......and other such baloney people take with them even when leaving the school system.
I angered someone immensely when she wrote me asking a question. I was written, I did not approach this person, but when I answered her question to the best of my knowledge I made her very, very angry. Why? Because I suggested that a link to her blog had been removed because of her reference to graduating her children to the next grade and issuing rewards for behavior and educational goals. sigh.
There was no suggestion in my email that she was wrong or bad....just a simple "maybe that's why it was removed." which ended up NOT being the case and I went on to explain that I was incorrect and perhaps it was accidentally removed. In the end, I have no idea why the link wasn't there, but now I have someone angry at me because I have "judged" her.
Hmmmmmmm....if one is very comfortable with one's choices, does it really matter what anyone else thinks? If you choose to keep parts of the school you're comfortable with, that's your business. I choose to leave it ALL behind.
Children don't need rewards for learning. The learning itself, is motivation enough when a person is pursuing an authentic life and living their passions. What is the purpose of a reward or a punishment? To alter behavior. I don't like rewards. I don't like punishments. My husband and I don't use them on each other, we don't need them for children.
When a person is motivated to learn something or act a certain way, then the action itself has value for that person. Being motivated by your own desires, is the best way to accomplish anything in life.
Sure, we do kind things for each other, but simply because we love each other and that's how we choose to live. I don't give certificates or grades or talk to the children about what grade they would be in unless they ask. They don't view grade level as some kind of thing to be achieved. Adults don't need to be in a grade....why would children?
Furthermore, if claiming to walk our own path in this journey...then why take a model of schools and use it? Leave it behind. Walk without all that baggage. Don't strip kids of their internal guidance by watering it down with rewards and grades. That's what I think.
So here's a mushroom for ya, from Jalen who is no particular grade at all and needed no reward for finding and discussing an interesting thing that caught his fascination.:) Happy trails.
