Why Does School Suck For So Many Kids? – Jim Sheils Interview

Voices in the Dark

Jim Sheils is disarmingly friendly for a terrorist.

Well, that's what he's been branded in his community – they say he's an 'education terrorist' for taking his kids out of school and teaching them through 'experiential education'. That means learning by doing and reflecting, not by memorising and regurgitating.

Wait up, though – this isn't an episode blindly extolling the virtues of home schooling; this is a thoughtful but passionate debate about the education system... and why and how it must be reformed.

Jon, Dre and Jim each bring their own different perspectives and experiences to the table, but they all agree on some fundamental points:

School does suck for most kids; schools are designed like prisons; testing does result in cramming data only to forget it 24 hours later; and if parents don't take an active interest in their kids' education, they are effectively sub-contracting that responsibility out to the government.

So the question is why, and what are we going to do about it?

For Jim, the answers all come back to whether the things and the way we learn will actually help us in life. Does our education system really give us the space to know ourselves? Does it truly prepare us for life's toughest moments when they inevitably turn up? Are we learning because we're excited, or because we fear punishment?

We dig into all these questions and more. But what do you think? Hit us up on Facebook or Instagram to join the debate!

We Also Get Into:

• Is testing always bad?
• Should everyone really be aspiring to go to university?
• Using Martial Arts for bringing a family together
• The best way to learn anything
• Life lessons from Richard Branson's mother
• How memory techniques work in the brain

Find Out More About Jim:

Jim is known as the 'Crazy Glue' for entrepreneur families. His popular 'Board Meeting' strategy and other simple frameworks are helping thousands of business leaders worldwide reconnect where it counts the most: at home. Using these tools, they can cultivate and nurture relationships with their families, rather than (as so often happens) sacrificing them on the altar of entrepreneurial achievement. He's the author of the #1 parenting book, The Family Board Meeting, and these days is promoting the importance of alternative education models sharing his own family's journey in the process.

You can find more of Jim:

• By email: [e-mail]
• His website

Links:

• Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on whether schools kill creativity
• Our feature interview with Philip McKernan on finding your gift
• Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning

Be Silly. Be Kind. Be Weird.