Thursday, February 15, 2007
Curse You, The Magic School Bus!
Just kidding. It's a great series.
But the Scholastic Book video and book collection had a big impact on our family. It absolutely ruined our son's interest in conventional classroom education. In fact, his reaction to the disparity between what he observed about learning on The Magic School Bus and what he actually experienced in the classroom (one semester of kindergarten, seven years ago) was a contributing factor in our decision to homeschool (not everyone who homeschools is a religious fanatic!).
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, here's the premise: Ms. Frizzle ("the Friz") is an elementary school teacher possessed with a zest for science, exploration, learning, and fun (is that somebody's PBS tag line?). She plunges her students into experiential experiences of science via (you guessed it)an asteroid-battered magic school bus. If the class is studying volcanoes, off they go (and shrink) to explore the underwater birth of a new island. Properly sprayed with pheronomes, students fly through beehives and crawl underground with ants. The videos and books are no dreary run-through of science facts: there's magic (the bus itself, plus a host of peripheral devices), drama (problem-solving while stuck inside a volcano that's about to erupt), and corny jokes (watch the antics of ants).
It's only part of what education can be, but it's competently done. What's still required is for an adult (in this case, my wife and I) to provide realty-based opportunities (not just video lessons) for our kids to explore and learn. "Our kids," because our three daughters joined our son at home for school.
We don't have magic, of course, but we do have an example that stimulates our inventiveness!
But the Scholastic Book video and book collection had a big impact on our family. It absolutely ruined our son's interest in conventional classroom education. In fact, his reaction to the disparity between what he observed about learning on The Magic School Bus and what he actually experienced in the classroom (one semester of kindergarten, seven years ago) was a contributing factor in our decision to homeschool (not everyone who homeschools is a religious fanatic!).
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, here's the premise: Ms. Frizzle ("the Friz") is an elementary school teacher possessed with a zest for science, exploration, learning, and fun (is that somebody's PBS tag line?). She plunges her students into experiential experiences of science via (you guessed it)an asteroid-battered magic school bus. If the class is studying volcanoes, off they go (and shrink) to explore the underwater birth of a new island. Properly sprayed with pheronomes, students fly through beehives and crawl underground with ants. The videos and books are no dreary run-through of science facts: there's magic (the bus itself, plus a host of peripheral devices), drama (problem-solving while stuck inside a volcano that's about to erupt), and corny jokes (watch the antics of ants).
It's only part of what education can be, but it's competently done. What's still required is for an adult (in this case, my wife and I) to provide realty-based opportunities (not just video lessons) for our kids to explore and learn. "Our kids," because our three daughters joined our son at home for school.
We don't have magic, of course, but we do have an example that stimulates our inventiveness!
