Why am I interested in alt-ed?

In my view opinions & disagreements about education often boil down to differences in values. Even if we had RCT evidence for one approach being better, those would be population-level effects by definition and it’s less clear how relevant they are to the idiosyncratic process of raising a particular child.

So why pursue alt ed at all?

Values are absorbed culturally & I have (I think) fairly distinct values from those explicitly or implicitly prioritized at many public schools. Partially that is because it is (intentionally & appropriately) difficult for public schools to enforce a specific culture with specific values – they have a wide set of stakeholders & are committed to not infringing on personal beliefs. More on this in asteriskmag.com/issues/….

So what are these values?

(1) A high standard for agency/ambition

This is annoying to define as these words are pattern-matched by readers to all kinds of different things these days. But something circling:

• full-bodied emotional contact with yourself & the world
• a secure attachment to reality
• a willingness to explore, figure out what you want, experiment
• a feeling that the world is fundamentally a good place for you to be in

This is explicitly not about material or professional success later in life – it is about emotional & spiritual success right now, whatever the child’s current stage of development. A related idea here is that concentrated work is a key ingredient for happiness.

(2) Kids’ time is valuable

Requiring kids to proceed at the pace of a large class rather than at their own pace is inefficient, wasteful, and to me implies a disrespect for their time.

Finishing your schoolwork early because you were quicker at a particular subject & spending the rest of the day on self-directed projects, playing outside, or even just plain being bored is better. Or taking much longer on a particular subject to ensure mastery is better than just moving on to the next grade because “it’s been a year”.

Mastery based individualized learning respects kids’ time in both cases.

(3) Kids are very capable

Self-explanatory – kids can do much more than is commonly assumed. Eg this post argues a cause of teen angst/suffering is still treating them as children rather than capable young adults petergray.substack.com/….

I most interested in Montessori (through elementary) because I believe it aligns best with the values described above.