Network of Learning

See Christopher Alexander's Network of Learning pattern at Brain . > ". . . another network, not physical like transportation, but conceptual, and equal in importance, is the network of learning: the thousands of interconnected situations that occur all over the city, and which in fact comprise the city's "curriculum": the way of life it teaches to its young."

# Problem In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students - and adults - become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.

# Therefore: Instead of the lock-step of compulsory schooling in a fixed place, work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city: workshops, teachers at home or walking through the city, professionals willing to take on the young as helpers, older children teaching younger children, museums, youth groups traveling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, old people, and so on. Conceive of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process; survey all these situations, describe them, and publish them as the city's "curriculum"; then let students, children, their families and neighborhoods weave together for themselves the situations that comprise their "school" paying as they go with standard vouchers, raised by community tax. Build new educational facilities in a way which extends and enriches this network.

digraph { layout=dot rankdir=LR overlap=false concentrate=false bgcolor=lightblue // splines=" " node [shape=box style=rounded] label=" \nAlexander's Local Network of Learning" "Learning from\nDiverse\nPlaces\nSituations" -> {Workshops Homes Walking Professional "Industrial\nWorkshops" Museums Traveling Seminars "Etc, Etc."} "Learning form\nDiverse People" -> {Students Family Neighbors Teachers "Other\nChildren" Professional "Community\nCurriculum" "Etc, Etc."} "Learning from\nDiverse\nPlaces\nSituations" -> "Community\nCurriculum" -> Publish "Educational\n'Facilities'" -> {"Learning from\nDiverse\nPlaces\nSituations" "Learning form\nDiverse People"} [label=Extend] }