What Should Children Do All Day?

They should learn. 


How and what should they learn? 

What have I learned from all this? That children love learning and are extremely good at it. On this matter I have no more doubts. . . . When they are following their own noses, learning what they are curious about, children go faster, cover more territory than we would ever think of trying to mark out for them, or make them cover. ~ John Holt, How Children Learn

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail... ...It is a very grave mistake to think that the engagement of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. ~ Albert Einstein 

According to John Holt and Albert Einstein, curiosity should be the guiding factor in how Learning happens. 

The keys to [learning] are study environment, study habits, course of study, and high quality books. The goal of our home schools should be to teach our children to think - and to think faster and better than we, ourselves do. The student who masters a subject on his own learns more. ~ Dr. Art Robinson

According to Dr. Robinson, training for independent thinking should be the guiding factor in how Learning happens.

Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more traditional school curriculum. Wikipedia 

According to the Unschooling philosophy, learning should happen by the child's choice in everyday experiences such as games, work, and social interactions. 


What other definitions are there for what and how children should learn?


What do you believe are the guiding factors in what and how children learn? 


How are they different for adults? 


~vbb

An Introduction

Today, I'd like to start a new blog about education. My own inquiries into education began long ago. This post gives only a review of my most recent study of education. My goal with this blog is to explore Education in our homes, our communities, and our world, in ANY educational venue, from the perspective of the Learner as truly the driving force in all instructional decisions. I’m excited to take this journey of exploring and conversing together with all of you about LEARNER DRIVEN EDUCATION!

                                                        So here we go!! 

Ten years ago I had my first opportunity to read A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille and my passion for education was relit. These educational principles, commonly called TJEd, set the stage for my home schooling adventures that also began that same year as my oldest child reached preschool age. At the heart of these principles were The Seven Keys of Great Teaching, namely:

1.       Classics, not Textbooks

2.      Mentors, not Professors

3.      Inspire, not Require

4.      Structure Time, not Content

5.      Quality, not Conformity 

6.      Simplicity, not Complexity

7.      YOU, not Them 

As my children grew, I worked to apply these elements of Great Teaching. Yet, occasionally, I worried that the kids and I weren’t doing enough to help them get a great education. According to TJEd.org:

For great education to occur, students must choose to study long, hard and effectively because they genuinely love it! It must be their passion and their delight. When students are deeply in love with studying, they learn in “the flow” and they absorb massive amounts of information, knowledge, understanding, connections and wisdom in a very short time.

John Holt’s book How Children Learn provided incredible insight into a child’s ability to learn and push themselves to do hard things. Still, I began to wish for a better understanding of what they were doing as they learned in order to give me more confidence and more direction as I applied the Seven Keys of Great Teaching.

Recently two sources have given me new insights and resolve. They also form the basis of this new educational endeavor which is, for now, a blog where I hope to discuss

·         Learners

·         what Drives them to educate themselves

·         How they do it

The first source is a book by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Ph.D. and Diane Eyer called Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less which outlines how children learn even when they are too young to be taught. While reading this book, I began to wonder if these learning techniques really ever change as children grow and develop.

The second is an article by Larry D Spence entitled “The Case Against Teaching” which is only one of a whole list of people calling for an educational Renaissance. Still, it spoke to me about the need to fundamentally Change education for the better and gave me added direction in what that Change needed to look like and important impetus to part of it.

Many people care deeply about education meeting the needs of learners today. If you're reading this blog, you probably care that education be Learner Driven. 


Tell me:
Why do you care about Education? 
What makes you passionate about Learners driving their education?

~vbb