Blogging

Now I've been quiet for a while here, I read this one and was inspired to open up again... Seven reasons why teachers should blog  and decided to get going. My blogging has been complicated by the fact that I started another blog www.menntamannsi.blogspot.com where I blog in Icelandic and intend to stick mostly to educational matters.

Well, another post on deschooling by Mr. Wheeler who seems to be a very interesting blogger. I recently also watched this fascinating talk by Astra Taylor on the same topic. Now I'm a teacher in a very traditional school and my career has been quite far from these radical ideas. Nevertheless I feel pulled towards them.... and it occurred to me today as I listened to talks at the University of Icelands Centennial Symposium , Kofi Annan and Carol Carmichael in their appeal to universities to prepare youth for future leadership; for an ethical turn in attitudes and a commitment to sustainability, that perhaps a dose of deschooling is exactly what we need. To find a new focus and to foster passionate commitments we need to relax the formalism of education, and most importantly in the secondary schools and higher education. Richard Rorty defined a university as a place where you could find a book on any subject and someone to discuss it with.

I spend a lot of time in a very traditional setting in classrooms, but I also teach distance education and I've slowly been expanding my practice there to try new things. Now I've started blogging (more than before anyway) and I have a highly anarchic Facebook group for all my students and so I'm possibly opening up new venues for learning and curiosity.... I don't honestly know... but if Wheeler's on the right track then so am I....