“Sensing learners are focused on aspects of the physical environment. Jung described these individuals as being interested in the external world. They tend to be realistic and practical, preferring to rely on information gained through experience. While people with a sensing learning style enjoy order and routines, they also tend to be very quick to adapt to changing environments and situations. - psychology.about.com

You have facts here to back yourself up about how most people naturally learn. Sadly, I am the intuiting type who didn’t use his hands so much in his childhood.

I am expected to graduate from college and I hope I can with a major that I am passionate about as there will be unforeseen consequences, especially with my family if I do not.

best wishes,

Joe

IS THIS SO FAR-FETCHED?

I’ve attended 3 semesters of college, but it’s been a year since the last one. Everyone asks me “Are you going to school?” For a while I just answered “Not right now,” leaving the impression that I was on a break and that I’d be going back. But lately I’ve just embraced the truth; when someone asks me now, I just tell them that, No, I am not in school. When they ask when I’m going back, I just tell them I’m not. I’m done with it. I don’t want a career, anyways. And besides, it’s a waste of time and money if you don’t know what you’re going to do with that new magic piece of paper.

I’ve always been a good student, too. I’ve always loved learning, but I’ve never cared for school. The teaching/learning methods forced upon us, as students, never seemed to work for me all the way. I graduated high school with a 3.8 cumulative GPA, which I’m told means I can “do anything.” The thing is, I never did my homework, never studied, and never gave a fuck. I actually had a teacher pull me aside one year after class to tell me that I was a bad influence on the other students because I wasn’t doing my homework. I had a 97% in her class.

School as-is isn’t working how it should. The things we’re taught (although a good chunk of them are useless knowledge) could be taught to the students in a fraction of the time, and at least when it comes to college, for a fraction of the cost. Of course I think teachers have an important job, since it’s always a great thing to have someone there to help you through the text, but they could do their jobs so much differently.

But yes, I went through the “You’re gifted!” - “You’re a failure!” bit too, though not anywhere near as severe. Then I went to a private school, struggled to stay afloat, went BACK to public school, and aced the grades again, just because I had adjusted to a higher difficulty level. But socially I think the experience practically killed me.

Just a small point I would add about the history of schooling, while it is true that mass public schooling has only been with us for a few hundred years, schools have existed anywhere there has been written language and math, all civilizations both ancient and modern. The Mayans had schools, the Sumerians had schools 8000 years ago. These schools only ‘educated’ the elite and that has been the huge ’step forward’ in that now we ‘educate’ everyone, if you can call it that.
Reading and math can not be acquired from simply watching someone else with those skills read or work sums, unlike foraging, hunting, fishing, herbal medicine etc etc. Thus the necessity for schools. And in times past that very powerful advantage of ’secret’ knowledge was used to keep the majority in bondage to the few. It’s not all that much different today. Written language literally reshapes the brain in a physiological way. A couple more books: The Alphabet vs the Goddess and The Geography of Thought go into these subjects.
I was very conflicted about teaching my kids to read… but alas.. I succumbed to societal pressure and did.

As a side note, I also hated school. I was homeschooled my high school years, had some college and dropped out. I am now a healer and have several certifications as such but am largely self taught. I use various modalities with my clients; nutrition, herbs, energy work, hypnosis, body work. I am always learning. I think had I had a traditional education I wouldn’t be nearly as inquisitive and intuitive.

Keelia

Roxanne, thanks for you comments.

Misko, thanks for your comments.

Peter, thanks for your comments, and I will not mention the school I went to for legal purposes.

Anna, I’m so glad this help you and that it made you feel good.

Your article really helped us put some things in perspective such as the notion of getting schooled to get re-wilding education and how to get out of the vicious circle of civilization.

Unfortunately we realized too late the pointlessness of receiving a college education and now we are shit-deep in loans, working, as you put it, in “soul-sucking” jobs, trying to find an escape. We find ourselves working our way out of society, but isn’t that just feeding the monster?

Thank you for your website, thoughts, knowledge, and motivation. We feel we are not alone. . . thanks especially for that.

By the way we are down here in Eugene. . .can we connect this great divide of I-5??

Peace and Love

I too, quit school and became an unschooler/autodidact.

I too have been to a week long survival class and thought it too expensive/limiting (though valuable and interesting) to be feasible for a lot of people, including myself. I’m thinking you’re referring to a certain Tracker school?
I totally agree with your call for open-source culture. Open information sharing for survival, sustainability, and building balanced communities.

“*The Community Building Skill-Share

By running a public skill-share (such as a Rewild Camp) you can attract more people to rewilding and promote awareness for it while learning skills from others in the community. You can also run a private skill share for just family and friends. The purpose of the skill share comes back to the idea of building relationships and forming real cultures that hunt and gather together rather than continue to teach for money. I believe in exchanges and trading and the skill share does exactly that. You share your skills and learn from others who share theirs. You exchange your talents and knowledge instead of money.

*Emphasis on Social Technologies, not just artifact replication.”

It is inspiring to see that this awareness is growing, in strength as well as in the number of people. This is actually something I’ve started to look into in my area. I’m not aware of anything of the sort goin on around here so…

Oli Bamkanni / Travel well

From beginning to end of serving time in school I had this fantasy of blowing them all (schools) up. Later though, I recovered and found out that I should not fantasize schools being blown up but the whole system, including schools.

What I knew on a intuitive, instinctive level, I later gradually learned to articulate more in details as I was finding out about the intricacies of civilization’s power structures.

Thanks for sharing.

I love your analysis of what can be done instead, in sharing rewilding knowledge and community building. There’s so much here. It feels like the core of your bok (but then I feel that way every post you write!!!
Thank you!!!

Damn this system.