I've been thinking a lot about what I'm looking for in a school for Riley, and I'm starting to get some ideas about what I think is most important to me for my kids' education. At base, more than anything else, I want them to learn how to create things. That's different than being creative; it's not that I want them to both be artists exactly. But I want them to know how to create a new thing of value, in whatever field or fields that they are choosing to work in at the time. Or to improve a thing that is already valuable, or to fix something of value that is broken. If they can contibute to a group making something of value, or even lead that group to create something, so much the better.

My junior high and high school seemed to concentrate entirely on providing the tools with which to create things - math, science, english, history, etc - and missed the overall goal of these things, which was to teach how to take those blocks and make something with them. The blocks are important, for sure - but how to use the blocks is more important still. I understand now that the papers and group projects were supposed to be the time I was learning how to make things with my toolset, but at the time, I didn't know that - which made the entire exercise a waste, because I didn't understand what muscles I was supposed to be using. Without knowing the goal, most of the work seemed like an exercise in futility (how is knowing 18th century european history going to help me in my day to day life?). And if I had known the goal, I Might have been more interested in science and math classes (because really, how does european history help? :))

The other major piece that I think was missing from my education was the idea of an apprenticeship. I realize now that in jr. high, high school, and even college, I had no read idea of how the world worked outside of the walls of academia. I knew that my dad went to meetings and stuff, and I had an idea of what cop and lawyer life was like due to TV shows, but that was about the extent of it. And there was a real feeling of dread that I wouldn't be able to cut it once I got out, because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. That dread was somewhat right, because it took a few years in the workforce to feel like I knew what the rules were and what was expected of me. If I had done some sort of work in high school and college, it would have helped to expose me to the working world and have an expectation for what I was getting into; even more helpful would have been an apprenticeship, where there was someone specifically in charge of getting me up to speed on the ways of the company, where it would be ok for me to ask stupid questions and do stupid things. I am starting to view apprenticeships not as something that's useful for the company, but as a social service, almost like paying taxes. Yeah, it's a pain, but everybody's better off if most people do it.