PBLJ

Leslie walks a log while camping last weekend.

As I contemplate homeschooling for my son… I want a plan. I have read with interest the unschooling philosophy of no curriculum, no plan, just curiosity and learning. However, I want a plan, I want a goal - perhaps a never-ending, never-reaching goal, but a goal nonetheless. So here’s my plan for today - version 1.

The big goal… the mission statement… the vision… the grand plan… here it is!

I want Peter to be a good learner.

A little anti-climatic ain’t it? I can flesh it out a little; I can expand and expound.

What skills must a good learner have?

• reader
• writer
• calculator
• questioner
• connector, collaborator, cooperator, communicator (participatory culture, democracy)
• critical thinker
• creative thinker
• information literate

Why is learning so important?

• We learn for life
• We learn for work
• We learn for pleasure
• We learn everyday
• We learn because we were “made” to do so
• We learn because learning (and growing) makes us happy

Now that I think about it… there are a couple goals that don’t perhaps fit under the “be a good learner” mantra.

They might fall under be a good person.

• empathy, kindness, compassion
• helping, serving others

Those skills dovetail with the collaboration skills; but they are distinct.

Be a good steward (take care of, take responsibility for)

• respect your body - be healthy
• respect your community - be active, see “be good” above
• respect your planet - be green

As I write these, I realize these are all my hopes and dreams for my children (I’ve got a younger daughter too). Perhaps that’s what education is. It’s holistic. It’s values. It’s culture. It’s not just reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and art. The separate parts do not equal the whole. Learning is community. That’s part of why public education no longer works. In a regular classroom, there is one teacher and 20-30 learners. What happened to the parents and grandparents and neighbors? It’s our job to be a part of our community’s education. Our culture is rapidly becoming antithetical to community. We are rugged individualists. We can do it for ourselves. We don’t need help. We compartmentalize; we box things up and stick ‘em on the shelf. We take a kid from his family and stick him in school for reading and writing, and stick him in the baseball league for baseball, and the soccer league for soccer… And then we go to the store and buy boxes to replace the community we once had: TVs, VCRs, and video games. ‘Course I’m as guilty as any… And that was far too preachy. Sorry.

That’s all for today. Next I’ll tackle curricula.

Technorati Tags: education change, homeschool, unschool, goals

What structure is needed to support a 6 year old learner? What structure is needed to support a 10 year old learner? What structure, if any, is needed to support a 14 year old learner?

Obviously, different 6 year olds have different structural needs. The same is true for all ages. Let’s approach the question differently.

What skills do students need to be wholly independent learners?

• reading and writing literacy
• math literacy
• information literacy
• social, civic, democratic, participatory literacy
• critical thinking
• creative thinking
• scientific method

What structures support the various stages through which students pass to become independent and structure-free?

How do we redesign learning structures from the ground up (and from age 3 and up) to achieve the goals above? They must be incredibly flexible/adaptable, individualized, based on learner interests… what else?

Technorati Tags: future of education, education change, FOE2007, redesign education

• In 10 years, education will be highly individualized for learners aged 1 to 100 (except where it’s not)
• In 10 years, education will be wholly organized around individual learner interests, or the interests of young learners’ parents (except where it’s not)
• In 10 years, educational structures (not to be confused with educational institutions) will be created, maintained, and discarded based solely on the input and leadership of the learners (or their parents). Such structures will be funded in extraordinarily diverse ways… (except where they’re not)
• In 10 years, many people will learn with little or no structure (except where they don’t)
• In 10 years, public educational institutions will be languishing. They will be serving the except where it’s not category, which will be a shrinking population. They will serve those learners who have not yet found a better way to learn because of lack of options, lack of opportunities, lack of resources, or lack of the fundamental skills needed to avail themselves of a new way of learning (aside: hmmm… how will people get those skills?). Except… those public institutions who do thrive will have drastically altered themselves to serve the needs of the learners.
• In 10 years, there will still be teachers, lots of teachers. We will all be teachers. Many people/teachers will share what they know with those who ask for it. Some people/teachers will help provide a slightly structured learning environment to suit individual needs. Some people/teachers will provide a more structured learning environment that is continuously modified to meet the learners needs. The goal of any such structured learning will be to create literate (including information literacy), independent learners who no longer need the structure to support and pursue their learning.

Technorati Tags: future of education, education change, FOE2007

I’m interested in the possbilities I can create by combining the best of homeschooling with the best of online learning. I am withdrawing my 7 year old son from public school after he finishes 1st grade next week. I will be homeschooling him with a strong use of technology. I haven’t seen enough information and discussion on the use of web 2.0/21st century skills for elementary age students, particularly in an environment such as homeschooling where there are no pre-defined conventions. I want to explore what the “best” education can be for my 7 year old son and my 5 year old daughter.

My background… I am pursuing my elementary teaching certificate. I will get it next month. I went back to school (online at WGU) to become a teacher. Along the way I realized that, in my opinion, there is a lot of needless structure in a traditional public education classroom in America, and that the institution of public education is poorly conceived to address learners’ needs, especially today. Believing that to be true, I am now on a journey to find out what one version of the “future of education” can be.

Technorati Tags: future of education, education change, homeschool, FOE2007

I found my way to the Sudbury Valley School website today. The school has been around since 1968. Sudbury might be called a “free” or “democratic” school. I am excited by the prevailing philosophies of such schools. Students are entirely responsible for choosing what they do from the beginning to the end of the school day. Students also govern the school as well. Such freedom challenges me. Can such unstructured learning work? I very much enjoyed reading the FAQ. It was an interview which took place in 2000. It gives the reader a good picture of what the students’ days look like at Sudbury.

Through the course of the last year, I have let go of many of my assumptions about what “school” is, or better yet, what teaching and learning are. But I am still holding onto the notion that teachers must prompt students, must challenge them, must connect them to meaningful learning encounters. Perhaps in time I will let go of this notion too? I don’t know. Independent, self-motivated learning is fantastic; it’s authentic; it’s what teachers want all their students to become. But isn’t there still a place for an insightful teacher/mentor to ask questions and to provoke students? Perhaps I do not have a good picture of Sudbury. Perhaps those activities are precisely the role of the staff at Sudbury.

Reading about Sudbury fed my vision of what kind of learning environment I might fashion for my kids. I envision a homeschool network where members (both parents and kids) are constantly engaging each other in their daily efforts to make sense of the world, where learners have a rich variety of learning possibilities each day, where learners are not only free to pursue their individual interests but also challenged to share and to expand upon those interests, where learners interact with people of all ages both online and face to face, where learners’ pursuits have a real impact on the world around them.

What I most want to take from the Sudbury model is the freedom from prescribed curricula, from categorized, classified, and controlled learning.

Technorati Tags: free school, democratic school, Sudbury Valley, education change, homeschool

I recently joined a statewide mailing list for homeschoolers, or rather unschoolers, Upon joining, one of the members asked me why I choose homeschool. Here’s my response.

Many years ago, in a Galaxy no so far away… Despite being uncertified and unqualified, I fell into a job as an elementary school librarian. I was the librarian at Washington Elementary School in Livingston for three years. I had a great time - small school, great staff, wonderful kids. I realized that I liked working with kids and that teaching was important work.

The school closed and I became the school district’s Technology Director. Here again, I had no prior experience. But, as luck would have it, I got the job. I was the Technology Director of Livingston School District for 4 years. During that time two important things happened. First, I constantly questioned technology’s role in education. Second, my desire to teach grew and grew. Two years ago I became a student once again. I started pursuing my teaching certificate at Western Governors University. WGU is an online university; it has no physical campus. One year ago I quit my job at the school district to go to school full time. I am now almost finished with my work. I will earn my teaching certificate by June.

But… several things happened this last year. I read an article in an email newsletter that directed me towards a blogger and lifetime public educator named Will Richardson. His ideas struck a chord with me. I read more from him and many others. I entered the blogosphere, both as a reader and a writer. I became very passionate and excited about learning online, or connected learning, as I have come to call it. As is always the case, my previous experiences were tremendously important. They provided a rich and fertile soil in which these ideas about connected learning grew.

I then student taught at East Side Elementary under a fantastic veteran teacher this winter/spring. I learned a ton from her; but I came to realize that my ideas, my philosophy of education, is completely incongruous with the institution of public education. I believe passionately in the mission of public education; but I do not see how the institution of public education can achieve that end. I would not be able to teach the way I want to teach.

Enter homeschool. Homeschool offers tremendous flexibility. Anyone with some crazy, half-baked ideas (e.g. my ideas) about education is free to pursue them via homeschool. It’s an incredible opportunity and a rich, experimental ground for the educational landscape of our country.

Unfortunately for me, I still want to teach… and not just my own children. I want to make a difference in the lives of many young learners, and older learners. However, I truly believe that I still can. I just don’t know if I will be employed (i.e. make money) in that endeavor.

Computers and the Internet, and the many associated information and communication technologies, offer those people who know how to use them an incredible learning experience. Face to face (i.e. not using technology) also offers a rich learning experience (though perhaps not in a traditional public school classroom). So, I’m contrasting two learning methods - face to face learning and online, connected learning. Those two methods are distinct and yet wholly compatible. They each offer different experiences, and require different tools and skills. They can and should be blended. Connected learning is not merely an add-on; it’s not an augmentation to face to face learning. It is essential. The tools and skills used to learn online are critical 21st century skills. They are the tools we need to be lifelong learners. They are the skills we need to fully realize who we are and what we each can become in the dynamic, rapidly-changing global community in which we all live.

Thanks for listening.

John

Technorati Tags: homeschool, unschool, connected learning, education change