(1)
July 26, 1764, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, four Lenape American Indians entered the schoolhouse, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine children.
Yes, killings in American schools have a long history, though the reasons for the violence vary. But as a fact of life, violence of this sort has become almost weekly by now, if not daily, occurrences throughout American schools and campuses. This may sound harsh, but check your newspapers and you’ll find it is the truth.
With modern high tech providing the means and methods, however, school can come to the student now, wherever he/she might be, via online education. No more exposure to violence of any form.
(2)
It seems like there are more and more politically agitating professors in our colleges, more teachers with political or societal agendas of their own, coloring the teaching material in one way or another, for whatever are their ideological opinions. Also, in the pursuit of “political correctness,” whatever that may be at the time and place, they may change or bend learning material one way or another. Plus there are those who, for example, introduce or remove symbols in the work environment, such as say a crucifix in a classroom. In other words, they try to transmit other thoughts and ideas in the teaching than the subject matter which is to be covered.
Needless to say, switching to online education cuts out all these coloring agents and/or politicizers, because online it’s the student’s choice to learn uncolored or in which color he/she wants to learn.
(3)
BECAUSE online education in almost anything is available practically everywhere, there is no need to use brick-and-mortar schools with a teacher standing in front of a class at all. As Peter Gray (Research Professor of Psychology at Boston College) documents in “Free to Learn” (Basic Books, 2013), today’s state of transmitting education via teachers in classrooms is comparable to a prison system, while, what is needed, and proven to work far better, is that learners must be entrusted to steer their own learning and development. Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, Gray demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which already children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient. Quote: “Unleashing the instinct to play makes our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life.”
Nothing could be better for fulfilling this mode of learning than going online. Actually Gray has an example in the book of where precisely this was done in India, without giving the learners ANY instructions whatsoever, and WOW, how they learned ...
Not to mention the cost savings!
Consult http://www.straube.org
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