Lifelong Learners

Just a couple of months ago, my daughter, Annie opted out of traditional high school to attend a charter school. It’s a great local charter school through which students learn at home: a sort of public school and homeschooling hybrid. Today she and I both have far more control over what, how, when and where she learns.

Annie’s advanced algebra class is based on a rigorous online system. She accesses it by sitting on her futon, keyboard in lap, facing the large-screen television that we have adapted for use as an oversized computer monitor. She can read her English assignments in book form or on her new e-reading device. She keeps up with her Spanish by reading the AP (Advanced Placement) recommended Spanish reading list, and she takes courses in history, anthropology, and PE.

Annie is considering a local college course in biology next semester. And she’ll take some classes at the local art center as well. But for most of her work, her classroom is now anywhere and everywhere: the local Starbucks, public library, living room couch, a nearby park. She is reading more and learning more than she was when she was attending the local, traditional high school, and yet she has more free time now. (Annie enjoys playing club waterpolo, volunteering, cooking, playing flute, and knitting.)

At first glance, it doesn’t add up. How can Annie be getting more learning done in less time? The biggest change seems to be the reduction in time spent on testing. We don’t focus on getting her ready for the next state-mandated standardized test. Instead, we follow her interests as much as the state standards. And this makes her a very happy student – happier than I have seen her since elementary school.

Annie has always been a straight-A student, and she was paying an increasingly large price. The higher grades seemed to be increasingly focused on testing, to the point that Annie spent most of her time getting ready for the next one. She was constantly “studying,” constantly anxious about multiple upcoming tests. And with college rapidly approaching, she felt the pressure of needing to get an A on every single test.

We’re done with all that now. Now, Annie is focused on learning. She has become excited about anthropology, and loved reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. She is looking forward to more courses in the sciences, and she excels at math. She is fluent in Spanish and will soon be starting to learn German.

Her goal is Columbia University’s pre-med program, with Berkeley and Harvard as possible back-up plans.

I have no doubt that Annie will reach her goals because, in addition to learning all the subjects I’ve mentioned, she is learning to take control of her own education. Gone are the stresses of trying to guess what will be on tomorrow’s test. Instead, she has time to read more widely, write more frequently, and think more deeply. What’s more, she has a head start on choosing a college major because she’s already in the practice of asking herself what she’s interested in. She is becoming increasingly self-directed.  She sits in on lectures at a local college and listens to Harvard and UC Berkeley lectures online.

While Annie’s new school is extraordinary, the situation that led us here is common. Today’s college-bound students are experiencing unparalleled pressures as the emphasis on testing in traditional public schools continues to grow. This pattern has been so gradual that I think most parents haven’t noticed. However, the radical change that Annie has experienced these last few months has made it crystal clear to me: too much testing gets in the way of learning. It takes up our students’ time – not just the time it takes to actually take the tests, but all the time that students spend preparing for the next one.

Too much testing does not serve anyone. In addition to the direct effect this has on students, it forces teachers to focus on test prep, administering tests, and grading, instead of actually teaching. Teachers are increasingly pushed to narrow their instruction – reaching the most extreme position possible when test preparation becomes the instruction, with instructional materials mimicking the formats and exercises that appear on the tests.  This isn’t teaching. It isn’t learning. It’s madness!

I don’t know exactly how much of my own daughter’s time had previously been taken over by tests. But I can tell you that removing those artificial pressures, and replacing them with a program focused on her learning experience, has been nothing short of life-changing.

Most parents are familiar with the saying that “parents are a child’s first teachers.” But what about being your child’s primary teacher – not just for life skills and values, but academics as well – at age 8, 12, and 16? That’s a different idea completely. And it’s catching on.

I often hear from many parents who either homeschool or participate in an independent study charter school where they serve as their child’s primary teacher. More and more, I’m also hearing from parents who are considering these options.

These parents have very different needs and questions from those who are trying to make traditional public school work for their children. Parents-as-teachers are asking for curricula advice, learning resources, pacing guides, and information on the wide variety of educational approaches out there.

A good place to begin is with educational philosophy. And the good news is that there is a wide range of educational philosophies and approaches to choose from.  These include:

Montessori
The three Montessori principles are Observation, Individual Liberty, and Preparation of the Environment to “control the environment, not the child.” Montessori methods include the provision of appropriate materials and tools for children to use in mastering age and state-appropriate skills.

Unit Study
The Unit Study approach integrates the typical school subjects into units based on themes, and are useful for multi-level teaching.  There are many unit study curricula available, but you can also create your own. Themes might focus on character building studies, history based studies, literature based studies, or science based studies.

Unschooling
Unschooling is focused on following the interests of the child, and allowing learning to occur in a natural way.  Parents facilitate rather than “educate” their children. Academic subjects are incorporated into everyday life.

Waldorf
The aim of Waldorf schooling is to educated the whole child; head, heart and hands. There is a strong focus on imagination and fantasy play. Competition is discouraged, and reading is not taught until much later than it is in traditional public schools. Students are encouraged to follow their own interests, and the unit study approach is often utilized as well.

Charlotte Mason
The Charlotte Mason philosophy encourages reading good books from original sources as well as the incorporation of nature study and enjoyment. Music, books, and art are emphasized.

Classical / Trivium
This model is often (but not always) tied to Christian content, and it is based on elements drawn from ancient Roman teaching methods. The Trivium contained three areas; Grammar (factual knowledge), Dialectic (reasoning), and Rhetoric (expression and application). This approach often connects these three areas of the Trivium to different stages of cognitive development.

Eclectic
Most homeschooling and parent-led learning takes an eclectic approach that may borrow elements from one or more of the approaches above. Methods and curricula are most often chosen to meet the particular needs, strengths, and desires of the individual child.

Of course, we all know that actual learning doesn’t cost money. Time: maybe. Energy: definitely. But the sad fact is that conventional learning paths often also cost so much money that many of us just won’t avail ourselves of the offerings. And this creates artificial barriers to learning that are bad for both society and individuals.

Colleges are out of reach for many people. In many cities, private schools offer children better alternatives to public schools, but they are most often incredibly expensive. Even books cost, and DVDs and CDs can be pricey.

But all of that is beginning to change. It’s becoming more and more possible to find great educational alternatives that won’t break the bank. For young ones, independent study public charter schools are one great, growing alternative. Homeschooling is another. And web-based education is a third. For the rest of us, all kinds of new lifelong learning opportunities are opening up through the Internet.

Below is a list of my favorite free learning resources for all ages. Enjoy! (And if you know of other great resources, please comment to add to the list too!)

Teens / Adults

Have you always wanted to attend a top-notch university? How about for free? And while you’re wishing, how about making it so easy that you can attend from the comfort of your couch, while you’re in the car, or while you go for a jog? The University of California at Berkeley makes many of their regular course offerings available for free over the Internet. Log on at http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php.

You can attend Yale lectures from your armchair as well. That’s right – Yale! Check it out at http://oyc.yale.edu/.

Open Culture is a great web site for free high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Not only do they offer online courses from 350 universities, they provide free movies, audio books, and other resources too.

The Free University of San Francisco aims to make the highest level of education available, completely free, to any individual who wants it, regardless of color, creed, age, gender, nationality, religion or immigration status—a university free of money, taught for free. The only requirement for membership is a desire to teach and/or a desire to learn. (Not web-based.)

TED Talks provide free educational experiences provided by the world’s most inspired thinkers — in the form of b18-minute talks. More than 700 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks are subtitled, and can be freely shared and reposted.

WNYC Radiolab is a one-of-a-kind radio show, also archived as podcasts, that explores topics and issues that cross the lines between science, philosophy, and human experience. Topics titles are deceptively simple: Falling, Limits, Animal Minds, Cities, and more.

Academic Earth offers links to lectures from universities including Harvard, MIT, and Yale.

YouTube links to many different universities that offer educational videos. Find these at: http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400.

If you haven’t seen itunes U , check it out. You will first need to download itunes if you don’t already have it, but it’s well worth the extra step.

Backstory with the American History Guys provides a fun, quirky approach to history.

Grammar Girl makes an often-dry subject come to life. Webster’s Word of the Day [http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/] provides an interesting (really!) look at one word each day. You can have it delivered to your email inbox too.

The Stuff You Should Know podcasts, from howstuffworks.com, answers people’s real-life questions on a wide variety of topics – from Vikings to sharks.

Triple-Emmy awarding This American Life , NPR’s Fresh Air , and Story Corps provide entertaining, educational stories from and about real people.

Kids

Cosmos 4 Kids provides educational information on the universe, galaxies, stars, systems, solar system, and space exploration.

Biology 4 Kids provides detailed, interesting information on cells, microorganisms, plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and animal systems

Grammar Slammer provides  instruction and examples for practically every aspect  of grammar.

Check out these free weekly newsletter and “old time radio” adaptations of great books and historic stories chosen especially for homeschooling families.

This comprehensive mathematics website comes from Cynthia Lanius of Rice University and spans pre-k through 11th grade.

This site provides several student-friendly recipes that are accompanied by videos of students cooking the actual recipes and  explaining the process, step by step. This site specializes in practical money skills with lessons appropriate for every grade level. And here’s a site that offers free printable math worksheets organized by grade level, activity type, and theme.

The Educational Podcast Network offers podcasts on a wide range of subjects, geared for elementary, middle school, and high school.

Why is Individualizing Education So Important?

In today’s public schools, standardized tests are given annually. All of the children in the same grade are expected to perform well. To make sure they do, teachers are focusing more and more on teaching to those tests. The goal is to spend the most time possible focused on the topics that are addressed in these tests.

Increasingly, brain research is showing that this approach is misguided. Take, for example, the National Institutes of Health study published in Neuroimage in 2007. This study found that boys’ and girls’ brain structures develop in different sequences. Specifically, these researchers found that while areas of the brain involved in language mature about six years earlier in girls, areas involved in spatial memory mature about four years earlier in boys. Could this be why we hear teen-aged girls complain about math being so hard? And teen-aged boys complaining that poetry is girls’ stuff? It seems so.

However, we are not likely to see public schools separate students into classes by gender. But the more you look at the data, the more it really would make sense to do so. Then again, there are many more kinds of learning differences in any given classroom. For example, we have many  children who have been identified as having learning disabilities, and more who seem to be significantly challenged, although we’re not sure why. Even in the same child, we may find giftedness in regard to math and difficulty keeping up with reading, for example. We have children who do well as long as everything is presented in an auditory fashion, or with opportunity for hands-on exploration. Children who seem to need to move, and children who need quiet to think. The variety of unique needs to be met in each classroom is fairly astounding.

It’s a shame that our public schools are so bent on standardized testing. We can only imagine what heights our children might reach if, rather than teaching to the test, we pitched our lessons in the ways that are best suited each child’s unique profile of interests, strengths and challenges.

If your child wants to go to college, she will probably need to take the SAT. To do well on that test, she will need to take certain courses in high school. And to get into those classes, she will need a good foundation in middle school and elementary school. It’s never too early to be thinking about how to support your child’s educational path!

Parent Driven Schools has long advocated for parent involvement in education. We teach parents how to develop a learning plan early on, and to support the child in refining, and making that plan her own, over time. Many parents have never heard of a learning plan, however. You might wonder what to include. Here are some prompts to help you get started.

1. Think about your child’s unique set of interests, strengths, challenges and needs.
a. What academic, athletic or other abilities does your child possess?
b. What are your child’s strongest interests?
c. What is your child’s predominant learning style? (Unfamiliar with learning styles? Go here for information.)
d. In what academic areas does your child need extra help?
e. In what areas do you think your child will excel?
Note: Parent Driven Schools has developed the Interests and Abilities Map (IAM), a tool to help you better understand and respond to your child’s unique set of interests, strengths, challenges and needs. Take the IAM with your child.

2. Consider your values.
a. What are your hopes for your child?
b. What would the ideal school be like, in your opinion? What kind of school philosophy or mission resonates with you?
c. Is it important to you to choose a school where you can be part of the leadership team? Or one where you will be allowed to participate in the classroom?
d. Do you want a school that embraces certain cultural or religious values?
e. Do you want a school that embraces cultural and religious differences?
f. What extracurricular activities will you provide for your child if they are not available at the school?

3. Compare schools.
a. What programs would be available at the ideal school for your child?
b. Does school size matter to you? How about class size?
c. Do you prefer a neighborhood school, chartered public school, private school or district-based public school?
d. How about a single-sex school?

4. Make it concrete.
a. Write down your answers to the questions above. This is your child’s first learning plan! You will find this a useful document to come back to as you go through the processes of choosing a school, communicating with teachers, and enrolling in extracurricular activities.
b. Share the highlights of the learning plan with your child’s teacher. Don’t be shy about sharing your expectations as well as any concerns. Remember: You are your child’s best advocate!
c. Keep your learning plan in a safe place. Modify it as needed, and review it at least once a year.

5. Use the plan.
a. Continually create and seek learning experiences that support your child’s unique set of interests, strengths and challenges. Use the plan as a guide when planning family activities, buying toys, selecting after-school classes and choosing a summer camp.
b. If at any point you find that your child is not challenged, or is falling behind or unhappy at school, communicate with the teacher.
c. Use the learning plan to help you communicate problems in the fit between your child’s unique set of interests and abilities and the classroom experience.

6. Support the process by making sure your child knows:
a. You believe that education is important.
b. Homework has to be done.
c. They have a special place of their own, with all the necessary supplies, for studying.
d. You believe in them. Remind them of their achievements and successes.
e. They don’t have to be perfect. No one is!

Parents are sometimes reluctant to contact their child’s teachers for fear that they may be seen as meddling, overly concerned, or pushy. Meanwhile, many teachers are wishing they’d hear from parents more often!

A 2004 EPIC-MRA study of parent-teacher interaction found that by high school, very few parents were in contact with teachers (only 2 out of 240). The teachers involved in this study conveyed their concerns about this low level of parent contact, and they made the following comments:

“The more you communicate with parents, the better it is for the kids.”

“It is imperative that we gain more access to communication with parents. Parents can be a school’s biggest ally.”

“Show me a child who has parental love and support and I see a successful child…. Parents, get involved and be involved!”

“I wish there was a way to convey to parents what a teacher really does.”

“Communication is the answer. Many parents who criticize schools never set foot in them during the school day.”

“We have to shout this message loud to parents…. ‘Talk to the teachers’.”

At Parent Driven Schools, we believe that parent-teacher partnerships are essential for student success. Neither parents nor teachers can do it alone. And when students run into learning problems of any kind, a strong parent-teacher partnership can not only solve the immediate problems, it can literally change a child’s life.

Listen to the brief video clips below as two children comment on how their learning experiences changed when their parents and teachers came together to create plans to solve the problems they were having in school.

Student video clip #1:

Student video clip #2: