Episode 164: Why Schools Haven't Changed in Hundreds of Years (with Kevin Currie-Knight)

872 views · Published 12 December 2016 · 51:00 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: Libertarianism.org · 2016 · News & Politics

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Kevin Currie-Knight joins us this week to discuss why we can’t seem to change the way we educate schoolchildren. Is there one best way to educate kids?

Where did our current system—splitting kids up by age, dividing knowledge up into subjects, having teachers stand at the front of the room and give lectures, testing knowledge with exams, summer holidays, etc.—come from? Why does education still look pretty much like it did hundreds of years ago when everything else in our modern world has changed?

Show Notes and Further Reading

Currie-Knight spoke on a Kansas Policy Institute panel on this topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOu98ZfoDE

Here’s Currie-Knight’s video series about education, Schooled.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiUFlIPepRLwyNQnA78a1sA

He also mentions The Independent Project, High Tech High, and an upcoming documentary about High Tech High called Most Likely To Succeed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/high-school-lets-teens-de_n_2819477.html
http://www.hightechhigh.org/
http://www.mltsfilm.org/

Trevor mentions a lecture (and Free Thoughts episode) he gives called The Statrix.
https://www.libertarianism.org/media/free-thoughts/statrix-how-government-warps-our-perception-world

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