DEFCON 2: What About the Kids’ Education?
01:02:03
Boat Schooling means you can sometimes choose your own classroom - like a converted olive press in Sivota - Lefkas Island, Greece.
“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.”
#10 Don’t get me wrong; I think the delivery of free state education is one of the greatest achievements of the civilised world. It’s been one of the main drivers of equality, economic prosperity, and social mobility. But for many parents, the Covid pandemic offered a brief glimpse into the school classrooms of their kids, and most weren’t impressed by what they saw.
Taking our kids out of school was one of the biggest psychological DEFCONs we had to overcome. No parent wants to scupper their kids' education, and it's not only a rational decision but also a very emotional one too. But after 7 years of boat schooling and one of our eldest transitioning from the boat to land in the interim, I’m convinced it was not only the right thing to do but actually enhanced their future prospects.
Students rely heavily on their teachers and schools for not just their education but also direction, guidance, and validation, much like employees have depended on their bosses and companies for job security, guidance, and career advancement since the industrial revolution.
A seal indulging in some 'experiential learning' about human behaviour with a playful Rowan - Galapagos Islands.
It’s a one-size-fits-all system based on standardisation, mass production, and dependency power structures. It is ill-equipped to nurture the kind of independent, resilient, dynamic, pioneering free-thinking kids our society and economy will inevitably need to survive and thrive. With the rise of AI, this outmoded standardised system will inevitably prove even less fit for purpose.
Institutional incarceration is a tried and tested form of punishment, and many kids view school that way too. Despite valiant attempts to reconcile education with the modern world, it seems to have entered a spiral of reinvention, upheaval, and political and ideological obtrusion that leaves many kids confused and unprepared for the real world. This can be seen with the unfolding mental health crisis amongst the young.
Darry collecting bananas with the village kids on the Island of Vanua Levu , Fiji.
I don’t want to tar all education establishments with the same brush - there are some fantastic schools and colleges out there in which some children do thrive. But they are in the minority and rarely in the public sector.
This dissatisfaction with conventional institutional teaching has sparked a rapidly growing movement in alternative education. From unschooling to Montessori, from online schooling to Steiner, the techniques and resources available are too numerous to mention here - there are oodles of blogs, podcasts, websites, videos, online courses to suit all personality types, teaching techniques, and lifestyles. With the introduction of AI tutors, the options and opportunities are truly limitless - See Hannah Frankman's links at the bottom of this post.
There are oodles of blogs, podcasts, websites, videos, online courses to suit all personality types, teaching techniques, and lifestyles.
World schooling is a recognised and popular approach where education is integrated with travel, allowing kids to learn from diverse cultures, real-world experiences, and environments around the world. It's an approach that prioritises curiosity, exploration, and hands-on learning over rote memorisation and standardised tests. This type of approach bakes into kids many experiential data points and life skills enabling them to develop a curiosity and love for learning that lasts way beyond childhood.
Boat schooling is not really a teaching method, more of a lifestyle. Naturally, it incorporates world schooling with the inevitable adventure travel, experiential learning, and conventional homeschooling thrown in, but it goes way beyond that.
Boat schooling doesn't necessarily mean abandoning traditional schooling methods altogether if it works for you, it just means you blend it in with your lifestyle. Morton Island, Australia.
Boat families, by default, engage in critical thinking and active dialogue around the dinner table and encourage the kids to explore and discover knowledge on their own. They look to their immediate environment for learning opportunities, whether it's a jungle walk, a visit to a museum, or a dive on a reef.
They interact with cruisers and inhabitants from all over the world with a wide ranging skillset and background, from environmental scientists and musicians to chefs and entrepreneurs, developing what Soren Kaplan, bestselling author and expert on disruptive innovation, calls ‘Experiential Intelligence’.
Boat-schooled kids are generally academically on par, if not ahead of their land-based peers but have additional social skills that enable them to talk confidently to a room full of adults and the self-assuredness to befriend kids from completely different backgrounds and cultures.
Where better to learn about living in the Amazon Rain Forest than IN the Amazon Rain Forest from people who actually live there - Suriname.
By sailing the world’s oceans, kids instinctively know the world is not built around them; that it will not bend to their will and that the weather, sea, and environment ultimately have the last word. They learn that resources like water and energy are not limitless and need replenishing. There are times of scarcity, fatigue, and boredom as well as moments of unimaginable wonder, excitement, and high drama that few adults, let alone other kids ever get to experience.
Imagine your kids in a future interview being asked for the usual, demonstrable examples of responsibility, community engagement, resourcefulness, or resilience, and they respond with:
Standing solitary night-watches in the middle of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Helping environmental scientist plant coral on the reefs of Fiji.
Helping to coordinate plastic cleanups with remote Island tribes in Panama.
Exploring the Amazon rainforest by boat.
Crewing in sailing championships around the world.
Diving with sharks in the Galapagos Islands
Hand feeding sharks in French Polynesia.
Trekking in the jungles of Colombia and meeting with tribal Shaman.
Riding out storms in the Coral Sea.
Charting a course to avoid pirate activity off the Venezuelan coast.
So rest assured that taking your kids out of school for a life of freedom, travel, and adventure will not destroy their education; it will embolden them and give them an educational experience that will be second to none. Living a life less ordinary will make them and their resumes stand out from their peers and build in them the resilience and adaptability to take on whatever challenges an unpredictable future may throw at them.
Rowan developed a passion for historical fiction which helped with her English and history and no 'schooling' coercion involved - Ithica, Greece
I’ll end this week with a light hearted pedagogical parable about the merits of alternative education methods.
A school caretaker faces a lipstick crisis in the girls' bathroom. Every break, the girls practice their kissing skills on the large mirror, leaving stubborn smears for the caretaker to clean off at the end of the day.
Despite various attempts to curb their creative endeavours, including stern lectures from teachers and even the head herself, the practice persists. Frustrated, the caretaker decides it's time to take matters into his own hands.
He marches into the head’s office and says, “Look, whatever you’re telling the girls, it’s not working. At the end of every day, there are more and more smears on the mirror. Tomorrow, bring the girls into the bathroom at 3 pm before they go home, and I'll talk to them personally.”
The head follows the request, assembling the girls the next day at the scene of the crime.
“Look, girls,” says the caretaker with an exasperated sigh, pointing to the incriminating smears on the large mirror above the sinks, “Despite being told not to do this, every day, I still have to clean off these lipstick marks. So, I just want to show you how much effort goes into removing them.”
With that, he picks up a filthy floor mop, trudges into a nearby cubicle, and dips it into the depths of the toilet bowl. He then lumbers back to the sinks and proceeds to wipe the filthy mop all over the mirror as the girls look on in stunned silence.
The moral of the story is, while some people teach, others educate.
“When eating fruit..”
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That’s it again for another week. Before next week I’d suggest checking out some of Hannah Frankman's excellent content.
Hannah Frankman is a podcaster, writer, and the founder of rebelEducator. Hannah grew up homeschooled, skipped college to cut her teeth in the startup world, and has been living and breathing alternative education ever since. She’s a regular writer, speaker, and commentator on education innovation.
@thehannahfrankmanpodcast
Next week we'll be looking at DEFCON 3 - My Partner Isn't Interested
