I love the idea of alternative learning environments and the benefits they can bring but clear water is not a shining example. one thing i think that needs to be measured in letter grades is the students drive to reach their potential. However many times the staff at a school cant form the relationship necessary to make this happen. None the less I dont think casting out grades completely is solution. What this article reminded me of was the year and a half i spent home schooled. The times i picked up a text book in those years could probably be counted on one hand. however my mom was never alarmed because i never got much out of the public school system and had always preferred learning on my own. i did go to the library weekly and would check out books. i usually finished one a day, I loved historical fiction particularly American history. i also was drawn to books on world cultures. I taught my self various things including sign language although i never got very proficient. Ultimately even though i was learning about a lot of things through my reading i wasn't developing. i was staying entirely in my comfort zones and even when i returned to public schools for a long time i always elected to not even try rather than put effort forth and not succeed. i wouldn't have ever taken a math class had it not been required. I wouldn't have pushed my self if i didn't have the carrot of Linworth dangling in front of me. Staying at Linworth meant performing to my potential. even though you can argue that you don't need grades to learn or need advanced math to get a job, you do need to learn to challenge yourself. For most including my self you need the fear of not getting a high school diploma is enough to force yourself to do things your not gifted in.
Also I dont think the Clearwater experience can prepare you for the real world.To function in society you need to learn to bullshit your way through a few elements. Thats just how things are. how would you ever learn the subtle ways of appeasement that are often necessary without grades or what it feels like to go beyond that level and be acknowledged for what you've put forth. these Little, intricate, stupid, strategies, social skills and rules are taught and reinforced through grades. that in its self to me justifies the practice of letter grades.
I love Linworth and i have this fear of what would have happened to me if i lived in any other community besides Worthington. if i had no other options in my education other than the main campuses it would have been a nightmare. I think our school reaches a balance that the Clearwater school does not. To really be a knowledgeable person it is necessary to learn things from other people and not sitting at home reading. I wonder how the kids of Clearwater learn to be critical of themselves and others if they don't have people around to bounce off of. It seems too isolated to me but, i am a very extroverted person and learn a lot through discussions and questioning the validity of a situation. I also think not having other around in the learning process is an easy way to learn to overlook the many facets of a topic. i think it could cause people to be overly black and white about things if they have been total self taught.
Us Linworth kids follow our passions, can balance our time and they are more than proficient in the art of bullshit. We also know what it's like to work for ourselves and succeed. Just think of all the amazing walkabouts we send our seniors on. I would be scared to send a Clearwater kid into a situation as challenging as walkabout. At Linwoth we have ample opportunity to learn from the entire community. Linworth kids have a chance to really hear and consider their peers opinions. In the classes that our teachers (sometimes students) hold there are so many different opinions and much knowledge to be absorbed. It would be a waste to learn only on your own and not have access to those types of group learning situations.
Maybe the clear water school could be a viable option if that was how things ran in the real world or college. How ever unfortunate you may think it is our society is no where near that. There are quotas and sales figures to meet and problems that need to be fixed in a time frame. I'd gladly pick letter grades, Linworth and Larry any day because I know that the teachers and environment have given me all the tools i need and given me an opportunity to explore what cannot be taught within the walls of Linworth.
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To start: *applause*
I REALLY liked what you said here, and I hardly know where to start talking. Perhaps you've read my post on this subject. I was intrigued by the clearwater concept and enamored with the idea that human beings in fact intuitively know what it is we need to know and that our passions can guide us better than curriculum. I wasn't very trusting of the idea, but wasn't ready to say it couldn't work either.
I find what you have to say about being homeschooled really interesting and really true. Having assignments and grades, I know, is often the only thing that motivates me to finish them. I had pondered the idea that the tedium created by not having such things would compell students to find other sources of motivation to finish things. However, my experience is that any project I have without a deadline won't get done. I also would never choose to learn math on my own. There are many things I might have avoided that I've found interesting and useful. I wondered if knowing that other kids likes those I talked about in my post would cause me to want to learn what they know on my own, but your experience tells me that this could just as likely not be the case. What you've convinced me is that these things wouldn't be enough.
I found what you had to say about bull-shitting both amusing and interesting. BS is so discouraged by teachers that I had never really given much thought to it being a valuable skill. It is, of course, and every high school student is quite proficiant at it. This never would have occurred to me as a problem. Again, I've always thought of it as something negative.
So, once again, I really like what you had to say. I love Linworth too. Tis a great place.
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