By Bob Conklin
EDITORS NOTE: In the spring, 1986 issue of Com-mini-cations, several supporters of Mini-School were asked to write guest articles. Bob Conklin wrote the following article, which we decided to reprint in this issue as a tribute to him, showing as it does his supportive, people-centered philosophy of life and education.
In a supermarket you can buy thousands of different foods that can be prepared in as many different ways to fill the varying needs and taste of people.
In a music store you can select rock to opera because no two people like the exactly the same songs.
Shopping malls are filled with clothing stores, each one carrying different styles, because people dress differently; like snowflakes, no two people’s self-images are exactly alike.
This freedom of choice, so prevalent in all aspects of American Society, is somehow exempt from the education process. The restrictive routines by which young are required to gain knowledge have very narrow margins of freedom. The regimentation and objectives have changed little in the last hundred years except to become more demanding.
It is not known if this is the most effective way for youth to grow, mature, gain knowledge and prepare themselves for living a productive happy life.
No other system is tried and almost no educational research is conducted. Large corporations spend up to 4% of their income in research to discover new products or better methods.
But the biggest business in the world, education, spends almost nothing to determine if there is a better way to gain an education.
Legislation and custom prohibit any risks being taken to depart from the educational routines practiced for dozens of years.
And so Mini-School is like a tiny spark glowing by itself. It is a hope, an alternative, a different way of providing young people the tools they need to lead successful lives.
Mini-School allows greater freedoms, a wider range of choices, and the necessity of acquiring personal responsibility. It recognizes that human needs and personal development is as important as the acquisition of a predetermined quantity of knowledge.
A comparison to this would be a characteristic of the Japanese school system. No young person is flunked. All are allowed to progress to the next grade regardless of academic accomplishment.
It is rationalized that it is far more injurious to the self-esteem of the child to experience the humiliation of failure than to be a bit behind in school work.
In a different way, Mini-School achieves the same thing. There are those who simply do not and somehow cannot fit into the educational system as it is established. The system works splendidly for most, but not for all.
And for those who cannot adapt to the regimentation there is little choice except to suffer loss of self esteem in some way. Mini-School saves them from that.
In doing so they are saved from being left behind in the glorious adventure that life can be.
Our community is, indeed, indebted to the staff of Mini-School and all the students who have participated in building lives that are far more productive and meaningful because of the Mini-School experience.