How would you envision Solarpunk schools and education?
This can be the way things are taught, who are the teachers, what a school day would look like, where classes are taught, what things what look like, etc.
More realistically, I think increasing the number of field trips would help students see things in action.
They don't need to be big: just a quick walk to the park, bakery, pharmacist, firehall, clinic, anything really. Just little half day trips every week or two.
You're so right about Ms. Frizzle. She'd be the perfect teacher in a Solarpunk world.
Agreed about the frequent field trips. It's more important to get out than people think, plus it helps people realize learning isn't just for in the classroom.
Year round schooling with a rotating schedule, multiple teachers for each classroom, nix the benchmark testing altogether and rely on the teachers keeping each other accountable to get accountable assessments of each student, give student government more and more democratic responsibility and control to participate in the writing of their curriculum and what they learn about, toss anyone touting parents rights into a blender in public and use the puree as fertilizer for the communal garden.
No assessment, no obligatory school time beyond teaching kids how to read well and basic maths. School could be a building where explanations of different topics are offered to interested people of no matter what age - of course you would have curriculum guides to help you find out where best to start, but you can just go and sit in the lessons.
I don't think reading and maths needs to be obligatory. Kids will pick it up naturally through their own curiosity when trying to learn about something more advanced.
What you are describing is pretty close to a university. Which makes sense because universities are places of learning, unlike schools which are prisons of disciplining and the goal isn't to learn but to memorize minutia for about a month before moving to the next topic.
Democratic schools in which students have autonomy and can collectively make decisions along with the teachers. The education should have a focus on learning for enrichment and teaching critical thinking skills over making productive workers like we have now.
Freedom to learn instead of forced studying.
Non authoritarian but instead based on consent, it would be the teachers main job to awaken the interest of the children and to help them find and improve their talents, so the children would then be enabled to do self determined learning and studying because they actually want to and not because they are forced to.
Diversity instead of uniformity.
No grades and no compulsory subjects but instead individual tutoring of every child/student, based on their personal interests and talents.
Classes taking place outside and in places that are relevant for the topic being studied is the norm
Kids would have a dedicated virtual tutor. An AI with infinite patience and no judgemental comments. It would be aware of the community-agreed minimal curriculum, would have explicit privacy limits and collaborate with the parents. (Kahn academy already has several pieces of that)
Most workplaces would have an open daycare that allow the kids who are old enough to accompany the adults.
The virtual tutor would double as a lawyer to ensure this does not lead to child labor.
It would be considered part of your work to explain it to interested children. Turning one down without good reason would be treated as a professional fault.
Replace consumer marketing with curiousity marketing: instead of pushing for desire to own, push for desire to know.
I don't think we need AI. Without the need to constantly work the tutor can just be one of the child's parents. This would work better because children naturally respect and want to emulate their parents. The tutor doesn't even need to know everything and just teach how to analyze situations and find knowledge.
But I agree that kids should be included in workspaces to teach them about necessary (or interesting) jobs.
Overall I think the best way is to allow kids to find their own best ways to learn.
I do think it is valuable to separate knowledge-seeking (where it is good to have access to a knowledge not limited by the parents) and emotional support. Being able to learn without fearing being judged and evaluated, that's valuable. Also as a parent, I do know that my reserve of patience is not infinite and I am happy that my kid finds sources of knowledge that are independent of me and my biases. Then we discuss things.
Overall I think the best way is to allow kids to find their own best ways to learn.
As someone who finished high school at the beginning of the internet, I can guarantee that access to free information unencumbered by the limitations of adults around me (including my loving knowledgeable parents) was essential. To me a virtual AI tutor is just a mean to make this accessible earlier. My kid still has trouble reading long and complicated text, and I rather have a smart tutor proposing him audio content than random youtubers.