“Learning” – by La Britta Gilbert

Learning:

may be untidy

is fragile

defines us

is often unorthodox

(irreverent, too)

may be inconvenient

is not sitting still

is not being quiet

is letting something inside out

wonders

makes mistakes

makes sense

makes no sense

waits on self-esteem:  I learn only as much as I think I deserve to know.

It also:

may arrive unannounced

won’t be put off

is play

is work

is frustration

is necessary

feels right

hurs sometimes

changes us

can be diverted but not denied

is a skeptic

needs space

needs time

asks forbearance

can’t be taught

can’t be caught

know

guesses

guesses wrong

(and knows it’s all right)

has many disguises

believes

never stops.

Poem from the book:  I Can Do It!  I Can Do It!, by La Britta Gilbert, prologue

Born Learners

Have you ever watch a small child learn something new on their own?  That the velcro on their shoe makes a sound?  Or listened to them as they miraculously acquired language?  You know you didn’t teach them that, but there it is.  They are learning on their own.  Children are born thinkers and learners.  The quantity of what we actively teach and what they learn doesn’t even compare.  So the question I think we need to ask ourselves as parents is, “Where can we assist our children on their learning journey?  What areas can we open up to them?  What resources can we help to provide to encourage the learning they are already doing?”

“When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning.”

(“Sweet Land of Liberty” – by Grace Llewellyn, pg.58-59 in Everywhere All the Time, ed. by Matt Hern)

It isn’t about teaching children what to think.  It’s about respecting the fact that they already know how.

Grace Llewellyn

The Teenage Liberation Handbook

Guerrilla Learning:  How to give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School

Founder of “Not Back to School Camp”

Reflections on Deschooling

One of my great areas of cerebral and practical interest is that of education.  What is it really?  It’s not school, or I should say not only school.  Education is much, much bigger.  So how should we  look at education?  Many people of faith think of it with an “in” or “out” approach.  You either keep them “in” the public school system or you take them “out”.  But many times the actual style of education that is happening with the “home” crowd closely resembles the structure, if not the content of the “school” group.  But education doesn’t stop with the schools.  We have opportunities all around us all the time for learning and growing that go way beyond what school offers.  How should people of faith think on those issues?  The question I personally want to answer with education is not, “What job can I get?”, but “What skills and knowledge do I need to live a meaningful life?”

Here’s my background:  My degree in college was in Mathematics Education which qualified me on finishing my studies to teach 4-12 grade mathematics and K-8 all subjects (due to my added endorsement in elementary education.)  Before you get too impressed with the Math part let me tell you that if I hadn’t had study partners in my Junior and Senior years I would have drowned in the sea of all those letters and numbers.  Anyway, I ended up substitute teaching for 2 1/2 years and I had my own 1st grade class for 2 years.  When my daughter was born I really started looking into various kind of models of education since I was thinking of teaching her at home.  A couple of the models I looked into were:

• Montessori
• Waldorf
• Charlotte Mason
• Unschooling/Deschooling

And to be honest, I found things in each that I liked.  Deschooling, however held a certain mystique for me and still does.  Reading about it really gave me sense of the possible.  And I began to wonder, if it does that for me what would that style of education do for my children?  So I am setting myself a task.

I’ve been reading a book by Matt Hern entitled, Everywhere All the Time:  A New Deschooling Reader. This book has a great collection of authors, including deschooled kids themselves. I am going to be pulling different thoughts, ideas and quotes from this book and take some time for reflection.  I’m not looking for a one-size-fits-all model to lay like a template over my life and that of my children, but more a way of thinking about education that incorporates it into all aspects of my life.  I’m excited to see where this will lead.