Lois Tarling (tarlam@sun.big.net.au)
Fri, 4 Feb 2000 05:52:59 +1000
Danny,
I love you....Long may you live...May your voice ring loud and
clear around the globe until all young people receive their rights to a
truly democratic education and natural learning is the order of the day!!
Lois (The Booroobin Sudbury School - Oz)
-----Original Message-----
From: Dannyasher@aol.com <Dannyasher@aol.com>
To: discuss-sudbury-model@sudval.org <discuss-sudbury-model@sudval.org>
Date: Friday, 4 February 2000 2:19
Subject: Re: DSM: High School Harm
>In a message dated 2/2/2000 6:32:16 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>mvtyson@hotmail.com writes:
>
><< Yes, but you also have to wake people up and find a way to drag them out
>of
> their chaos fearing, sugar-coated, pseudo-world. Maybe one year at a time
> is a good way to wean them. Maybe enlightening them to the simple fact
that
> their system the way it is doesn't work for everyone, is the way to go.
>
> Maybe those who advocate alternatives should admit that options mean
options
> and realize that SOME people, SOME children included, actually favor
> regimented systems and draw comfort from the fact that there is going to
be
> someone to tell them what to do and where to do it.
>
> Perhaps when someone is willing to offer a plan that varies current
> structure we should keep an open mind as we ask others to keep their minds
> open instead of simply dismissing their ideas out of hand. >>
>
>I couldn't agree more. That's exactly how I feel about Lincoln's
>Emancipation Proclamation. Too radical. He just refused to face the fact
>that SOME African Americans were happy to be in the tender care of
>well-meaning owners. It would have been so much better to open people's
>minds by just emancipating slaves a couple of years at a time -- say, all
>slaves over 60, then all slaves over 58 a few years later, when people were
>somewhat weaned from their view of slavery as the perfect condition for ALL
>African-Americans, and accepted the proposition that slavery may not be the
>best condition for each and every one of them.
>
>In a more serious vein: it is one thing to say that there is no single,
>"true" alternative to the present traditional educational system, and that
>many different models deserve to be offered. But it is quite a different
>thing to defend the present system of virtual imprisonment for children
>between the ages of six and eighteen, and their subjection to mental
>coercion, abuse, humiliation, indoctrination, and forced medication for
those
>who are not willing to submit. This system is EVIL at the core, and the
fact
>that some children have become so broken, so early in their lives, that
they
>actually prefer their condition of servitude to being free is a national
>tragedy.
> Dan Greenberg, Sudbury Valley School
>
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