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Is it better for schools to be rigorous or nurturing?

In my opinion there has been far too much emphasis on rigorousness in the "cult" of formal education.
That's right, I say "cult." There is so much emphasis on formal and structured education in the media today, that folks are apt to forget that education is a natural, life-long process that need not be approached formally to be effective. Some of the most educational moments take place outside any classroom. Life, itself is the greater classroom. Formal classrooms are like electives on the path of life. In excess they can lead to an unnatural view of the real world and meddle with otherwise well-adjusted and trained minds. The concept of education has become confused with "boot camp" and the penal system. One has military value, while the other is punitive. Both call for a great deal of regimentation. Neither is designed to be culturally or particularly, intellectually enriching. Both are rigorous in their approach.

Today, formal education is very "big business." It is less about education itself than about exploiting consumers. That's right, I say "exploiting." The media has taken advantage of this fact, and the retailers of school supplies are determined to milk every dollar possible from the public. The government uses formal education as an excuse to tax the living daylights out of people. In the process, financial autonomy is virtually discouraged in individuals. Government spends as government sees fit. Autonomy was supposed to be the very essence of what formal education was supposed to grace us with, particularly with regards to the savvy to manage our own affairs, financially and otherwise.

The word "rigor" comes from Latin, to be stiff - as in "rigor mortis," literally the stiffness of death.
Rigor also is defined as hardship, trying circumstance; or a cruel act.
It's original meaning was "rigidity or stiffness."
Is that what we hope to glean from education?
Note: in physiology, rigor pertains to a rigid state in living organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli!
Too much rigor, and you miss the fine points of what education is about.

On the other hand, "nurture" is defined as
to educate or train; to cultivate, help grow or develop; to serve well, encourage, fledge, enculturate, socialize, sustain, ...
Sound familiar? You bet! To nurture is to educate truly.

As babies, we are nurtured and thus educated by loving parents and extended family; as youths and adults, we are also nurtured by the books we read, the art and culture we are exposed to and the opportunities to experience and exercise autonomy in our own lives - something the government can't be counted on for and schools all too often de-emphasize. Schools often promote dependency upon their faulty and/or failed systems of education and they do so by employing rigorous approaches. Where's the nurture? Real education does not thrive from a rigorous approach.

Learn more about this author, Violet Fortune.
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