Lemony Webbles

Book report on good citizenship

I've been to the library again, this time to look up books for researching my own philosophy of education and to see what other people have written already about it. I found a book by educational philosopher, and, I assume, activist, John Holt, called "Teach Your Own". It's about homeschooling in the sense that a home environment is a more meaningful and productive place to learn than a typical public school setting BECAUSE it is a home, not because it can be made to be like a school. Anyways, I've only read the conclusion so far (as I usually do with non-fiction) and he cites (although irritatingly without a reference) an "oft-repeated" psychology experiment to show how the way things in society are now, the majority of (I guess the point is 'public school-educated') people are not as ready to defend freedom as they should be. The experiment consists of the Bill of Rights being posted on street corners without a heading (so they won't know it's the Bill of Rights unless they can recognize its contents) and being asked to sign their names to it. The result being "the vast majority of adults scoff at this document as something dangerous and they refuse to sign" (p. 284). I thought this was sad and funny and an interesting argument for a more American approach to education. I won't add any more commentary for fear of getting political in my analysis, but I will say that this book promises to be an interesting read. I also have yet to find any information on this experiment being done in reality, so tell me if you've heard of it, and how it all went down. The details can be even more interesting and revealing than the overview of experiments such as these.