Page 12 RAIN November 1978 candle snuffers ----- l l l L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L by Fred Lorish I have a concern. The past few years I have seen that amorphous thing called appropriate technology come of age. It was seen, not that long ago, as a collection of solar hardware, wind generators, methane digesters and compost toilets. It has suddenly become much more. The soft side of a. t. has begun to affect many aspects of our collective lives. Decentralization, deschooling, equity, stewardship, labor-intensive- these are terms that we find rolling off our tongues often. J\nd there is much that can easily be seen that indicates that the values, the words and the theorizing have all attained a currency that can be seen and touched. In short, a sizable portion of the population has embraced a vision, and the long-term ramifications are exciting to behold. Hut I still carry a concern that gnaws at me daily: what about the kids? I'm a school teacher, and so I sec kids day in and day out. It scares me- not the kids, but the powers that affect these kids, whether it is TV, standardized texts, basal readers, corporate advertising or whatever. Kids arrive at school at six still children. J\nd their childhood, for the most part, has been a time of enthusiasm and involvement in the wholeness around them. It has been a time of learning (done without formal teachers and schools), of openness, of what George Dennison called "joyous intelligence." Part of my concern is simply that children, once they enter school, give up much that makes them and their childhood so unique. I have the sense that children, more so than any other age group, have an intuitive feel for the processes that make up their world. Sure, they can't categorize it. They can't verbalize in any clear way what they naturally feel so that adults can understand it. They simply know how to be a part of the processes; they flow with them with case, and this is one of the more beautiful gifts the gods have given children. J\nd when at six the child takes those first halting steps through a classroom door, much of the natural learning process comes screeching to a halt. And in the course of years, the love of learning, the involvement in the wholeness of life, the openness, the enthusiasm of just being alive seem to slowly but inexorably get pruned away. All of which sounds like the kind of philosophical jargon that educators begin spouting when they are waxing poetic. But in an age when schools have put such a premium on performance indicators, behavioral goals, scope and sequences, accountability, et al., I can't help but want to go back and look at what those first learning processes are. Childhood is a period of time when IQ tests, multi-phasic inventories, achievement tests, or whatever quantitative measuring device is used completely miss the mark ... and miss it so widely that the public gets caught up in assuming that kids aren't learning at all since the results can't be quantified. The quality of learning is forgotten. There isn't very much quality in the public schools. But the public schools are where the kids are. The public schools are also where the corporations are. Textbooks are produced by publishing companies that are part of a much larger corporate umbrella. Standard Oil has its free energy_ curriculum materials, not to mention a host of other special interest industrial groups. Walt Disney produces comics with Goofy talking up nuclear power. Products are packaged with the mark of Madison /\venue; the Marlboro Man is transformed into a textbook character pushing rampant consumerism. Everyone gets caught up in it. The kids do, too. It goes far beyond this. School districts and state departments of education set up guidelines that insure that kids must read commercially produced texts. School districts must buy certain texts; teachers must use them. That kids can produce their own books, their own equipment, their own environments, is conveniently forgotten. School districts are placed in the position of buying amazing amounts of texts and equipment, much of which is not used, or if it is used, ends
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