大家好，今天我要讲的是一个非常有趣的话题，上周我刚和深圳理想堂的创始人进行了深入交流 - 上学还是不上学？

Hi readers, today I’ll be talking about a very interesting topic which I had a close conversation with the founder & edupreneur in Shenzhen at 理想堂, Amanda Huang - To school or not to school? I’ll briefly discuss the few models of schooling at the moment and hope that it’ll inspire some of you who are thinking of why and what kinds of schooling I need to prepare for the next generation.

传统学校注重国家标准，培养符合国家需求的人才。

In traditional schooling, we think of learning as subject based, as each country sets national standards for their classrooms to learn specific knowledge for their specific majors to meet the specific careers of society. This absolutely makes sense for a country as it needs to fill in the gaps in labor that they need for their growing economies, however it does not match the needs of learners as some struggle at learning the specific content while others struggle with the way of learning (or as we call learning deficits). Another critical feature of traditional schools is the emphasis of nationally accredited testing (such as the SAT or高考）to subdivide the students according to their knowledge level and stream them into respective universities. This might make sense in the 20th century where countries were in an industrial manufacturing age, however as we move into the information age, it means a major change the job market as we can see in the technology, finance and service sector. Digging deeper into the schools, you will find typically standard textbooks (with well known publisher brands such as Macmillian or Pearsons, etc), a school schedule that runs on a 45min - 2 hour long class, with teachers standing at the front as lecturers. This is something we’re familiar with and come to accept as a standard. However, let’s try to see an alternative…

创新教育注重培养能为社会创造价值的人才，但改变和创新了学习方式。

Alt schooling is as its name intends, “alternative to schools” which means that they are. It is however not a replacement of a school system, rather to promote certain values that current traditional schools are unable to attain. These are values such as a more interdisciplinary class model with project learning blocks (rather than set hour schedules), lasting from anywhere between 30 mins - 2 hour long. The classroom setup is thus more dynamic and team based even at an early age (which scares lots of new teachers as they’re not used to managing these types of classes). Furthermore, it’s less formal and hence gets students to think outside the box with materials & subject matter linked to the real world rather than just purely in a textbook. The teacher’s role thus evolves from lecturing to more of a designer, whereby they focus on creating classes that has relevance to the student according to social and global issues. Please note that each country’s alternative schooling differs from one another and it’s likely that different countries will focus on different factors (such as different assessment systems, classroom setup, etc). Examples of schools like these are: Montesorri, Waldorf schools, the currently well known Alt school and in my last article一土教育

非在校教育侧重于个人和他们的学习方式，以便他们在现实生活中取得成功。

Unschooling, the term itself is exactly what it intends, which is to not have a formal school setting for your child. From what I understand, this can be done in two ways, one is to host the student’s learning at home under an adult supervision, the second is to focus on real world learning as students are brought into the streets to extract information about the different things they see, hear and feel. Unschooling differs from traditional schools as it doesn’t focus on subject learning, rather it allows students to choose their own goals in learning and students are guided by a qualified counsellor (definitely NOT a teacher in a traditional sense) to coach them in understanding and practicing what they know. Unschooling can also be defined as self directed learning as students have to be empowered to learn, rather than be thrown things to learn. This would be a higher inquisitive level and critical thinking brought about by the student. There are typically no class hours, however students essentially learn freely throughout the day which actually means higher active engagement in learning but perhaps maybe slower intense learning (unlike traditional schools). Most importantly, unschooling focuses less on summative assessments, rather formative feedback and review with the students directly (which is to say, they need to be able to express what and how they’ve learnt things). To be honest, when I first heard about this term, I was kind of skeptical as it has very little structural grounds and control of what students can learn. However, after hearing what Amanda had to say, I think the reality is that at this point in time, both traditional schools & current forms of alternative educations (particularly the private) are still focusing on proving the test outcomes which means that students are not being the focus, rather their results. We’re seeing this trend as a result of intense competition and more often or not our lack of understanding of what true education is suppose to be about - which is the focus of the learner beyond grades. So here are a few good examples of unschooling today in China are organizations such as 理想堂（Leap club）in Shenzhen, 先锋教育 in Chengdu and many more. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting these organizations and really want to acknowledge their efforts in pursuing a path less taken. It’s not everyday you hear of China’s education becoming revolutionary but I believe that these are the players that are truly changing the way education works!

这是我的学校教育分为不同的类别。

Finally, here is my breakdown of the 3 segments of schooling at the moment:

1. Traditional school

Curriculum - National based/Gaokao focus

Standards - National subject based standards

Teachers - Main actor and lecturer

Classroom setup - Seat in rows

Textbooks/content - Publisher based

School schedule - Set according to subject - time

Assessments - Exam focused (Gao Kao based)

2. Alt schools (alternative schools)

Curriculum - More interdisciplinary theme, project based blocks 

Standards - Still align to the national subjects based standards

Teachers - Main actor and class designer

Classroom setup - More team based structure and dynamic

Textbooks/content - Lesser formal textbooks, more articles & reading materials related to real world

School schedule - Set according to blocks of time

Assessments - Still exam based but more formative assessments & feedback

3. Unschool/Deschooling

Curriculum - Evolving according to the student’s needs

Standards - Set by the student themselves on how fast and how far they’ve learnt their content.

Teachers - Act as a counsellor, personal coach (support role)

Classroom setup - No fixed classroom, could move indoors to outdoors to around the world 

School schedule - Set according to student’s learning habits (happening constantly year round)

Textbooks/content - Virtually any reading material available on the web that is related to what they’re studying at the time

Assessments - Fully based on formative assessments & check ins

最后，为了选择适合自己的学校教育的最佳路径，思考以下问题：我厌倦了我所学的东西吗？你需要更有效的方法来学习东西吗？我愿意牺牲我目前的学习路径，为一个新的？

Lastly, I’d like to add one point on choosing the types of education (as I mentioned in my last post). The decision you make on the type of education may differ according to the time you have. For most people who have chosen to go into traditional schools at an earlier age, it’s perfectly fine to do so and jump out into the alternative schooling or unschooling later. Vice versa if you choose to unschool at an earlier age, you can still always head back into traditional schooling later on. The point comes in the adjustment, of how to adapt into the new system and what kind of support would you need to do so. For this, I’d always keep my eyes open based on the learner themselves. Ask yourselves a few simple questions: Am I or is my child tired of what they’re learning? Do you or they need a more effective way to learn things? Am I willing to sacrifice my current learning path for a newer one?

I hope this helps you in deciding where to go next or help someone who needs to as well.