From The Student Whisperer by Oliver DeMille and Tiffany Earl:

Gallup reports that about 80% of people aren't happy with their work and life path...  Education has failed such people.  Indeed, based on this statistic, around 80% of us are under-educated - or mis-educated.  The years such people invest in studying and making the grade did not lead to make the choices or acquire the knowledge, skills, habits, and abilities that facilitated their happiness, fulfillment and meaningful contribution.  Is such a process, therefore, perhaps mislabeled?  Is this really what we want from "education"?

 

The Educational Conveyor Belt

In A Thomas Jefferson Education, Oliver DeMille describes what he calls "conveyor belt" education: one in which everyone receives the same thing (lesson) at the same time and in the same manner, with the same results expected.  Implicit in this is the idea that education is something that is done to you.

In contrast, he calls for an individualized education where each individual learns at his/her own pace, following his/her own interests.  He also acknowledges that for those of us who were brought up in the conveyor belt system (that would be the vast majority of us), it can be very difficult to get off the conveyor belt.  He calls this a "conveyor belt hangover".  It can be especially difficult to get off it when everyone around you is not even aware that there is an alternative, or they just don't see the value in doing things a different way.

Whenever I start to suffer from conveyor belt hangover, my two children (one in particular) let me know loud and clear that that is not their preferred way of learning.  When I can take a step back and take a deep breath, I am grateful that they are so good at letting me know what they need.  Just imagine if I had complacent, eager-to-please children...

Wait, why don't I want that??

Oh yeah...I don't want them to be complacent, eager-to-please adults.  Or to be too eager-to-please with their peers.  I want them both to grow into adults who aren't afraid to stand up for their rights or to just be who they are.  But, oh my goodness, they do challenge me sometimes! :)

So what do you do when you find yourself with one foot back on the conveyor belt?  First of all, go easy on yourself.  You may have accepted emotionally and intellectually that an individualized education is best, but old habits die hard.  Sometimes we don't even realize that we are slipping back towards the conveyor belt, through our actions and expectations.  Sometimes we're acting from a place of fear: fear that if we don't follow the traditional sequence of events, we'll ruin our kids' chances for a productive, self-sufficient adulthood.

Read books by people who have been down this path before you and re-read them from time to time.  There are many out there.  Here are a some good ones that I have read:

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, mentioned above
Leadership Education by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn
Project-Based Homeschooling by Lori McWilliam Pickert (haven't quite finished this one yet, but there's lots of great stuff in it!)
anything by John Holt

Surround yourself with others who are on a similar path, whether in person or online.  You don't feel so alone if you know others following the same or similar path.  And it helps if you can get some tips and advice, or at least some reassurance, from others who have been through this before.

We all make mistakes from time to time, slip from the path we want to be on, but luckily children are resilient.  We can adjust our course and get closer to our ideal.  We'll probably never quite get there, except for rare moments, but so long as we keep trying we may come close.  If we just give up and hop on the conveyor belt, we'll never see the true potential of our children.

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 14

We're still getting used to our new fall schedule here.  The weather has been obligingly September-like, with warm sunny days and cool nights.  And with such lovely weather, it can be hard to be strictly back-to-the-books.

Monday morning was spent at home studying, and after lunch, we met some friends for a hike at Burr Pond State Park.  It was very pretty and, at least on a weekday in September, very peaceful as well.  We all agreed that it would be a great place to kayak.

My husband decided to take the afternoon off to go fishing on the Block Island Sound on Wednesday, and invited Swimmah to join him and his friend.  Turtlegirl doesn't enjoy ocean fishing - she tends to get a little seasick and even aside from feeling sick, just doesn't enjoy the constant motion of the waves.  I'm with her.  Anyway, that meant that Swimmah and Turtlegirl had their first morning of volunteering at the nature center and then Swimmah was fishing all afternoon with Dad.  Turtlegirl and I took the kayaks to a local pond for a couple of hours.  So no formal lessons on Wednesday, but they're learning plenty at the nature center, and I'm sure on the water as well.  That's the beauty of homeschooling, isn't it?

Swimmah and her dad with a false albacore she caught.

Swimmah's piano lesson has been on Tuesday afternoons for the past few years, and has just been switched to Thursday mornings.  I think it's going to take a couple of weeks to get used to that!  I knew on Wednesday that she had a lesson the next morning, but Thursday morning I forgot about it until I was in the shower.  Luckily, there was still almost an hour before her teacher was due to arrive - plenty of time for us all to get dressed!

Swim team started up again this week, with a modified practice schedule - ostensibly, to ease the swimmers into the regular practice schedule, but I think it's actually to confuse the parents with all the different practice times!

And today, Friday, is my husband's and my 21st wedding anniversary!  He's a great husband and a great dad to our daughters.  I can't believe it's been 21 years already!

Enjoy the weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 7

This was our first official week of "school".

Monday afternoon, the girls and my husband went for a bike ride.  I had things I needed to do around the house (like make sure we were prepared for starting our school year), so I stayed home.  They didn't get far when Turtlegirl spotted something that made her come to a dead stop.  "Dad!  Is that free?!"  Sure enough, there, on the side of the road, was Turtlegirl's holy grail: a backyard pond liner and pump - free for the taking.  She's been wanting one for years, but we told her they were too expensive, not to mention a lot of work.  She's been contenting herself with a wading pool in the backyard for the turtles to enjoy during the daytime hours of the warmer months.  So they called me and I drove the car over and brought it home.

When they got back from their bike ride, Turtlegirl and her dad started digging.

The turtles like it!

So Turtlegirl will be doing nature studies for her science this year.  She and Swimmah will be continuing to volunteer at the nature center through the school year, so that, plus the pond and tanks here, will give her plenty of hands-on work.

We decided to go with Math-U-See for pre-algebra.  She doesn't like watching a video lesson, so we just won't use the DVD, unless there is something that doesn't make sense from reading the book.

Swimmah is also using Math-U-See for geometry, continuing where she left off at the end of July.  She will also be continuing Marine Biology.  This is the first year that they are studying different things for science!  I'm a little nervous about keeping them both on track in different topics, but they are older and more independent now, so I think it will work out fine.

For history, I had planned to get The History of US by Joy Hakim from the library.  Apparently, someone else had the same idea, because when we went to the library to check it out, the first 3 were not there.  I hadn't bothered to put a hold on it because I figured that it's always been there before when I have looked in that area.  Oh well, I found a couple of other books on Native Americans to use instead of the first History of US book.  I did put a hold on the second book, however.

Both girls start an essay-writing class this afternoon, taught by an aspiring writer and teacher to a group of homeschooled teens in our area.  There was not much interest in a book discussion group this year, which my girls have always enjoyed in the past.  So we decided to have our own family book discussion group.  Our September selection is The Giver by Lois Lowry.  We'll have the discussion meeting the last weekend of the month (whichever day of the weekend my husband is not fishing!).

 I won't say that everything this week was perfect, but overall things went pretty well.  It's been a fairly quiet start to the year, with no writing homework, as class isn't until Friday afternoon, and no  nature center volunteering until next week, when someone will be available to train them on the morning routine. And swim team starts next week, so we'll really be into the full swing of things then!