In our education for a new
world we learn to respect and honor the uniqueness of our children, while
giving students, teachers and parents the time to learn and forge
partnerships. In this new system, children
possess a set of age appropriate tools to organize thoughts and actions, to
problem solve, to foster self-expression, and to personally manage their lives.
The
traditional method of grades won’t suffice. In our new world of education with deep time to explore,
as well as research and examine new ideas, only mastery will do. We‘ll encourage opportunities to repeat and redo until prowess
is accomplished, thereby assuring success for each and every student’s
learning.
As
we focus on student success while respecting differences, we will realize that
one size of schooling does not fit all and never could. The child who is a hands-on learner
will have deep time to master fundamental math ideas as he or she explores,
researches, and examines concrete math challenges with specially designed
materials. We will introduce
higher math concepts, such as algebra and geometry, to young children using
researched learning materials. Why
give a child an “F” in math if extra time and the right learning challenges and
materials bring understanding and mastery? Research shows that allowing 20 extra minutes per day of
hands-on exploration can make a failing college algebra student become an “A”
student, and more important, an excited and confident learner. Imagine if we started giving that
important 20 minutes of exploration to every student?
The
true test of learning is if you can use acquired knowledge to problem
solve. Mastery of fractions? The test may be figuring out the square
footage of a house and creating a budget for flooring. Perhaps shopping for materials, getting
bids for installation and explaining warranties might be part of this activity
that prepares and connects to real life.
Make
a mistake on “the test”? Real life
consequences may appear as not enough material, time, or money during the
budget process. In adult life, with our “real life” testing, we keep
recalculating until we get it right. If we lack basic understanding, we search out experts to
assist us, and keep at it until the task is 100% right. Who wants to live in a house that has
flooring that is 75% correct and gets a grade of “C”?
In
the words of that great Star Wars philosopher, Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no
try.” Our “grading system” should
be based on accomplishment of meaningful, life-affirming tasks. Nothing less.
When
we respect and honor the individuality of our children in an atmosphere of deep
time for relationship building, learning begins to looks very different, as it
engages each child in personally meaningful ways that can be expressed in
various ways. As our children use
their “toolbox” to organize thoughts and actions, to problem solve, to foster
self-expression, and to personally manage their lives, they become masters of
their universe, however large or small that creation may be.
There
are no A’s or F’s. There is only
do, or do not.
Understanding How Learning Occurs
In our model of exponential
education, our methods of teaching and learning will be scientific in approach
and execution. We’ll understand
how children learn and we will teach using principles, methods and techniques
based on observable ways that children and adults learn best. Our schools will focus on helping
children and adults have the tools to lead meaningful lives in their families,
communities and beyond.
Running a place for
successful learning is not a “fast food” business. We can’t gulp down facts and have them form a foundation for
a life well lived. Preparing a
healthy meal takes time—from planting seeds, weeding, pruning, harvesting,
storing, preparing food and finally putting it on the table. Learning takes time, from the germination
of an idea to its fruition. It
takes time to acquire in-depth understanding, long-term retention and command
of that knowledge in order to create and problem solve. Optimum learning requires time everyday,
for many years. Expertise requires
a minimum of 10,000 hours of focused practice.
Learning requires
energy fueled by healthy foods with appropriate amounts of sleep and exercise.
Learning
requires an environment that is safe and peaceful and nourishes a love of
learning. It is a place where experimentation,
questioning and risk are encouraged and accepted. All students want to do well—they need time, and a place with
the right people, to attain excellence.
Optimum
learning requires that the abstract be made concrete and that big tasks be broken
into manageable projects . Difficulties in learning need to be isolated, and
related skills mastered, then added back into the overall picture. For example, if a student is having
trouble with place value in addition, lessons and exercises in understanding
place value are given until that concept is understood, then multi-digit
addition is reintroduced.
Learning
requires loving adult guidance.
Adults—teacher and parent—guide and direct the children’s learning based
on each child’s strengths and interests.
The sports loving student might learn multiplication by kicking six
soccer balls three times to figure out 18 kicks, and do so much more quickly
than writing 6 x 3 = 18 a hundred times. It is the enlightened adult that kindly directs the child’s
activities so learning occurs easily yet profoundly.
Learning
requires repetition. For the child
under the age of seven years, doing exactly the same thing over and over aids
learning. For the child over the
age of seven (about the time the first teeth fall out) repetition must be done
with variety. For example, the
four-year-old loves to hear the same stories over and over for months. The
seven-year-old loves to hear stories, but demands a different one every day and
professes boredom when hearing a tale twice.
Learning
requires being friendly with error.
We learn best from our mistakes, so it is best to be friendly when
learning experiments go astray.
The
human brain is an amazing machine that comes without an operation manual, or a
warranty for that matter. We do
know, through years of observations, that when certain conditions are present—good
nutrition, adequate rest, safe learning environments, concrete and meaningful experiences,
loving adult guidance, repetition, and friendliness to errors––human beings
survive and thrive. Our ongoing
research and understanding of how learning occurs makes all the difference in
how our children will be able to create a successful life.
What Does Success Look Like?
In shaping the new
education we’ll need to understand key concepts: how learning takes place, how
to create a new way of assuring proficiency, how to stock each student’s box of
learning tools, how to allow for deep learning time on a daily and multi-year level,
as well as, how to appreciate the uniqueness of each person’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and risks to overall development.
How do we measure
success as we are juggling all these balls? Is it by the number of diplomas we hand out? Or is it perhaps measured by an
assessment of how we’ve helped the whole person—mind, body, heart, and spirit—be
prepared to take on the challenge of living a life well lived.
What do you really
want for our children? Over the past twenty years I have asked parents this
question, based on the book of the same name by Dr. Wayne Dyer. The lists we develop correspond
to Dyer’s list that follows:
I want my children
to have the ability to enjoy life;
To value themselves;
To be risk takers;
To be self reliant;
To be free from
stress and anxiety;
To have peaceful
lives;
To celebrate their
present moments;
To experience a
lifetime of wellness;
To be creative;
To fulfill their
higher needs and to feel a sense of purpose.
A paradox of learning
and human nature is that when we focus on developing these above-mentioned
qualities, academic success follows.
If we focus purely on academic success through test results and grades,
these qualities may never appear. Instead we might see the opposite qualities
in our children and ourselves: not
enjoying life, a lack of self-worth, fear of change or rocking the boat,
dependency driven behaviors, anxiety filled lives, violence, discontent with
the present, chronic illness, boredom and feeling disconnected with life.
Perhaps we measure
our educational system’s success by a decrease in the number of prison inmates,
a decrease of children in our juvenile justice and foster care systems, and a
decrease of the number of children taking attention and stress relieving drugs.
Learning success
requires love. To learn you have
to put the positive energy of life into everything you do. Not an optimum situation? Something you really don’t want to
do? Put some love into it. When we meet with learning frustration,
each of us have to answer this question honestly: Did I put some love into it? Anger is easy.
Love is hard.
Successful people
who meet the challenges of the real world have the ability to enjoy life, to
value themselves, to be risk takers, to be self reliant, to be free from stress
and anxiety, to have peaceful lives, to celebrate their present moments, to
experience a lifetime of wellness, to be creative, and to fulfill their higher
needs and to feel a sense of purpose.
What does success
look like? It looks like people of
all ages who can answer in the affirmative, that yes, they do indeed possess
these ten qualities. Or at least
eight!
Our
world needs people who are thinkers and problem solvers—leaders who will
contribute to the progress of humanity at the individual level, the place where
all learning occurs.
Education is the
only way to a peaceful world. All
our systems—from education, government, finance, health, transportation,
farming, and more—depend on the individual to become the unique person who will
live a life well lived.
That is what success looks like. It’s what we really want for our
children. Next
