As we were preparing to board the train together this first time only, we were going over everything to watch for: keep his bag in his hands or on his back; listen for the announcements to know when your stop is coming up, immediately connect to the train’s WiFi and stay in touch with us. And then out of my mouth came words I’d never thought I’d say.
Tag: learning
Arbitrary Wagon Wheel Education
Have you ever asked yourself why children are compelled to attend some kind of school – including home education – for exactly 180 days per year, and study particular state-mandated subjects, and blah blah blah?
How My Daughter Reminded Me What Self-Directed Education Really Means
On the walk home from the park, I told my kids about this new idea for a dedicated time allotment for various “subjects.” I suggested that maybe it was something we could try and wanted to know what they thought about the idea. My 10-year-old daughter’s answer was priceless. “Mom, no, I don’t think so. That sounds sort of ‘schooly’, don’t you think?”
Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Maybe this isn’t a problem for you. Maybe you are perfectly willing to reward your child for good behavior until they move out, but for the rest of us, we want our children to want to be kind, to want to share, to want to help out around the house, to want to learn.
Legislation Can’t Fix Imperfect Information
Perhaps someone discovers that she’s paid less for approximately the same job that another performs elsewhere, though both may have approximately the same skills, experience, and ambition. This doesn’t mean the employer had any malicious intent, rather that the employer and employee made a voluntary agreement based on their information and what the company could offer.
I Haven’t Stopped Playing: How Childhood Play Can Make Your Work Life Better
All my play and all my imitation of my fictional heroes ironically prepared me for the sober reality of the working world. They taught me the value of being brave. They taught me how to put up with pain with a sense of humor and resilience. They showed me how to find creative solutions, tell stories, and inspire people.
The Learner Precedes the Teacher
The learner comes first. Their desire to learn a fact or method or subject is – must be – the first mover in order for genuine education to occur. If that desire prompts them to seek formal or informal teachers, the teaching is valuable. If teaching is imposed on unwilling learners, it’s the opposite of valuable. It does violence to education.
Cognitive Bias #3 — Choice-Supportive
This may be my most egregious bias. I have a great deal of trouble reversing field after a choice of any kind. Reversals only take place after some sort of random collision with reality. We see evidence that I am not alone, scattered throughout my neck of the woods.
Starting, Over and Over Again
I know from my own experience, and coaching thousands of others, that habits and projects are a messy affair. We get good at building and maintaining 5-6 habits, or we get off to an amazing start with a new project, and then everything falls apart when our lives get disrupted. And this becomes a huge problem — we get discouraged!
Can Self-Directed Education Exist In Public Schools?
“Do you think Self-Directed Education (SDE) can be integrated into the current public schooling model?” Responses ranged from “no way” to “anything is possible,” with commenters pointing out the key factors that would need to exist to make it work: increasing parental empowerment and mobilization; loosening compulsory schooling regulations; trusting children more and weakening the authoritarian structure of modern schooling; investing in smaller schools and classrooms.