[barry-cotter]

Charitably assuming that was sarcasm, no that is not all that is needed. Boring the crap out of children and teaching them that no one cares what they want and that people with authority can shit all over them with impunity may be good preparation for adult life but one can in fact do better. Even working under the constraint that there must be a place for parents to park their children while they go work one can do a lot better.

Montessori and Sudbury/Democratic schools do not work on the sit down shut up and do as you're told model and they do very well.

And if we're going to do the sit down, shut up and do as you're told model why can't we at least use the best method for it, Direct Instruction?

[ssdfsdf]

It's not sarcasm. There is nothing you can do for them that will be better than allowing them the free time to learn at their own pace from the internet.

A highly gifted or profoundly gifted child does not need education in the traditional sense, they need emotional support. The intellectual support the average teacher is going to be able to provide will very frequently be inadequate.

It was suggested I go to a democratic school, but I declined. Such a thing would have been good for me,but what would have been better: Just let me get on with learning about the world with a group of my peers.

[mcdougle]

I think I understand what you're saying. Allowing them to learn at their own pace would still be doing something, though.

In school, whenever a new concept was introduced, I often found that I understood it pretty quickly, but that we'd spend days on the topic while several other students in class struggled to grasp it. During that time, I was expected to sit there and pay attention -- even though it was a waste of time. Even creative outlets, like drawing, were not allowed. If I could have used that time to learn something new on my own, through the Internet or whatever else, that would have been a lot better than just sitting there. Even just letting the students who understand the topic out to play or something until the next topic is introduced would be better and more productive than just having them sit there.

Once I got to college it got a lot better -- I was able to skip classes that I knew would be a waste of time and do more productive things, or bring a laptop to class and do something else when the professor was explaining something I already understood. But prior to college I didn't own a laptop -- not that it would have been allowed even if I did!

[barry-cotter]

From my perspective we are either in agreement or nitpicking then. Ideally children would be free to do their own thing subject to the constraint that that thing not be unsafe to no good purpose.

Where would you have found peers outside of a school environment? Given the normal school system is 0 and unschooling is 10 where would you place democratic schools?

I presume unschooling is a good approximation to your ideal.