<<. . . .  One of the great, persistent myths of education in our culture is that children become reluctant learners as they grow older.  In fact, what they become reluctant about is going to school, where they're bullied, regimented, bored silly, and very effectively prevented from learning.  The learning curve of small children is simply phenomenal during the first five years of their life.  . . .  But as soon as they enter school, this learning curve begins to level off, and within a few years it's practically flat.  And the children are blamed for this.  . . .
One of the absolute principles of education that every teacher learns is that children learn something very easily when they're ready to learn it, which is to say, when they want to learn it.  . . .  if they have a reason to learn it—their own reason—they learn it in no time.
. . . everyone in education knows this—but they would never dream of allowing children to learn this way as a general rule.  . . .  No, the only way to organize learning is to give children a reason to learn all at the same time.  This is called motivating them.  . . .
Of course it doesn't work . . . .
. . . .
Here, let me imagine a place for you.  It's a sort of circus, a collection of acrobats, jugglers, animal trainers, high-wire artists, clowns, dancers—the whole thing, every kind of performer you'd expect to find in a circus.  And the place is parked nearby and it's open around the clock and the idea is anyone can walk in and say to any of these performers, "Hey, I'd like to learn how to do that!" and they say, "Well, of course! That's what we're here for!"
Of course there'd be room here for a lot more.  Maybe a small zoo where you could learn to take care of the animals yourself.  Maybe somebody would have a pretty good telescope and could show you what's in the nighttime sky and lend you some books if you're interested.  And maybe there'd be a photographer with a bunch of cameras and a darkroom, and somebody with a printing press and a bindery.  And while we're at it, why not a weaver and a potter and a sculptor and a painter and a pianist and a violinist, and maybe even someone who knows how to build a piano and how to make a violin?  And indeed there would always be building projects under way, so you could learn how to use all the tools and read the blueprints and all that.  And someone who was always prepared to take a bunch of kids out into the wilderness to learn whatever there is to learn out there.  . . .  And somewhere in there someone who could teach you any math you wanted to learn, and someone else who could teach you any electronics or physics you wanted to learn. . . .  And gee, everybody has books they can lend you.
. . . .
Anyway, the rule is, you can come and go as you please, do anything you please, study with anyone you please for as long as you please.  How does this sound as someplace you might rather have been than in a classroom?
. . . .
No, don't call this a school. . . .  It isn't a school, it's a city.  It's a place where people live. . . .  People who are willing to let the children of the community hang around, willing to pay attention to them . . . willing to show them how to do things, willing to let them try out things for themselves.
. . . .  It would be costly in terms of time, of course, but how many hours does the average worker spend right now paying for a system that doesn't work?>>

Daniel Quinn, Providence, Chapter Ten
published by Bantam Books
available at Amazon

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