When you think of hacking and hackers what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Well, I can tell you mine was not about hackschooling. It was about computer hackers doing bad and illegal activities. The original definition of hacking is fiddling or tinkering with something to make it work better. Hackschooling is a method of education where the student or learner is allowed to choose their activities and how they would like to learn. I think this is a brilliant way for children to learn, although it would be difficult to implement everywhere. I like that students get to choose special interests that they can learn about in their education, but I feel like young children would need a large amount of guidance in choosing their special interest. In the TED Talk video, Logan LePlante explained that “learning how to be happy and healthy is not taught in school.” This lead his family and many others to pull their students out of public education to be home schooled. These families created hackschooling. In this system they have the freedom to learn about skiing and they spend whole days outside in nature. I think this would be an excellent option for students. Both the video and reading has opened my eyes to the possibilities that I will have in my own classroom. Hopefully, when I have my classroom, I will be able to teach my students about nature outside, show them where their food comes from, and teach them life skills. I know that going on trips every other week will never happen in schools, but teachers have options to teach students in different ways that allow them to learn special interests. The article Centering on Essential Lenses describes how children learn better when they are actually making things with their hands rather than just being lectured. That is really important for future teachers to understand. Schools need to have hands on experiences for their students. The article also describes how playing is a good thing. It isn’t just letting the students do whatever they please. The article says that play is about giving students the freedom to learn and discover while still giving guidance. It also says that “good play requires that you understand what and who you’re playing with, and perhaps even the nature of the game.” This is an extremely important thing for students to learn. When they understand things, they can excel. Altogether, I learned a lot from the video and article.
Education Through My Eyes 
It may seem from our perspective that this hackschooling idea could be hard to implement everywhere but if we look back through the history of U.S. schooling, there have been other drastic changes that took time but nonetheless were eventually accepted and utilized system-wide. Good information here in your post!
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That is very true. I guess I never thought about the history of school and how it has changed throughout the years. I only really thought about my own schooling and how that was compared to hackschooling. It could be done, it would just take a lot of time and eager teachers to make it happen. Thanks for the comment!
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Absolutely. A lot of our mindset is based on our own experiences. Sometimes getting a different perspective helps to see the possibilities.
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Yes. I completely agree.
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Great post Sydni! I agree the way that Logan had the opportunity to learn is awesome, and I hope that you will find a way to incorporate some of the ideas he mentioned about alternative schooling into your future classroom. What you said about taking trips every week in public school not being feasible is true, but it reminded me of some learning experiences I had in school. At the elementary, junior high, and high school levels I always ad a teacher or two that would take us outside when the weather was nice to read or write or complete a project. Although it wasn’t as exciting as skiing, it changed the scenery and helped us to think with new perspective. Public education taking ideas from alternative schooling doesn’t mean that everything will be copied exactly, but that the purpose will be applied in a similar fashion. It is a good thing to remember.
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Jessica, I do agree that there are other options for exposing students to the world without taking trips. That’s great that you had teachers that would take you outside! I had a few teachers that did that and those were some of my favorite teachers throughout my schooling. Public schools should take some of the ideas from alternative schooling and apply them to the best of their ability. Thanks for the comment!
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I completely agree with your post! I didn’t really ever think of hacking being a good thing until I watched the video. However, I think it is something that I would love to incorporate into my own classroom!! Great post!
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Jaylinn, I don’t know about you, but many of my classes this semester are really opening my mind to new possibilities and the knowledge that there are some really amazing things in this world. I agree that hacking is a great thing and that all teachers should try to apply the ideas from hacking into their classrooms. Thanks for the comment!
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I totally agree!
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I agree that teachers have the ability to teach students things they would like to learn! I think that is very important! I really enjoyed reading this blog post!
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I agree. I like that we, as future teachers, are learning alternative ways of teaching than the traditional ways. It’s exciting to think of how we could change education.
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