After thirteen years, I do not ask myself this question any more. But many others ask me this question. In fact, if I had a dollar for every person who has asked me "why?" in the past decade, my family might be able to take a vacation on the earnings.
This article in the Courier Post sums it up nicely:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012312090019
But, there's still more to it. My results are good, so far, this is true. My kids are well-balanced. They know how to think and rarely accept being told what to think, either by the talking heads on TV or the talking heads they meet in life. They possess intellectual tenacity. But, more importantly, because they have each had ownership in their education, they are stakeholders in their own futures. Things don't merely happen to them. They have to allow it, they have to endorse it, they have to be part of the plan. Each one of my kids notices how the children and young adults in the state conditioning centers move in unison when bells ring or when they get some group communication about the commencement or conclusion of a particular activity and it utterly creeps them out. Of course, I always point out the necessity of these management tools and they understand this, but it is a cold comfort. My kids think that the faces of the ocean of brick and mortar school kids are vacant as they are absently pushed along by the group, without knowing what they are doing or why they are doing it.
Regardless of what happens in world politics - fiscal cliffs, Arab Springs, advances in forensics anthropology - my students have informed opinions to share. And it is their own unique thoughtful position, not what a government school has taught them to think.
It is difficult to find this kind of intellectual development in most adults.
It is golden.
I haven't drunk the Kool-Aide and I always sound like a crackpot to those who have. It is a useful litmus test for me.
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