Choice Theory and Education
An example of Choice Theory and education are Sudbury Model schools where students decide for themselves how to spend their days. In these schools, students of all ages determine what they will do, as well as when, how, and where they will do it. This freedom is at the heart of the school and it belongs to the students as their right, not to be violated. The fundamental premises of the school are: that all people are curious by nature; that the most efficient, long-lasting, and profound learning takes place when started and pursued by the learner; that all people are creative if they are allowed to develop their unique talents; that age-mixing among students promotes growth in all members of the group; and that freedom is essential to the development of personal responsibility. In practice this means that students initiate all their own activities and create their own environments. The physical plant, the staff, and the equipment are there for the students to use as the need arises. The school provides a setting in which students are independent, are trusted, and are treated as responsible people; and a community in which students are exposed to the complexities of life in the framework of a participatory democracy.
Sudbury schools are based on the premise that students are personally responsible for their acts, in opposition to virtually all schools today that deny it. The denial is threefold: schools do not permit students to choose their course of action fully; they do not permit students to embark on the course, once chosen; and they do not permit students to suffer the consequences of the course, once taken. Freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action—these are the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. Thus, members of these schools learn democracy by experience, and enjoy the rights of individuals.
Sudbury schools do not perform and do not offer evaluations, assessments, or recommendations, asserting that they do not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real lifelong learning and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st Century, they adduce.
There are many criticisms of the Sudbury Model, namely:
- Children may receive a sub-standard education from non-credentialed, uneducated caregivers.
- Children won't learn the things they will need to know in their adult lives.
- A child may not learn the same things a regular-schooling peer does, unless an educational professional controls what material is covered.
- Because schools provide a ready-made source of peers, unschooling children will have to have other ways to make friends in their age group
- A child's only opportunity to experience people of other cultures and worldviews would be in a religious community, scout group, sports teams, etc. If a child isn't exposed to anything "extra", they might not be exposed to other socio-economic groups.
- Fear that a child may be completely unmotivated and never learn anything on their own if raised in a non-manipulated environment.
- A parent may fear they do not have the parenting skills required to guide and advise their children in life skills or help them pursue their interests.
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