schoolyard subversion

Welcome Fellow Subversives!

School harms kids! It sounds counterintuitive at first, but there is truth to it. The American school system, which many people participate in with the best of intentions, has some nasty consequences. Many others have written on the subject, find out what they have to say about it. I finally realized this and decided to do something about it. Welcome to schoolyard subversion, the true story of my fight to change my school. Realize the truth, and do something to begin the change. How many more kids have to go through with this?

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Today's Entry: May 1, 2002 [< * >]

Happy May Day!

Life moves quickly now. Last week I went to Boston, to give a lecture at MIT and next week I leave for Hawaii, then California to speak at two conferences. (See my website for details.) Most of the time I read, program, talk with friends or simply sit outside. I occasionally go back to my old school to say hello to everyone. I've begun driving and have a Learner's Permit.

I often talk to kids who are still trapped, like I used to be. I'm not sure what to say to them. I tell them how great it is being free, and recommend books, but I have no secret weapon to convince their parents. However, I have found one key for them. The summer I started schoolyard subversion, I made a resolution. I would attempt to make the rest of the world my life and school a special occasion. When that view flipped is when things became unbearable.

I feel bad that I've not been continuing this site, or the other related things I'd planned. I'd appreciate any volunteers to help out. Now that I'm so far away from school, it seems so much less important. It's unfortunate, but true.

I'm not sure what to write to you all. I've been pouring my writing into my personal weblog.I also put together a list of my various projects and websites. I've been writing a lot about the things I'm working on lately.

Today I found the most interesting article about the hole-in-the-wall experiment in India. Dr. Sugata Mitra put computers in poor neighborhoods, where kids knew little-to-no English and hooked them up to the Internet. Kids were quickly hooked, learning to launch a painting program and surf the Web with zero assistance. He called it "minimally invasive education". Giving them a few simple hints, they were able to learn about MP3s and other things.

Continuing the experiment, he found some school-age kids and asked their teacher for five quiz questions for the material they'd learn next year. He showed the kids the questions and they didn't even understand them, let alone know the answers. He gave them a computer with an Internet connection. Within two hours they'd answered all the questions and learned some things that even the professor didn't know.

When he gave the computers to adults, all they could say was "What on earth is this for? Why is there no one here to teach us something? How are we ever going to use this?"

I find these experiments fascinating and examples of children's innate curiosity. If you're interested, I encourage you to read the article and visit the Hole-in-the-Wall website. There's definitely a lot of potential here.

Anyway, I encourage you to email me and chat. All the best,

Aaron Swartz

P.S. A problem in upgrading a few days ago made us lose some data, and I had to revert to a backup of the site from several months ago. If you subscribed since then, you'll have to sign up again. My apologies.

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