In a video recently posted to YouTube on Big Think channel , Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson made two extremely poignant points about education in children. The first of which would be, if you want kid kids interested in science “get out of there way”, and a follow up point regarding children,  “We spend the first year teaching them to walk and talk and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down”. Looking back on the endless string of years of my own personal education experience , and I cannot help but agree with this assessment. Amidst a sea of teachers whose spirit had been broken long ago, and had been forced to accept the realities of teaching to tests, or TEKS, or the varying expectations of school board members, there exists the rare teacher who actually cared, was capable of expressing their passion for the topic in a manner that made others do so as well, and returned ownership of the educational process to the student. For me the only memorable example of this did not come until I left public school to attend a so-called “alternative school” by the name of Freedom. Having lost my interest education several years before I arrived at freedom, the high point of my entrance interview with the principal, Mary, was her telling me that she didn't think I was going to actually graduate, but that she would give me a shot. Blessed with an unmatched ability to size up her incoming students, this was probably the smartest thing she could have ever said to me, then a punk kid who took the word no and statements of disbelief in his abilities as personal challenges. 

    For me and so many other students, Freedom was a perfect environment. Gone were arbitrary rules about dress codes, direction of head ware, and scheduled rigidity, having been replaced by a new found responsibility for ones education. Instead of being assessed grades for semesters of work by teachers in various stages of burnout, students were given the work for each class in advance and could choose to complete or not complete their work as they saw fit. For those that didn't chose to complete their work they eventually found comfort of sorts else where, but for those that saw the opportunity in this, entire years of course work could be completed in a fraction of the time allowing for early graduations. Additionally, the class rotation and assessment period was done every twelve weeks, similar to a shortened college semester schedule, which gave student the opportunities to experience a variety of classes and topics, and to better tailor their education to their particular needs. Although this revolutionary system had forced me to reevaluate what attaining an education meant, this transformation was not complete until I had experienced the class room of Glenda. In a class were we discussed everything from the Simpsons, and social commentary, to the book of Revelations from a literary standpoint, the importance, meaning, and value of language, and the spoken and written word came to life. Eventually filling all available elective credits with english courses, and independent studies course with her that centered on writing, I can honestly say that without Glenda I would not have graduated high school when I did or went on to college let alone graduate school, and without Freedom, I probably would not have graduated at all. 

    Although I recognize that not every student needs a Freedom, I believe there is a lot to learn from this model of education and that making sure that these alternatives are available, funded, abundant is essential to creating an educational system that is not one size fits all, but rather designed to meet the challenges of the future, to innovate to make it better, and focused on not just getting out of the way of children's creativity but doing everything in their power to create the opportunities for all kinds of intrinsic learning and the growth of creativity and curiosity. Similarly, I also believe it is never too late to rediscover the child like fascination with the world around us, and indeed may be one of the keys to a much more balanced future.

-Joshua Genius