You have obviously hit a cord with your post and I hope that your statements bring with it a recognition that a paradigm shift is needed by all those in education.

Ironically, the lower the grade the less applicable your message becomes. Interesting that I don’t believe your comments ring true for early primary. In fact, as a former kindergarten teacher, the educational experience in K fosters all those points you said were murdered.

As a former teacher of yours Kris you know I am never satisfied with identification of a problem. Despite your new found fans, you can do better than this post. Work to real solutions…Help the muggle educators define the path that leads to fostering the traits of the next Da Vinci.

I’ll get you started with a series of questions…

1. I propose that one of the main reasons that teachers do not stray from the curriculum is because of ego. Many teachers do not like giving up control of their class to their students. How can you as students allow your teacher to go from sage on the stage to guide on the side?

2. When you were in grade 8, I challenged you to prove that da Vinci invented time travel. There were no grades associated with our teacher/student relationship because I was not your classroom teacher at the time. Our conversations were about conjecture…learning occurred on both our parts. I did not have a clue what you were going to write about…nor did you. Having said this, I believe that your best work came in the form of the first person journal that you wrote. Why did this project work for you? (I am making an assumption that you learned from this experience and were engaged in it)

3. What can you as a student do about the structures that exist with regards to university entrance?

4. I refuse to accept the concept of unschooling. It paints our education system with too broad a brush. There are and have been so many outstanding teachers that have pushed me beyond my academic abilities. Mentors who have provided a safe environment for me to fail and learn from my mistakes. Who have explored new learning by my side (not from the front of a classroom). My mother always said to me when I complained about a class or a teacher. You are only as bored as you allow yourself to be, for it is your brain to use or waste. How are you going to use your brain to make change Kris?

I am not saying this to rebut anything you said in your post, nor am I looking to downplay the accomplishment of your nomination (for it is extremely well deserved), I want more.

I look forward to your response.

Congratulations!

You may not consider this a ‘full-time edublog’ but it is educational and worthy of recognition. A glimpse at your tags or post titles shows a learning focus to your writing… for example it is not often that you come across a 15 year old who spends time ‘Rethinking the political spectrum’.

I hope that this nomination brings a lot more attention to what your concerns are in the blog post, though in many ways you are preaching to the converted when sharing this with edubloggers. Hopefully they in turn will share your ideas in their staff rooms and some meaningful, constructive conversations will arise from this post’s notoriety.

Once again, congratulations… You have my vote:-)