Independent Study Informs You, Not Conforms You

I can’t stop thinking about this piece of student writing by Eco Dzaman:

http://tinypaste.com/e2f5e

This student’s thesis is that home schooling/independent study is valid, and perhaps superior to our 10 month, Monday-Friday education system.

Yet I can’t help but read something else into this. It could also be a plea for more authentic, inquiry-based learning in today’s schools.

Then one of  iGoogle’s quotes of the day caught my eye  yesterday:

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

Leonardo was onto something, and Eco has learned to understand what that is perfectly in today’s world.