Papert's flower from Mindstorms

http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2006/12/flower-for-seymour.html

Week Seven

I enjoyed this weeks discussions of Papert although I was a little disappointed too, discovering much of what John Holt, Illich, John Gatto and others had said about the effects of schooling vindicated in the spirited defense of hopelessness by classmates.

I have a son who refused to be taught to read. He frustrated me for years and has been held back twice. He refused to be taught, but did not refuse to learn. When he felt ready, he taught himself to read. He likes Stein's horror books for boys. Last week I bought him a new one and didn't see much of it since. Today I asked him whether or not he'd read it. "I read it in a day", he said. "I took it to school and the teachers kept taking it away from me because I was not listening to what they were saying."

God forbid that a child should read in school!

Generation after generation, we act without much resembling thought. We do stuff because others do it, uncritically, unquestioningly. And worse, we defend it blindly.

Papert was right to stay far away from schools.