Pulling It All Together

So let’s put it all together to define Learner Driven Education and the goals of this blog.

OH WAIT! What ABOUT TEACHERS? And parents and all the people that care about Learners and their Education? We can’t define Learners, Driving, context, Education, and learning and not discuss the role of these individuals.

 Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice. Yoda

 Often the most conspicuous part of a learner’s context, teachers, parents, and others continue to be, of course, learners themselves. Here we’ll call them Prime Learners (PL) and while sharing much, but not all, of a Learner’s context, their Relationship with the Learner has probably the largest impact on a Learner, their Context, their long and short term needs and how all of those things are processed than anything else.

There! Now we can define LDE. Rather than simply defining it, however, let’s give it a truly honorable start by expanding that definition into:

• DREAM -      To help create a world where Learners seek the very best context and the very best Primer Learners to help them reach their goals.
• VISION - To discuss educational situations and theories with people around the world in any educational venue in light of the value of educational contexts and relationships in helping Learners drive their own education.
• MISSION -   To help Learners differentiate between effective and ineffective learning contexts. To help Learners and Primer Learners foster effective learning contexts where Learners Drive their own Education.
• PURPOSE -      To explore educational situations, discussions, and theories from the perspective of how learners process contexts in order to meet long and short term needs.

Now, why do I care about LDE? What meaning does LDE have for me?

LDE is the end and the beginning of my life long passion for Education. It’s the current answer to my own long unfulfilled desire for an advanced degree in Education. It’s helping me better understand and gain more confidence in my abilities as a teacher and a home school mom who constantly rethinks existing educational practices. Through the defining journey of this blog, I hope to become a Prime Learner who creates a world where Learners seek the very best context and the very best Prime Learners to help them reach their goals.

In short, I hope to use this as a context for meeting my own long term need to pursue my own LEARNER DRIVEN EDUCATION. I hope it will also be an inspiring context for you as well.

And in case anyone else is tired of the bare skeleton types of discussions, I can’t wait to really get started now!!!

~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