One of the reasons I started this blog came from our family’s move to Santa Fe, NM. A beautiful, magical city in the high desert. We moved from Portland, OR for a number of reasons, but the lure of sunshine would be at the top of my list.
Our children were entering 2nd and 5th grade at the time, and had attended a sweet, unique school in Portland. This public school had an environmental learning focus and there was considerable effort toward balancing classroom learning and outdoor learning. Rigor and discipline were not at the forefront of the guiding principles at this school and there was a foundation of creative, project based style learning.
When we landed in Santa Fe, our children attended the local neighborhood school, which we had visited beforehand and thought was the better choice for them. Within one month we were disenchanted to say the least and looking for better options. (This was due to the focus on academic rigor, standardized tests, and the strong focus on discipline.) So this journey of inquiry into how we are domesticated via schooling began.
Lately I’ve been reading about the history of education in the U.S. I was loosely aware that the industrial revolution had a profound influence on U.S. education policy and the resulting system. The influence of the new, large, wealthy corporations was profound. Most went about influencing the system through private foundations and their think tanks. Monetary influence and board member’s involvement in politics and government committees also had a major influence on schooling. This is not dissimilar to today’s public education and political system.
When the focus of school or education shifted from an enriching curriculum of inquiry and critical thinking and/or acquisition of learning tools (reading, writing, mathematics) to a more systematic approach aimed at behavioral modification and training of job skills, the liberal arts style of education began to disappear from the public or compulsory school system.
This is to serve as in introduction to a discussion and inquiry into this aspect of our domestication. Schools and American Education are structured to support a moral and social order. It is the opinion of many great thinkers and critics of compulsory schooling in the United State that this system fosters individuals who passively consume information, regurgitate it for an exam and are at risk of losing any imaginative, critical thinking ability they are born with.
My intention is to continue to discuss and research the myriad ways we are programmed and stifled by systems and programming.
Undomesticated 