as an architect, Wright's approach to design and innovation often incorporated scientific principles of mechanics and structure. He left school early and learned through apprenticeships, becoming one of the greatest architects in history.

9. Benjamin Franklin – The American polymath, who made advancements in fields such as electricity, printing, and politics, was mostly self-taught after dropping out of school at age 10 to work for his father.

   
   
   
   

So... these people dropped out of school, what does that tell you?

I am so burdened with the thought that we were forewarned a long time ago by educated and talented theorists about the pitfalls of rigorous, ineffective memorization and a complete disengagement with current social, cultural and expected norms to just go on.

I believe that it is time for parents to rise and lobby the government for choice. You are paying into a public education system that is no longer fits this generational need for acquisition of leadership and life-skills. There has to be a national decision made to allow the exemption or return of tax funding allocated towards public education for parents to apply it towards private education for their unique child. On the flipside, governments can always adapt and change their models of instruction if they wish to meet the aforementioned demands and modifications that saw the inexplicable rise of alternative, private settings.

Either way, something has to change.

SB

Principal | Visionary

Agora Prep Academy