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Take homeschooling to college?
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Question:
I've recently looked at some books on homeschooling and unschooling and
have kept my eye on the teenage/children's liberation movement.
I note that even in the Teen Lib Handbook that it seems like the whole
paradigm is thrown out the window when considering college. Why is this?
A person can test out of High School via the GED.
Why can't a person get a college degree via a free public exam?
It's humorous that the Teen Lib book as well as others do note that one
can test out of many college courses but of course one still must PAY
THE EXTORTION for the "credits." Why? Does someone somehow OWN the
knowledge?
Offhand, it seems like college is when the serious curtain falls on
intellectual freedom. Of all the nerve, CHARGING for a "credit"...of
what? Is a credit like a "nugget" of knowledge perhaps?
Why couldn't a person even attain advanced degrees on their own? Or thru
state-funded charter work. ? Obviously, this boils down to determining
what are the standards for college degrees. The Honorary degrees might
be involved.
So why couldn't there be CHARTER colleges? If I don't like the overhead
of state-run colleges today, don't like not being taught by "full"
professors, don't like funding certain extraneous activities, don't like
big classrooms (probably many of the same complaints against public
K-12), why couldn't we get a group together and start our own college?
--Hire our own staff and get whatever amount the state already gives to
schools per student and see if we can make a better atmosphere for our
students. Maybe prove/test our adequacy by passing standardized tests
such as the GRE's. Why stop at K-12? I detect a truce, a detente, and a
quiet one at that.
Advanced degrees technically relate to doing scholarship which advances
a field of knowledge. They relate to publication and peer review.
They also relate to a culture of "we'll know it when we see it." Sounds
a bit like a club of some type, a bit murky. You have to endure hazing,
so that you can haze others in turn, perhaps?
Zeensters are familiar with advancing knowledge, with publication, with
peer review. Nothing intimidating there.
Is college a RACKET? Could it be LIBERATED?
Answer:
-I've talked about this before too. See the essay on education on my website.
If we really value education, why not make it more available to all. I've
suggested either video college - where you get tapes of courses at your local
library for free - or internet college - where you get free or for-a-fee
college on line. Yet every attempt at online college still has the enormous
price tags that I don't think they deserve. On line you shouldn't have to pay
for the football stadium or the dorms or....
Also through 2 years of college should be free.
Also if you do the video or online - why not the best professors in the country
teaching them and making a royalty on each time they are used. That would bring
some drive to good teaching too.
-It's all about money. Education through highschool is free... so you can
take and exam (which isn't free BTW) to get an equivalent degree. College
educations on the other hand aren't publicly funded unless you are
fairly poor. Why give people a free degree that others work really
hard for? I'm one of those people that sold drugs, worked a lot of shitty
jobs, and really had to work it to pay rent and for college. The struggle
made it more meaningful and made me care a lot more about my classes.
Why do you think people should get the degree for free without putting the
time and work into it?
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